Indiana University, Indiana Daily Student stare down a slippery slope

Last Wednesday, Oct. 15, the Indiana Daily Student (IDS,) the student-run newspaper at Indiana University, announced the school had cut their print editions and fired the professor who was the advisor in charge of the newspaper.  

These decisions came after a disagreement between the school and the publication regarding the homecoming edition of the paper.  

The University asked the IDS not to include a news section in the most recent edition of the newspaper, in favor of wanting to focus on the homecoming festivities in the coming week. The request to not include a news section coincidently lined up with the IDS set to run an article about a documentary criticizing IU administration’s censorship.  

When the paper refused their request, the university responded with punishment, cutting the funding needed to print that week's edition of the paper.This all happened after the university had already fired Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbach.  

This incident introduces a slippery slope of censorship regarding what universities can and cannot dictate in their student publications. It’s also part of an ongoing battle for power between IU and the IDS.  

To the ordinary person this might seem like a miniscule disagreement between a school and its newspaper, but reading between the lines, it’s easy to see how this could be a warning sign about universities threatening students’ first amendment rights. The incident also introduces the issue of whether schools can cut funding to programs because they disagree.  

From my perspective, this is a violation, to the most extreme definition, of students' first amendment rights. Punishing students and the facility for disagreeing with higher ups in the university sets an awful example and standard, showing how IU disregards their student publications.  

The cutting of the print editions not only limits the publication’s reach but also cuts into the publication's contracts with advertisers and selling ads. Overall, it is a kneejerk reaction in response to someone standing up to the university, resulting in a bigger fallout than the school could even anticipate.  

Obviously, Indiana sees the message portrayed in their decisions, with Assistant Dean of Strategy and Administration Ron McFall saying, “How do we frame this, you know, in a way that’s not seen as censorship?” in a meeting with school officials, according to the IDS.  

This statement alone shows IU administrators knew exactly what they were doing with this decision, silencing students that are exercising their first amendment rights at a public university. In an exit meeting, Rodenbach brought this violation to the university's attention, and in response, they terminatedhim under the guise of “lack of leadership and ability to work in alignment with the University's direction.” 

This begs the question of what the university’s direction is. Through their actions and sentiments, it seems their direction is censoring anything that paints the university in a bad light.  

For a public university of this size with powerful backers, such as Mark Cuban who publicly came out against the decision on X, to make a decisionthis rash and brazen shows a university that is willing to do anything to censor speech against them. It also shows a shift in recent years showing how people are willing to punish journalists for publishing works they don’t like.  

The precedent set by Indiana University encapsulates the current attitude towards journalists and journalism in modern day America while also starting a tough conversation about how much, if any, a university can censor their student publications. 

So, how does this affect Troy University? The IDS is a very similar type of publication to our own Tropolitan here at Troy University, one that has had its own conversations regarding “bombshells” stories in recent years. 

What’s to stop Troy University from deciding they don’t like something we publish and restricting our access? What’s to say, this opinion piece isn’t one that would spark their input. The difference between us at Troy University and the students at Indiana University is the respect that Troy University administrators have for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.