In the straw poll, Steve Dietz asked "what does this mean?',

Escrowing software (usually code) is a very common aspect of software license agreements to protect users in the event of the failure of the entity from whom they have licensed. Basically, the data is deposited with a third party. In this case that would allow the universities to use the works for the period and under the terms of the original license. This is the most mechanical form of such protection. As the subsequent clauses make clear, we included other forms of assurance to licensees also. David