Amid escalating student press censorship, funding cuts and other challenges, participants in the 2026 State of Student Press Freedom webinar made it clear that students aren’t cowering under these growing threats. Instead, they are actively fighting them.
The webinar, organized by the Student Press Law Center as the capstone event of Student Press Freedom Day, featured five student journalists who have experienced censorship. From canceled print editions and a fired adviser at Indiana University to suspended magazines at the University of Alabama to a reassigned adviser at Lowell High School, these student editors have gone toe-to-toe with administrators.
“If we don’t draw the line, then IU administrators and people in power will be emboldened to continue to do this until it gets worse and worse,” said Mia Hilkowitz, co-editor-in-chief of the Indiana Daily Student.
Gabrielle Gunter, former editor-in-chief of Alice Magazine at UA, agreed and noted the current censorship she’s seen in student journalism and in classrooms draws parallels to authoritarian regimes.
“We are seeing our country go backwards. I mean, one of the first things to go under fascism is the press,” Gunter said.
Still, many student journalists — including Romana Jacobson, former editor-in-chief of The Lowell at Lowell High School — are unwilling to accept this reality.
“For me, I think what really helped was actually taking action. I think this is true for any kind of crisis you’re seeing in society or anything that’s going on,” said Jacobson, who is now a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Taking action is going to make you feel a lot better than just, like, sitting with the bad things that are happening.”
The webinar was moderated by Cate Charron, First Amendment reporter at the Indianapolis Star and a former IDS editor.
Indiana University
On Oct. 7, IU Media School officials told the IDS they could only include homecoming content in an upcoming print edition. The student editors and Student Media Director Jim Rodenbush separately protested the order as unlawful censorship. A week later, Rodenbush was fired.
After a wave of backlash from students, free press advocates and alumni across the country, IU reversed course and reinstated the print edition of the IDS.
Andrew Miller, co-editor-in-chief of the IDS, said these steps at least resolved their initial concerns about administrators trying to control what they put in the printed paper.
“So, after backtracking on that aspect, we have closure, and the university has so far promised that they would not do so again,” Miller said.
IU’s media school announced Oct. 20 it would create a task force made up of faculty, staff, students and alumni “to develop recommendations ensuring both the editorial independence and financial sustainability of student media at IU.” Hilkowitz and Miller are also members of the task force.
Though Miller was unable to talk in-depth about the group’s inner-workings, he said he feels encouraged by some of the “big ideas” that task force members have proposed.
“I think that there are a lot of good people on the task force,” Miller said. “Ultimately, it will be up to Indiana University to decide how much of the recommendations are actually implemented, but right now, I’m very encouraged by what’s going on and by the kind of leverage and power that the students hold right now.”
University of Alabama
While the IDS had their print edition restored, the same can’t be said for two of UA’s student magazines, Alice Magazine and Nineteen Fifty-Six, which were suspended in December. To justify the suspensions, officials, in part, cited a non-binding memo issued by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“It was clear discrimination against our identities and also a clear violation of the First Amendment,” Gunter said. “There are other student publications that are still up and running at the University of Alabama, but it was only the publication that was for women and the publication that was for Black students that got suspended.”
Now, Gunter and others are taking matters into their own hands — organizing protests around the school while working with alumni nonprofit, Masthead, to fundraise money to produce two print editions this semester.
Shortly after UA suspended the magazines, Masthead successfully raised $25,000 to help fund the publications. While Gunter is grateful for the work of the nonprofit, she said the fundraiser is only a temporary solution as UA’s support was integral to the publications, which served an important role on campus.
“It’s UA telling marginalized students they don’t want us here. So, I think it’s very important to have those spaces,” Gunter said. “They were also opportunities for people to gain experience in the field of journalism, and now we’ve lost, like, all of the resources that we had for that.”
Lowell High School
In October 2024, Jacobson and Thomas Harrison, co-editors-in-chief of The Lowell, published their first print magazine of the year. The cover story was titled “Invasive and Inappropriate,” and it highlighted incidents of alleged verbal harassment and inappropriate behavior by teachers toward students.
Shortly after the magazine was published, Harrison and Jacobson were called into the principal’s office, where they said administrators requested prior review of any future articles that would “cause stress for the administration” so they could have more time to prepare responses.
Harrison and Jacobson decided amongst themselves to draw a line and not grant prior review, fearing that would quickly lead to censorship.
“We said that while we wanted a respectful relationship with the administrators — you know, we didn’t want a conflict. We weren’t willing to give them the advance notice about the content that we were publishing,” Jacobson said.
They said the school cited this as part of the reason their journalism adviser, Eric Gustafson, was reassigned to an English teaching position. This is a common tactic by high school administrators to silence reporting they don’t like.
Jacobson also mentioned that Gustafson brought up a student’s story idea about teachers using AI to grade assignments at a staff meeting and received backlash, which she said was another detail that spurred his reassignment.
Members of The Lowell staff shared this story at San Francisco Public Schools Board of Supervisors and school board meetings, which was key in getting the word out. In the end, a California court found the school to be in violation of the state’s New Voices law for reassigning Gustafson “solely because of his students’ reporting.”
The Student Press Law Center has celebrated the court decision as a win for student journalists and a signal to California administrators that they cannot retaliate against advisers to silence student reporting.
Choosing courage in the face of fear
“It’s very easy to be intimidated when administrators will try to get you not to publish stuff, especially because those are the highest power that’s really been in our lives, like school administrators,” Jacobson said. “I think administrators can kind of rely on this intimidation factor as a means of trying to limit students’ expression, even though they’re not allowed to do so by law.”
Jacobson also urged student journalists not to be afraid when someone says you did something wrong when you know you didn’t.
“I think that being a student journalist is a really vulnerable position, because you’re reporting on these big things, but you really are still like a young person,” said Harrison, who is now a student at San Diego State University.
He explained some of the fear that comes with being a student journalist and standing up to an older adult, but additionally highlighted the importance of not backing down as a fundamental value in journalism.
“Remain steadfast on your beliefs and your ideals,” Harrison said. “And just kind of remember what you’re doing is important.”
Gunter said administrators want student journalists to be afraid of them, so it is vital to know your rights and have courage.
“Don’t be scared. There are, like, a lot of legal protections against retaliation,” Gunter said. “I know I was horrified at the beginning because I was like, ‘Oh, I’m a [graduate teaching assistant],’ that’s how I pay my tuition, that’s how I pay my bills. But then I realized if they did do something against my graduate teaching position, they would be in a lot more trouble than I would be.”
Each student on this year’s webinar panel felt an intense amount of pressure from administrators, but the stories from each of them showed how essential it is to hold those in power accountable, especially if you’re a student journalist.
“Don’t underestimate yourself. You might be young. You might have less experience than some professional journalists out in the field, if you’re in student journalism,” Miller said. “But at least in our experience — we were both 21 at the time that we came under crisis — and we were able to kind of outfox administrators, and ultimately bring our print paper back.”
How others can support student journalists
The webinar showcased the incredible power and resilience of student journalists, though most of all, the student editors who spoke championed strength through togetherness.
Hilkowitz said student journalists across the country realize “if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us,” and that’s why so many spoke up.
“When we look back at the fall. If we had not received the level of support from the IU community, but also the broader student journalism community, I think we would have come out a little bit worse,” she said.
These students had lengthy, firsthand experiences with censorship, and the resilience they showed serves as a microcosm of the potential that students around the world hold.
“Everyone is always stronger together. So pay attention to what’s going on outside of your university and across the country. For the one part, that can be an indicator of what could potentially be coming your way. But on the other hand, it’s a really great opportunity for you to express some support for others,” Hilkowitz said.
For the full State of Student Press Freedom Webinar, follow this link to our YouTube channel.
If you’re a student journalist or educator looking for legal support this school year, contact the Student Press Law Center’s free, confidential Legal Hotline.