SDSU President Adela de la Torre and Chief Information Officer Jerry Sheehan address the Adobe Creative Campus event audience.

Adobe and SDSU Partner to Create More Digitally Literate Campus

The Adobe AzTech Alliance will provide a faculty fellowship and a number of mini grants.

By Lainie Fraser

More than 100 national thought leaders in the higher education community gathered at San Diego State University to share how they use Adobe Creative Cloud software to promote digital literacy on their campuses as part of Adobe’s annual Creative Campus event.





SDSU President Adela de la Torre and Chief Information Officer Jerry Sheehan addressed the audience on February 11 in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union's Montezuma Hall speaking about the importance of digital literacy, which enables students, faculty and staff to interact with digital tools that allow them to create, innovate and problem solve. Digital literacy is at the center of SDSU’s mission to help create the leaders of tomorrow in California’s growing technology-based economy.





As part of the event, SDSU announced a new partnership with Adobe focused on promoting a digital literacy across the campus community.





The Adobe AzTech Alliance (A3) is designed to inspire students to create and share innovative work, provide opportunities for students and faculty to express unique perspectives while building a digitally literate campus and expanding the audience for scholarly work.





“This is our effort to focus the Creative Cloud energies that we have, the expertise of Adobe and the opportunities to embrace and think differently about digital literacy,” said Sheehan.





The A3 program will begin in March and will provide a faculty fellowship and mini grants.





De la Torre reiterated the importance of understanding how we use technology to create opportunities for students who traditionally have been underserved, not only locally but globally.





“As this university moves forward, what we want to be recognized as is a premiere Hispanic-Serving Institution,” de la Torre said. “What is important is how you leverage that designation as a research institution to really have an impact on a segment of the labor force that will transform the region, not only in terms of economic development but also in terms of political strength.”





At the event, it was also announced that SDSU plans to make Adobe Creative Cloud services free for all students by summer.





Services are currently available for students at a fee, but the university aims to provide access to the tools students need to truly succeed moving forward.





“We wish all Aztecs to be producers,” Sheehan said. “We wish for them to be literate and this is the way we are building that future.”