Brian-
You are correct that I am no longer on a FSAE team. I am however still directly active in the community.
All I know is my university's own experience. With the couple times our computer lab was upgraded, servers changed over, admins changed, access rights, etc.. it would have been tough to keep something steady over time.
In any event, I didn't say "free," I just said public.
Just my 2 cents.