The Indiana Daily Student (IDS), Indiana University’s student newspaper, was told they could not print news stories other than homecoming events on Oct. 7. When the paper said they wouldn’t agree to the university’s terms, its print issue was cut and the student media advisor, Jim Rodenbush, was fired less than a week later.
The IDS is one of the biggest student papers in the country and the situation is being closely followed nationally. While the university stated that print was cut due to financial reasons, students and the public believe the real reason for cutting print was censorship, as it occurred two days later. This raises questions about the ethics of censoring student media outlets in light of First Amendment freedoms.
“I don’t think that any administration should dictate what the student journalists can and can’t cover, unless there are serious problems with financial ability to fund whatever,” said Judd Cribbs, journalism professor at FGCU. “Or if it’s factually wrong, like if there are things in there that are defamatory, or, you know, factually wrong that could lead to misrepresentation of the issue.”
Cribbs was a reporter, writer and managing editor in Cincinnati before traveling to Southwest Florida to teach journalism at FGCU. Cribbs’ Media Law and Ethics class has become synonymous with his teachings, in which he goes over situations and relevant Supreme Court cases that are similar to this.
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This isn’t the first time a student newspaper has accused a university of restricting its freedom of the press. In 2005, Governors State University in Illinois asked the student newspaper, The Innovator, to stop printing until Dean of Student Affairs Patricia Carter could check the articles. This move was made after several articles were critical of the university.
The case, Hosty v. Carter, went to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in which the court ruled that since the newspaper wasn’t a public forum, the university had the right to manage what was put into the newspaper. In the case of the IDS, it is a public forum, but receives its funding from donations provided by the university, as its print service was able to be cut.
“If they [journalism students] want to do news, and they’ve done their due diligence and vetted it, and it’s fact-based, it should be able to do what they want to do,” Cribbs said.
The social media backlash helped the newspaper. As of Oct. 30, IU backed down from its decision. Chancellor of IU Bloomington David Reingold said in an email to the two editors in chief of the IDS that he “authorized the financial office to allow the IDS, under the supervision of The Media School, to use their established budget through June 30, 2026, as the editors see fit—so long as they remain true to their budgetary parameters.”
This was understood to mean that IDS will be able to print again, according to an article written by WFIU, IU’s NPR affiliate and Inside Higher Ed. But the matter is still not fully resolved.
“Personally, I think if a university wants its students to learn how and operate, how a newspaper and a news organization operate, they need to create an environment that is similar to what a regular newspaper would operate in,” USA Today Network reporter Nick Wilson said. “So there’s no overarching government authority dictating what you can and can’t say.”
Wilson graduated from FGCU with a bachelor’s degree in communication with a journalism minor. Since graduating in 2022, he has worked as a sports reporter in a professional newsroom at Gannett. He stepped into a new role as a state recruiting reporter in August 2024.
Both journalists believe this could have been solved through better communication.
“Both sides- the students and the administration- have to be transparent and have to communicate about this and sit down and say what’s really happening,” Cribbs said. “I think there’s a lot of area for forgiveness, for understanding, for compromise, but none of that can happen if it’s not honest, face-to-face dialogue.”
“There is a lot of time where you can establish lines of communication with whoever is involved and whoever the decision makers are and say, ‘Hey, this is coming’. I just want you guys to be aware of it. To me, that should be where the line is drawn,” Wilson said.
The same day IDS was allowed to print again, Jim Rodenbush, the media advisor who was fired, filed a lawsuit against IU for wrongful termination and violation of his First Amendment rights. Nonetheless, this raised the question of whether something of this magnitude can happen to other student newspapers at universities around the country.
“The media landscape changes so much,” Cribbs said. “The reach of media is different now than it used to be and I think it’s just that people are more aware of stuff going on, because you can get it from… social media, online and all these other places.”