Indiana University’s student-run paper, the Indiana Daily Student, was censored from including news articles in its recent Homecoming edition on Oct. 12, 2025.
This comes about a year after the university’s Media School announced a five-year plan to shift the publication from a weekly newspaper to a seven-issue-a-year “special edition” schedule, focusing on specific campus events to help the paper recover from a funding shortfall.
The Indiana Daily Student editors-in-chief pushed back. In an email to the dean of Integrated Public Media, they called the print censorship “an infringement on our First Amendment rights.”
Jim Rodenbush, director of student media at Indiana University, sided with the editors and refused to censor the publication. One day later, on Oct. 13, Rodenbush was fired. About three hours after his dismissal, the Indiana Daily Student received an email from the dean announcing a “shift from print to digital platforms.” The email did not address the editors’ concerns or Rodenbush’s firing, but cited a lack of leadership as the reason for his removal.
As a journalism student and news reader, I believe press freedom is among the most important rights for American citizens. The right to press is more than just publishing news, it gives citizens access to unbiased, factual reports that aren’t censored or altered for political reasons and are allowed to critically examine the government.
Student-run papers like our own Rocket provide young journalists with the chance to write about topics that interest them and inform peers about ongoing news on campus and nationwide. These papers offer real-world experience, helping students cover issues that matter to them—often real-world news.
As press freedom continues to be challenged, it’s important to remember this affects not only journalists but readers. Citizens rely on unbiased journalism to stay informed, and for college students, that means news beyond campus events. We must resist these actions, not just as journalists, but as citizens.
