UB Information Technology installed 42 new iMacs with Adobe Creative Cloud in the Lockwood Cybrary and on the third floor of the Oscar Silverman Library at the beginning of the semester.
Adobe Creative Cloud offers 19 programs including Premiere, After Effects, Animate, Illustrator and more for students to create various media forms. UBIT added the iMacs equipped with the software in response to a student survey which found almost a third of students use Apple computers. Students can use the software on any of the 20 iMacs in the Lockwood Cybrary or 22 iMacs on the third floor of the Oscar Silverman Library.
Adobe Creative Cloud usually costs $52.99 a month, but UB students can now access the software at UB for no extra cost, since it’s already incorporated into their technology fee.
UBIT Vice President and Chief Information Officer J. Brice Bible said the new software will not increase students’ technology fee and that student leadership discussed the topic with UBIT last year.
Bible said he believes access to the Creative Cloud is crucial to students’ learning.
“UB students just live creative lives,” Bible said. “They are incredibly creative, and the things they do with the right tools never ceases to amaze.”
Leo Romero*, a senior media studies major, uses Adobe for various school projects.
“Adobe is a great tool for being creative,” Romero said. “I want to work in the film industry and using Adobe gives me a head start. It’s cool the whole campus has access to it now.”
UBIT’s goal is to provide students with the tools they need to “succeed and achieve” in all of their pursuits, and Bible said Creative Cloud does exactly that.
“It benefits students from a career perspective to have an opportunity to get comfortable with these tools, while they’re developing the other skills that will help them grow and flourish later in life,” Bible said.
*Leo Romero is a contributing photographer at The Spectrum
The news desk can be reached at news@ubspectrum.com.
