An Adobe scare for student employees

Not all have free access to the Creative Cloud anymore

UTRGV student employees were recently restricted from using the Adobe software for free because of a change in licensing, limiting its use to only “knowledge,” or full-time, workers as of Nov. 6.

The Rider attempted to contact Adobe by email and phone but did not receive an answer.

Originally, Adobe was limited only to “knowledge” workers, but some student employees were allowed access once again on Nov. 12.

Frank Zecca, UTRGV chief technology officer, said the change was caused by surpassing the usage of the Adobe software that was agreed upon.

“We were way overprovisioned and needed to reduce our licensing because we were overlicensed, and Adobe had contacted us saying that we had more users … than we had available licenses,” Zecca said. “So, we needed to do a cleanup.”

Arianna Peña-Rocha, a graphic designer for Strategic Enrollment and Student Affairs, said the license change had a major effect on her department.

“So when we lost access to the Adobe program, we couldn’t do our job because everything we do is based on Adobe, using Illustrator, Photoshop or any other program,” Peña-Rocha said. “We couldn’t do anything, where pretty much all work was put to a standstill until we were able to figure out either we were going to get Adobe back or we would now have to personally pay for our own subscriptions.”

The restriction also delayed production of content for The Rider newspaper, KVAQ-TV, Pulse magazine and Vaquero Radio.

Zecca said UTRGV was informed of the issue during the contract renewal in October.

He said the license with Adobe is based on a FTE (full-time equivalent) count, which can be exceeded by 15% to 20%. The university’s usage of Adobe licensing exceeds 20%.

“Keep in mind, we have over 3,000 student employees employed here at the university and there is no way we can possibly license every one of them,” Zecca said. “We are looking at the data of who’s actually using it, and out of the 3,000, we found about 300 or so students were the ones who were actually using it.”

He said the Information Technology department is working with departments that have student employees who need access to Adobe Creative Suite.

“Right now, we are working on a process to streamline this via a ticketing request through our Team Dynamix site to make it an easier process and not [an] automated process, hopefully, for the licensing to be added back quickly,” Zecca said. 

Peña-Rocha said since Adobe is a key factor to her work, the issue had to be addressed as quickly as possible.

“Since my boss is one of the few people who immediately alerted IT, explaining the situation, how we do need the program for our jobs, it isn’t just provided there for the sake of being employed,” she said. “We were one of the first few to get [Adobe] immediately, since he was the first one to let them know about this circumstance.”

Peña-Rocha said the issue occurred in the middle of the semester when most people need the program.

“The lack of communication makes me worry because if they’re going to start making decisions like this, where certain things are no longer provided to the students, what’s going to happen in the future where they decide, ‘Oh, we don’t have the budget for this anymore. We’re going to just not make it available,’” Peña-Rocha asked. “Will they pull the plug suddenly like last time?”

Zecca said the circumstance was unfortunate and UTRGV will be looking to prevent any upcoming issues for the next renewal in October of next year.

“If any changes need to be made, we’ll be doing [it] way in advance, and we would be communicating that to our end users that may be impacted by any future licensing changes,” he said. 

Zecca said students can access the Adobe software through UTRGV’s in-person labs or by logging into the virtual labs.

For student and teacher software discounts, visit the Adobe website.