The emails mention students only using FOSS. And while they are the minority, their point of view is reasonable. Studying should not involve handing over one’s data to MS or any other big tech corp without good reason.
Nowadays I'm a sellout and traded liberty for convenience (and deserve neither, paraphrasing Benjamin Franklin), but I used to fight the FOSS fight. My first two jobs were on Agpl/gplv3/gplv2 products!
Advocating for change is not invalidated by hypocritical details. Don't be that guy.