Effective this July, Washington State University (WSU) is restricting the use of downloadable Microsoft Office 365 applications for certain user groups.
WSU Administrative Professional, Civil Service, paid faculty, and students are not affected by this change, and will continue to be able to download and install the Microsoft Office suite through the Microsoft 365 website or via their local IT support and use the desktop applications.
However, the downloadable Microsoft Office desktop applications will no longer be offered to WSU emeritus faculty, affiliates (external WSU partners), courtesy (unpaid) employees, or hourly employees. These individuals will be provided licensing for the online versions of the Office suite via the Microsoft 365 website.
This change will occur the second week of July, between July 8 and July 12.
Why is WSU making this change?
Microsoft changed contract and licensing terms, removing the licensing option currently allowing all groups access. WSU’s priority now is to retain needed access for core groups of students, paid faculty, and staff.
What Office suite applications are impacted by this change?
This change will impact Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Visio, and any other desktop Office suite application licensed or activated via logging in with a WSU Network ID.
Microsoft Teams and OneDrive will not be impacted by this change, and affiliate, courtesy, and hourly employees, along with emeritus faculty, can continue using Microsoft Teams and OneDrive via a web browser or the Microsoft Teams and OneDrive desktop applications.
This change does not impact the online versions of the software, and impacted users can still access applications like Outlook for the web or Word for the web with their WSU credentials via the Microsoft 365 website.
The Office suite mobile apps for iPhone, Android, and other tablet devices will also continue to be available, including the Microsoft Outlook mobile app for accessing your WSU email and the OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote mobile apps for accessing documents.
Frequently Asked Questions
For a complete list of FAQs about this change, please visit the WSU Knowledge Base.
Contact Us
If you have questions or concerns regarding this announcement, please contact Crimson Service Desk at crimsonservicedesk@wsu.edu or 509-335-4357.