The Indiana Daily Student came under controversy when their staff ran news stories in its homecoming issue after the university told the student paper to limit news stories to online publication. This action resulted in the school scrapping the publication’s ability to print new issues and in the firing of the Director of Student Media, Jim Rodenbush, after he refused to censor the paper.
Student journalists and publications should be able to run university papers as they see fit and cover whatever topics they deem newsworthy – unrestricted and uncensored by a university’s board or faculty.
Rodenbush, who also served as the faculty advisor, was informed during a series of meetings with administrators at The Media School that print editions were not expected to include a news section because of financial issues surrounding the paper. However, the school was allowed to release seven papers a semester tied to local school events.
Rodenbush relayed the content change to IDS’s staff, but as their faculty advisor, left the decision to run news up to the students.
IU sent an email to Rodenbush on Oct. 14, ordering the paper to halt production immediately. When he refused to relay the message, David Tolchinsky, the dean of the IU Media School, fired Rodenbush, citing his lack of leadership and refusal to adhere to the university’s decisions.
Rodenbush defended his actions and pointed out that he could not make editorial decisions because the newspaper’s publication is supposed to be in the students’ hands alone.
This is supported by the court case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, in which a high school student in Missouri wanted to run stories about teen pregnancy. The courts ruled that schools can censor students’ work, but only if the work is not written in a “designated public forum.”
A designated public forum is established when a government institution, such as a university, allows students to make editorial decisions for a student newspaper. Once that control has been given to the students, it cannot be ripped away. IU is now censoring these students and possibly infringing on their First Amendment rights.
IDS Co-Editor-in-Chief Andrew Miller said he views the moves as a deliberate “scare tactic” aimed at the paper and those involved. In a letter from the editors, he and Mia Hilkowitz, co-editor-in-chief, wrote that the move is not just about removing their ability to print physical papers, but rather a breach of editorial independence.
“If IU decides certain types of content are ‘bad for business,’ what stops them from prohibiting stories that hold them to account on our other platforms?” Hilkowitz and Miller said in the letter.
Recently, the IDS has reported many controversial news stories, including one about plagiarism allegations in IU President Pamela Whitten’s dissertation. Another is about a former professor’s home being raided by the FBI after accusations of stealing federal funds.
Rodenbush said these meetings to remove news from physical copies began only after some of the more controversial stories were published.
School officials argued that their decision to cut the print edition of the paper was solely financial. IU’s actions lean toward censorship, given that fall advertising and printing have already been paid for the semester and the paper has generated $11,000 in profit from its previous three editions.
These moves by IU are not only harmful to student journalists but also to the community. Local papers have been dying off in record numbers since the pandemic, and in some communities, student papers pick up the slack by reporting local news.
According to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, 1,524 counties in the United States are considered “news deserts,” meaning they have one or no local newspapers. Student journalists have helped lighten that load. In 2023, it was estimated that 2,000 student reporters put out over 10,000 stories in local outlets.
This helps communities stay in touch without the heavy financial burden that can come with news outlets, and benefits older adults who do not prefer to get their news online.
Limiting students’ ability to report news will cause a monoculture of ideas. Universities are places to learn and grow into individual people, not indoctrination factories that teach everyone to think the same. Administrators hinder students by censoring student publications.
Student journalists being censored by the institutions that are supposed to support them is wrong and a failure of higher education. Universities should support their emerging journalists’ First Amendment rights and incorporate them into the journalistic training they teach.
These institutions are training the next generation of journalists, and instead of restricting coverage, they should trust their own students to make editorial decisions that keep the public well-informed.
Faculty members of The Media School should support their student journalists during this time, as should organizations like the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which advocates on behalf of reporters. The RCFP is currently representing the IDS co-editors-in-chief and working toward protecting the student reporter’s press freedoms.
If this blatant censorship of student media goes unchecked and these emerging reporters are not advocated for, the future of journalism and the public’s ability to stay informed about news and current events will falter.
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