Guide to Purchasing Software
Before you make a purchase
Before you go online and buy, take a few minutes to review your needs. This first step will save you valuable time. If you have any questions, please contact your local support person.
To start, take a look at the Licensed Software page to see if there are any special license arrangements for the program you are looking for. Some common software packages are available free of charge to the Rice community.
Students and faculty looking for certain Microsoft products should check the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance site to see if the title they seek is covered by the program and thus available at no charge.
Please note that Rice University does not have an institutional site license for Microsoft products. A small number of departments have contracted with Microsoft under the Campus Agreement program for Office and Windows upgrades. If you are not sure, you should check to see if your department or professional school is covered by this agreement before making a purchase. If not covered under the agreement, you will need to purchase a license. When making an institutional purchase, you can simply purchase a license and a copy of the medium (CD or DVD) under the Campus Select Agreement. However, if you are using a personal credit card to purchase Office for a personally owned machine, or for a family member, you cannot purchase a license under this program.
Get Popular Software
For personal or office use, consider purchasing tools like the software products Rice has in the Owlnet labs and classrooms. Rice's licenses extend only to the labs and a few classrooms; each department is responsible for supplying software for computers used by faculty and staff.
Purchase Applications
Some applications are available for purchase at low cost, while others are available through a group license. Three approved vendors offer most of the software applications used across the campus: the Apple Store, Softchoice, and CDW-G. These vendors each offer educational and Rice-specific discounts.
Purchase Licensed Software
In addition to statistical software licenses, Rice also has licenses for technical, mathematical, scientific, communications, and virus protection software (some of which are available free of charge). Refer to the Licensed Software page for details.
Software Checkout Policy
Because it is difficult to regulate where software is installed with a free checkout system, we ask that faculty, staff and students send requests for additional software licenses to their IT divisional representatives or Student Computing Consultants. You can do this by sending a request to helpdesk@rice.edu. After receiving your request, Divisional reps will check out the software from Mudd 211 and install it on your machine. Contact Charlita at charlita@rice.edu with further questions.
Departmental Purchases: Microsoft, Adobe/Macromedia
To purchase Microsoft or Adobe/Macromedia applications for your office (department charge) or home (personal charge), email:
Rusty Singer (rustsin@cdwg.com)
a representative with CDW-G, our approved vendor, who can give you a quote.
We recommend that you or your department always purchase software assurance if available with your software program. This guarantees you will receive any upgrades and/or new version for the period you are covered, usually a year. After that you only need to renew the maintenance for a small fee and continue to receive upgrades and/or new versions. Each department should buy a copy of the media (installation disc) and keep it to share within the department. You need an installation disc for each software program you purchase.
Software questions? Charlita Marrs, at x4979 or charlita@rice.edu, is available to answer software purchasing questions.