In late August, Medill announced undergraduate journalism students will no longer have access to Adobe Creative Cloud through their school emails, except during quarters they are enrolled in a journalism course that requires Adobe software.
Adobe Creative Cloud is a collection of over 20 software including Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro and Illustrator.
“It really came down to mostly a financial decision because the cost of the Adobe contract was increasing significantly, and with the current state of financials at Northwestern, we’ve all been asked to cut back (on) expenses,” said Medill Prof. and Executive Director of Multimedia, Technology and Innovation Ivan Meyers.
Meyers said licenses are either assigned to an individual or a device. Previously, all Medill students had access to an individual license, but now they must access the program through a device license at designated spots on campus.
Medill students not currently enrolled in a journalism course that requires use of the Adobe software can visit computers on the second and fourth floors of the McCormick Foundation Center from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. University Library also has computers that offer Adobe access from 8 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.
Prior to the change, all Medill students had access to Adobe through their University-issued Google account, accessible on any device.
“Since I’ve been at Northwestern, all Medill students have had free access to the entire Adobe Suite,” Medill junior Victoria Ryan said.
Medill began offering unlimited Adobe access to students mid-2020 due to access concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic, Meyers said. Before this, only students enrolled in a journalism course that required the software had access, making the change a return to a previous policy, Meyers explained.
For students like Ryan, who has finished her required Medill classes and is not enrolled in a journalism course this quarter, she said this change is an obstacle to her career goals.
“Video journalism is a big part of my academic journey here,” Ryan said. “(The change) has a big impact because it really limits my access to these products and makes it harder for me to do video reporting on my own time.”
Other students, like Medill senior Jessica Watts, worried that for students living on North Campus with limited time due to classes, their access will be further restricted by distance.
“They’re not gonna have time to come all the way South, to go to (McCormick Foundation Center) and use the computers, then go all the way back,” she said.
Watts also expressed concern about the change limiting Medill students professionally, noting that many employers look for people with experience using technology like those offered by Adobe.
Without Adobe access on their own devices, Watts said students are at risk of not appearing as competitive as their more familiar peers.
“Not being able to say that we’ve been able to use and master these resources, at least as much, is really going to hurt a lot of people in the long run,” she said.
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Bluesky: @lucaskubovchik.bsky.social
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