Censoring student media on college campuses is the easiest way administration can get around being held accountable.

Student media, including student run newspapers, podcasts and radio shows, run independently from news published directly by the university.

This independence allows the student media to publish freely, even if the news they are publishing contradicts the wishes of university administrators.

Student media is legally protected by the First Amendment. This means that staff and faculty have no power to censor what student media publishes.

However, that has not stopped universities from trying.

On Oct. 14 Indiana University (IU) student media director Jim Rodenbush was fired for refusing to interfere with the student newspaper, Indiana Daily Student (IDS).

This came after the Media School directed the student paper to only publish homecoming related stories in their Oct. 16 newspaper.

Rodenbush pushed back against administration, explaining that he legally had no power to tell the student paper what they could or could not publish.

Rodenbush took his concern to IU Media School’s dean, David Tolchinsky and was fired.

“Your lack of leadership and ability to work in alignment with the University’s direction for the Student Media Plan is unacceptable,” Tolchinsky wrote in the termination letter. “As a result, leadership has lost trust in your ability to lead and communicate appropriately on behalf of the University.”

The college cut IDS’s print publication shortly after.

The chancellor of IU argued that this cut was in line with the Student Media Action Plan released Oct. 8, and was supposed to help the budget in some way shape or form.

However, the facts remain that this retaliation followed after the student newspaper refused to bend the knee to administration.

In Sept. 2024, the editor-in-chief along with the rest of the editorial staff of UT Dallas’s student newspaper “The Mercury” were fired, and “The Mercury” ceased operation. This came after a long battle with the university following the newspaper’s op-ed on the removal of UTD’s spirit rocks, and coverage of a Gaza solidarity encampment on campus.

Though we have yet to see MSU or The Texas Tech System try to censor student media in the same way IU and UTD have, we should not have to wait until the fire is at our doorstep to care.

The fact of the matter is, without a free and dedicated student media, governing bodies are able to act without fear of being held accountable.

It is our job and responsibility as student journalists to remind these bodies that the students at their universities are not political talking points, nor are they statistics. They are real, living, breathing people with real stories.

If they will not fight for their students’ voices to be heard, then we will.

In light of the censorship running rampant in universities across the nation, our hope is to have a free student press that is actively and willingly fighting for the truth. If we cannot do that, then what can we do?