Every Tuesday morning, newsstands across town and in surrounding communities are populated with the latest print edition of The Post. Our weekly paper grants us the opportunity to highlight important local stories and reach audiences in a tactile and accessible way. Unfortunately, not all student media organizations hold that privilege, and by no fault of their own.
Last week, the Indiana Daily Student, the student-led newspaper of Indiana University Bloomington, was prohibited from publishing its planned print edition. The organization’s adviser, Jim Rodenbush, was fired the day before.
In his letter of termination, the Dean of the Media School, David Tolchinsky, states Rodenbush was removed from his position due to a “lack of leadership and ability to work in alignment with the University’s direction for the Student Media Plan.” This plan included a directive for the paper to stop publishing news stories in print editions, which Rodenbush correctly identified as censorship and refused to enforce.
“Any type of attempt on my end to censor or manipulate any content from a student media outlet is literally against the law,” Rodenbush said in an Oct. 9 meeting with university administrators, referring to the legal precedent of Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) that protects students’ constitutional right to free speech and expression.
Despite this Supreme Court case and the numerous rulings that followed under its precedent, Tolchinsky maintains the decision to cease production of the IDS’ printed paper was to “address the newspaper’s ‘longstanding’ financial deficit” rather than an act of censorship over the students’ editorial decision-making. Even if the decision was strictly business, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression would still consider it illegal.
FIRE deals with student press freedom daily, and one of the issues the organization constantly faces is “the threat of denial of funding as a way to censor student newspapers … despite the fact that such punitive action in response to the content or viewpoints expressed in a student publication is a clear violation of the paper’s First Amendment rights (for public universities).”
Furthermore, according to an editorial published by the IDS’ co-editors-in-chief, Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller, the organization has “heard no rational justification for how cutting news distribution specifically on campus will help our finances.”
In an undeniable refutation of Tolchinsky’s primary defense, they also reported a profit of $11,000 from the semester’s three print editions. Given this lack of evidence from Tolchinsky and the university, it is hard to see how their decision could be anything but censorship, an illegal act that Rodenbush gave up his job to fight against.
The circumstances at the IDS are a cause for concern for student news outlets across the country, and nationwide collegiate newsrooms are looking to the IDS for how they will fight back against these illegal attacks on free speech.
As Hilkowitz said to the New York Times, “If it starts with us and we can’t fight back, what happens to our colleagues and others in the media, not only at I.U. but at other universities across the country?”
Moments like this serve as a reminder that the First Amendment is vulnerable and must be defended in today’s political climate. Additionally, Purdue University has already proved student media stands stronger together when fighting against threats of censorship and editorial control. On Friday afternoon, Kyle Charters, the publisher of Purdue’s student newspaper, The Exponent, posted to X about “Operation Clandestine Delivery.”
“We delivered special edition Exponents to the IU campus after the University admin there canceled @IDSnews print editions,” Charters wrote. “Student journalism solidarity.”
The front page of this special edition read, “We Student Journalists Must Stand Together,” and included “editorials and letters that emphasize the importance of preserving editorial independence on college campuses – written by the editors-in-chief of both student papers, other student journalists and an IU alumna.”
The Post would not be the community resource it is without our weekly print edition, and I like to think we would act in accordance with Purdue if we were given the chance. If Purdue student journalists can come to the aid of their rival university in support of press freedom, organizations across the country can certainly come together to proactively fight for free speech in student newsrooms; as the circumstances at IU have shown, taking that initiative has never been more important.
Sophia Rooksberry is a senior studying journalism. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnist do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Sophia know by tweeting her @sophiarooks_.
