O365 Groups Management Concerns

We are struggling with this exact same problem on our campuses, as well - and according to the latest release regarding management features, the Group Naming Policy feature will be fee based.  (Poor Christophe Fiessinger has already heard my two cents in multiple 140 character segments!)  

I'm really hoping that Microsoft reconsiders making the Group Naming Policy feature part of the base subscription - otherwise, a huge number of Universities and schools will not be able to adopt Office 365 Groups.  Between an ongoing decline in enrollments and significantly reduced funding, most schools are simply not going to be able to afford to pay the piper on this one.  

Don't get me wrong - I don't expect Microsoft to give everything away to schools, and I realize that schools get discounts and plenty of free stuff.  However, it is in Microsoft's best interest to do this simply to compete with the likes of Google and Apple.  If the schools adopt their technology, then generations of students are influenced into having a preferred technology brand.  This idea assumes, though, that the student is going to get a good experience with that technology.  There are definitely premium features that should cost extra!  As much as I would love to have dynamic group creation and data classification, there are ways we can get around this or deal with not having it.  One thing we can't deal with, though, is even one instance of a student being able to impersonate our president or a dean.  I like having a job, so I'd really prefer that didn't that to happen on my watch.  Without this one simple management feature, the only option I feel is viable for our institution is to turn off Groups - and all the apps that are built on them.  This would be the only way to be able to deal with the poor experience that our users would see if we just turned off the ability to create groups.  No Planner, No Teams, and so on.  

It's really unfortunate that this whole sector is being put in this position because O365 Groups would be a huge benefit to students, faculty, and staff.  They would be fantastic for social clubs, RA's, study groups, mentoring sessions - you name it!  Best of all, after O365 Groups were introduced, we finally saw a light at the end of the Public Folder tunnel - but alas, it appears the light was just the licensing train heading right for us.

If other schools have addressed this in some creative way (DIY and scalable, preferably), I know our team would love to here about it!