Emerson College Information Technology said they provided the college with a campus-wide license for Adobe Creative Cloud because of the program’s cost to students.
The Creative Cloud is a software service developed by Adobe which provides access to the company’s many applications, including video editing program Premiere, desktop publishing program InDesign, and image editing program Photoshop.
“We know a lot of students use the Creative Cloud and we know the cost to individual students… [is] not a small cost,” Brian Basgen, associate vice president of information technology, said. “We felt like it would be helpful to the student body to buy a license that covers all students.”
While the exact price of the license is confidential, Bagsen said with the license the college is paying less per student than what individuals were paying.
“I’m very excited and very grateful for the Adobe Suite being free,” Chassidy David, a sophomore visual and media arts major, said.
According to David, the move is a boon to students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds who either had to pay for access out of pocket or go out of their way to use Emerson computers loaded with the software.
David said she paid at least $200 in scholarship money for access to Adobe’s programs to use on assignments last year.
“I think it’s great to be that inclusive socioeconomically,” she said. “Emerson’s moving in the right direction.”
Students received an email from Adobe Systems detailing the campus-wide launch of free full access to the company’s Creative Cloud software two weeks ago.
In an email sent the following day, Emerson College Information Technology officially confirmed this and provided students with instructions on how to start using the software.
The Cloud is subscription-based, with access contingent on a monthly fee. According to Adobe’s website, the standard fee is $49.99 per month. The website also advertises a discount for students and teachers that lowers the price to $19.99 per month.
According to Basgen, Adobe sent its email to the student body after IT registered student email addresses in the company’s licensing software. The college had been waiting for the program to be fully implemented before announcing it.
The college’s own computers available to students and the Creativity Kits–MacBook Airs given to last year’s incoming journalism students for free–already had access to the Creative Cloud, but now every student is able to download it onto their private computers for free.
“I think what excites us the most is students are going to have unfettered access to the Adobe toolbox without having to worry about the cost of the tools,” Basgen said.