With the recent announcement of Adobe no longer offering access on personal devices for college students, we have been presented with even more challenges. Currently, only five computers on campus have access to the full Adobe Suite. This is unacceptable.

On one hand, the decision to take away Creative Cloud access was done by Adobe, not the university. The university is, obviously, placing the blame on Adobe, and will seemingly not be making any changes. This is unacceptable.

Now reader, you may be thinking, “if it’s Adobe’s fault, there’s nothing that the university can do.” But what if, for example, Culinart decided to stop supplying the university with food. The university would make changes and hire a new food provider. With how robust the media programs are here, Adobe access is almost as important to most students as food, if not more so.

Currently only five computers at the university have access to the complete Adobe Suite. Other computers have access to some of these programs, but the various Creative Cloud software are designed to work in tandem with each other, and having access to only a few programs at a time is not ideal.

On top of theat, these five computers are housed in the Thayer 212 lab. This lab is somewhat nauseous on campus for having a slew of technological errors, with students consistently struggling to print and even log in to the computers. It has even become a running joke that only half the lab works.

What is even more frustrating is that the other options aren’t always available for student use. The handful of computers spread out between the first and second floor of the University Center are limited to only library hours and the Thayer 200 lab is mainly occupied by classes.

How does a university, whose classes teach and are centered around the Adobe Suite, expect its students to do their work well and on time if there are a limited number of computers that some students cannot even get into half the time? How does a university, who just raised their tuition, expect students to pay more for less access? How are students supposed to do their work when sick?

We live in a world where we rely on our personal devices. We use them to take notes in class, do work in between classes while we get lunch, and most importantly, rely on them when we are sick. We, at The Globe, ran into issues as half of our staff were sick for the first layout meeting, which could have been less stressful if staff at home could edit from their personal devices. 

While we should not be expected to do work when we are sick, deadlines are the reality, so does the university expect us to forgo the most important lesson from the pandemic, which is to stay home when you are sick, and come use the computers that might not even work? College students have enough expenses, so adding a personal Adobe Suite bill of $55 a month that a university should easily be able to provide is a lot to ask for.

Commuter students, too, who pay outrageous parking fees or for the bus, which is still not provided by the university, are now presented with even more challenges. Most buses stop running at 1 a.m., so if a commuter needs to use the Adobe Suite after their six to nine, how are they going to get home? Pay even more for an Uber?

Bottom line is that the university needs to address this immediately. An email notifying the student body of the change last minute is not enough.