Baala Shakya, Photography Editor

The Yale College Council Senate voted Sunday to table a proposal to allocate $5,000 from the Senate budget to reimburse students for Adobe Creative Cloud licenses, delaying action until next week.

Senators and YCC officials raised concerns about the proposal’s scope, funding and compliance with the student government’s constitution.

YCC Vice President Jalen Bradley ’27 suggested President Donald Trump’s higher education policy as the reason why the Council has yet to adopt a budget, which had been finalized at this point last year. Bradley did not elaborate on that explanation in the meeting.

The proposal, introduced by Saybrook Senator Brendan Kaminski ’28, would fund roughly 142 Adobe Creative Cloud licenses for students with demonstrated need. It comes after Yale Information Technology Services announced in July the end of free Adobe access for students, faculty and staff.

Now, the University is subsidizing the cost of Adobe licenses for students at $35.05.

“Through conversations with students involved in design-oriented majors and organizations, many have concluded that this is a financial barrier to peer creativity,” Kaminski said.

Under the new proposal, students, club leaders and organizations could apply for reimbursements by submitting a NetID, proof of purchase and a brief explanation of their need for the software. Applications would be reviewed by the council’s financial policy team.

“The free subscription allows students to express their creativity and learn valuable tools used in creative workspaces,” Alexis Lam ’27, whose testimony was included in the proposal, said. “It has become the lifeline for my personal and professional projects.”

Eugene Covington ’28, the YCC’s finance co-director, raised the possibility that the bill might conflict with budgetary rules, noting that using student activity fees to subsidize independent organizations could constitute a misuse.

Article 14 of the YCC constitution directs the YCC to use its budget — which largely comes from the student activity fee — to serve “the student body in all external budgets” rather than organizations. Kaminski’s bill, which allows “campus organization representatives” and “organizations seeking reimbursement” to apply for financial assistance, may violate that provision.

“Organizations with their own tax recognition and membership restrictions could benefit from these stipends, which might indirectly support their operating expenses rather than addressing individual student needs,” Covington said.

Bradley, the vice president, said uncertainty surrounding the YCC’s budget for the school year complicates the council’s ability to act on the proposal. He pointed to “what’s going on in D.C. with the president and progressive higher education and schools like Yale.”

The Trump administration has taken a hard line with elite universities but has not targeted Yale with funding cuts that most other Ivy League schools have experienced. The tax and spending bill enacted in July increased the tax on endowment gains to 8 percent for the richest universities, such as Yale.

“The budget would usually be passed by now,” Bradley said. “Yale doesn’t know the budget that they’re giving to the YCC yet.”

Bradley said that he and YCC president Andrew Boanoh ’27 are meeting with Yale administrators this week and that he looks forward to revisiting Kaminski’s proposal.

Last year, the YCC budget was $929,609.