What went into the U of I's Adobe Creative Cloud Renewal

By Michael L. Bergonzi

Before spring break, students across majors and disciplines at the University of Illinois received an email from Technology Services about the universities dealing with Adobe. The software company for the past few years has given access to its creative cloud suite of apps that includes Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition and more for a steep discount or no charge to students, faculty or staff. Last year, Adobe Creative Cloud cost approximately 500,000 dollars according to Technology Services employee Kate Sammons. She said "student licenses are contingent upon funding approved by the Office of the Provost."

Kate Sammons from University of Illinois Technology Services

While the the university renegotiated the deal before the service was disrupted for students, some things might look different in the creative cloud application. Students now have access to adobe stock. This collection of royalty-free images, sounds, videos, and other stock assets can be used for school work.

Anything commercial or beyond the scope of a class or school sanctioned function you'll need another adobe account as the license they provide doesn't cover using assets for book covers or independent filmmaking. To access the library, you need to be signed into creative cloud with your university NetID. There are over 300 million assets in the adobe stock library.

Post-graduation and recent alumni will loose access to the adobe creative cloud and adobe stock. Also be aware that the education license can't be changed when using a university account. If you have access to creative cloud outside of school or work the price for commercial use will range depending on the type of asset downloaded.

Adobe offers several ways to purchase their stock assets. One of them is a credit-based system. You pay for certain amount of credits per month or per year with your preferred method of payment and get can spend those credits on certain assets. The price ranges from $29.99 to $249.99 and you get anywhere between 3 credits to 750 credits. Much of the assets cost more than 1 credit.

Lisence Types from Adobe

You can also buy individually, but if you want to monetize the work you download, you'll need an extended license. The standard and enhanced ones offer some benefits, but not as much as the extended. Its may cost more, but you'll be better protected legally.