IU Censorship Tracker

Last updated Nov. 23, 2025

Indiana University’s Media School faces national backlash after administrators ordered the Indiana Daily Student to restrict print coverage, fired its student media director, and suspended print editions entirely. 

This page serves as a hub to collect the background and latest developments, and it will be updated as new information becomes available. The Student Press Law Center continues to monitor developments and support the students and adviser involved.

Latest

IU announces task force members: As the IDS reports, “Media School Dean David Tolchinsky announced the 18 members of its new Task Force on Editorial Independence and Sustainability of the Indiana Daily Student, IU Student Television and WIUX on Wednesday.” As SPLC and others called for, the task force includes student leadership from each outlet. More: IDS Coverage

IU restores print for rest of the school year: IU has reversed course and authorized the IDS to resume the remainder of its planned print editions through the end of the Spring 2026 semester. IU Bloomington Chancellor David Reingold told the IDS editors in a letter Oct. 30, in which he wrote, “I recognize and accept that the campus has not handled recent decisions as well as we should have.” IDS editors welcomed the news but reiterated “more is needed.” More: IDS Letter + SPLC’s Response

Fired adviser sues IU: Jim Rodenbush, IU’s former director of student media, sued the university Oct. 30 for violating his First Amendment rights when it fired him. The complaint also ties his dismissal to the state government’s increased role in overseeing and directing the university. More: IndyStar Coverage + Complaint

Media School creates new task force: On Oct. 20, IU Media School Dean Dave Tolchinsky announced he would create a task force “to develop recommendations ensuring both the editorial independence and financial sustainability of student media at IU.” In an email to IDS leadership, he acknowledged a “variety of legitimate questions are at play here — specifically regarding the intersection between business decision making and news operations.” More: IDS Coverage + SPLC Statement

Attorney for IDS editors sends letter: On Oct. 20, Kris Cundiff, an attorney from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, sent a letter to IU officials on behalf of IDS editors Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller. As RCFP notes, “The letter disputes the university’s argument that the decision to end the print edition was purely financial…The letter concludes with a request to meet with university leaders ‘to discuss a path forward that will restore our clients’ editorial independence.'” More: IDS Coverage

Background

In October 2025, Indiana University Media School officials told the Indiana Daily Student that an upcoming print edition could include only homecoming content — and “no other news at all.” After student media director Jim Rodenbush and the student editors separately protested the order as unlawful censorship, Rodenbush was terminated by the university on Oct. 14.

The Media School then canceled the Oct. 16 issue and all future print editions, leaving the IDS to publish only online. In response, the IDS published a digital version of the canceled newspaper with “CENSORED” in large red type across the front page.

In a statement, IU said it was “firmly committed to the free expression and editorial independence of student media” and its “decision concerns the medium of distribution, not editorial content.”

Officials cited its Action Plan for Student Media, which “envisions a student media ecosystem that is centered on a digital content model” and that addresses “longstanding financial challenges facing the IDS” while protecting editorial independence.

IU journalism faculty, however, said the cancellation of print “broke with the Student Media Action Plan, threatened the editorial independence of our student journalists and breached the core values of journalism that we discuss every day in our classrooms.”

In a forceful letter, IDS editors Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller highlighted many questions that remain unanswered and that undermine the Media School’s offered explanation that these steps were simply business decisions. The digital edition included block boxes highlighting the lost advertising revenue.

“When administrators are unwilling to bring student media to the table, there’s no way for us to believe they are acting in good faith…,” Hilkowitz and Miller wrote. “We’re waiting to come to the table. We will continue to resist as long as the university disregards the law. Any other means than court would be preferred.”

The IDS has operated at a deficit for years, and IU Media School announced a plan last fall to scale back print and merge the IDS with two other student media outlets in an effort to become financially sustainable.

IndyStar reporting shows, however, that administrators “hamstrung” the IDS’s ability to use $400,000 in donations as well as a $250,000 gift from Mark Cuban to support the newspaper’s operations. In June, the IDS also reported that Provost Rahul Shrivastav rejected a student board’s unanimous vote to provide roughly $50,000 per year in student fees.

In April 2024, the IDS staff led a one-day walkout after discussions with administrators led them to believe IU did “not have the best interest of student media in mind.” Editors Nic Napier and Salome Cloteaux highlighted how the university, for more than a decade, had rejected, pushed back upon or simply ignored proposals to address the newspaper’s financial sustainability. 

“Student media’s financial future has been on the table for years, kicked down the line by stalled discussions and administrators who have yet to accept any of Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush’s proposed solutions,” they said.

SPLC’s Take

Administrators dictating to students what content can and cannot be published is censorship, plain and simple.

As staff attorney Jonathan Gaston-Falk said on Oct. 15, “This disregards strong First Amendment protections and a long-standing tradition of student editorial independence at Indiana University. If the abrupt ousting of the student media director was related to his refusal to participate in such censorship, the message is clear: IU no longer welcomes a free student press. The Media School must reverse course immediately, before more damage is done to its reputation and to its students’ rights.”

IU has established the IDS as a public forum for student editors, including through its 2005 Charter, and as such, it cannot interfere with content decisions or make content-based financial cuts — including to limit print editions to homecoming news.

For more information on the law regarding college press freedom, view SPLC’s resources here.

IDS Coverage & Commentary

Key Documents

Statements of Support

Select News Coverage

Student Editorials in Solidarity

Contact the Student Press Law Center

If you are a student journalist or educator facing censorship or other legal issues, contact the Student Press Law Center’s Legal Hotline.

If you have questions or updates about this page, contact us at splc@splc.org.