In late June, students of the University woke up to being logged out of their previously free digital subscriptions to newspapers, such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, following the discontinuation of the Collegiate Readership Program. In July, the University’s webstore announced that students would no longer be eligible for the free Adobe Creative Cloud license. These cuts come amid federal funding cuts to universities across the country.
Collegiate Readership Program
The Collegiate Readership Program ended as of June 30 due to rising costs and low usage. The program was administered by Student Affairs and funded through campus fees. Campus fees are broken up into multiple subcategories. The category that funds the Collegiate Readership Program is a student-initiated fee. Student-initiated fees are implemented as referendum questions approved by the students during student elections.
Student-initiated fees have increased from $66 in fiscal year 2015 to $82 in 2025. They fund Krannert Center, the The Helping Others’ Personal Excellence Scholarship, bicycle infrastructure and more. However, only a very small portion of the student-initiated fee has ever been allocated to the Collegiate Readership Program.
From fiscal years 2015 through 2018, just $2 per student annually was used to fund the program.
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This amount was reduced to $1 in fiscal years 2019. In fiscal year 2023 the fee was $0.25. Since then, students were not charged for the program, yet retained access through existing contracts that were already paid for, according to Assistant Vice Chancellor for Strategic Operations Chantelle Thompson.
While student-initiated fees are implemented through a student-wide election, the decision for the discontinuation of the program was made through the decision of a committee.
“The decision to end the Collegiate Readership Program was not due to a student vote directly … It was recommended to the Student Fee Advisory Committee to end the program due to the very low readership compared to the cost to implement the program,” Thompson said in an email to The DI. “This decision was made in 2021/2022. The fee was not charged to students for a couple years as the balance was being spent until the contracts were fulfilled.”
Students can still access current newspaper articles through the University library system where they are stored in a database. These newspapers include the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune and Springfield State Journal-Register.
Other resources include Press Reader, which provides online access to over 700 newspapers from more than 55 countries, Access World News from NewsBank, providing full-text information and perspectives from both national and international sources and Nexis Uni, featuring business and legal information, including Supreme Court cases dating back to 1790.
Adobe License
In late July, the University webstore announced that Adobe Creative Cloud Enterprise Access, previously free, will cost $80 a year starting January 2026, marking the end of another student benefit. A prorated $40 fee will apply for students who only need access in the spring.
The University began its policy of offering students a free license in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“Prior to 2020, students purchased their own Adobe Creative Suite licenses,” said Rob Watson,
Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing, in an email to The DI. “In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the required remote learning that resulted, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign absorbed this cost to ensure access to the software. At UIC and UIS, students had to pay for their licenses through the pandemic and are still required to do so.”
Public universities in Illinois, including the University of Illinois System, are among the most expensive in the country — the third highest average nationwide in 2021.
Watson said that the students who most often used the license were not the intended user group.
“Since 2020, Creative Suite usage has grown significantly at a substantial cost to the university,” Watson said. “College of Media students represent less than 6% of Creative Suite licenses purchased annually. Departments that require this software commonly provide the product on university-owned machines and in computer labs. In addition, departments have the option to purchase 1-year licenses in bulk and distribute them as a part of course enrollment.”
From 2020 to 2025, tuition per academic year has increased by approximately $700 for resident students and $3,600 for nonresident students. Campus fees have increased for all students from $4,608 to $4,928 in that same timeframe.
“Providing licenses to all students when only a narrow range of courses and students benefit is no longer feasible as we work to support the broader teaching and research missions of the university,” Watson said.
Watson says a student Adobe Creative Suite license for fiscal year 2027 will be available for $80 per year via the WebStore. Adobe’s standard pricing for a Creative Cloud student account is $29.99 per month, approximately $360 per year.
