Indiana University orders student paper to stop printing.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Indianapolis Star

Education
Indiana University orders student paper to stop printing. Editors say it's censorship

Cate Charron and Brian Rosenzweig
Indianapolis Star
Updated Oct. 15, 2025 5:07 p.m. ET

This story has been updated to add new comment from the IU administration and additional context throughout.

Indiana University has ordered the Indiana Daily Student to end all print publication less than 24 hours after the administration fired an adviser for the student newspaper.

"The Media School thinks they can violate the First Amendment if it's under a business decision," said Mia Hilkowitz, co-editor-in-chief of the IDS. "That's a really, really dangerous thought process for administrators to have. The fact that they're trying to frame clear censorship as business is so disrespectful to every party involved."

In recent weeks, university leadership, the student media director and editors at the Indiana Daily Student have fought over what content gets printed in the student newspaper, with administrators insisting that "special editions" were not to include any news content. The IDS content still publishes news on its website.

The situation escalated Tuesday when IU fired Jim Rodenbush, director of student media, as he pushed back against a directive to remove news content from the print edition. … “... nothing but information about homecoming — no other news at all, and particularly no traditional front page news coverage,” read Rodenbush's Oct. 7 email to the IDS co-editors-in-chief, relaying the IU Media School’s directive.

Telling us what we can and cannot print is unlawful censorship, established by legal precedent surrounding speech law on public college campuses.

Administrators ignored Rodenbush, who said he would not tell us what to print or not print in our paper. In a meeting Sept. 25 with administrators, he said doing so would be censorship.

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Read more: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2025/10/15/indiana-university-orders-student-newspaper-ids-to-stop-printing/86709732007/

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https://www.idsnews.com/article/2025/10/indiana-university-daily-student-print-paper-censorship-fired

BREAKING: Indiana University cuts IDS print entirely, hours after firing student media director

The Indiana Daily Student

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS: IU fires student media director after he refused to censor the IDS



A statue of Ernie Pyle sits Oct. 14, 2025, outside Franklin Hall in Bloomington. IU fired Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush on Tuesday after he refused to censor the Indiana Daily Student. Photo by Emerson Elledge / The Indiana Daily Student

By Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller
Oct 14, 2025 7:47 pm · Updated Oct 15, 2025 12:29 pm

Media School Dean David Tolchinsky terminated Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush on Tuesday afternoon after he refused to censor the Indiana Daily Student.

Ahead of our Oct. 16 newspaper, which was to include a Homecoming guide inside, the Media School directed us to print no news in the paper, an order blatantly in defiance of our editorial independence and the Student Media Charter.

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