Indiana University has become the focus of a national debate on freedom of the press after it cut all print editions of its student publication, the Indiana Daily Student (IDS).

IDS, founded in 1867, has been consistently recognized as one of the nation’s top college publications. However, its distinguished reputation did not prevent it from becoming a focal point of the nationwide debate on press freedom. 

Tensions first sparked in Oct. 2024, when the IU Media School Administration released a Student Media Action plan. This plan discontinued IDS’s weekly print issues and allowed for only seven special publications a semester, citing an operating deficit in their budget. 

A year later, on Oct. 7, 2025, IDS’s student adviser, Jim Rodenbush, told Coeditors-in-Chief Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller that the director of the media school ordered them to remove all news-related content from the homecoming print edition. 

Hilkowitz and Miller immediately emailed the media school, asking for clarification and demanding recognition of their First Amendment right of freedom of the press. 

“Instead of responding to us, the next morning, [media school administration] called [Rodenbush] into a meeting and fired him,” Hilkowitz said.

Following this, the university administration shifted all publications to digital only, eliminating all print editions. The university stated that the reasons for this were purely budget-driven. Many are skeptical of this. 

“The entire time, I was trying to get administrators on the phone to get some sort of clarity about what was going on, but they wouldn’t respond,” Hilkowitz said. “I tried going to their offices. They kept their doors locked. We could not get in contact with anyone… so the immediate reaction was a lot of fear and confusion.”

These abrupt changes sparked outrage from alumni, students, and faculty alike, including billionaire Mark Cuban, who graduated from IU in 1981 and has financially supported IDS on many instances. 

“[I’m] not happy,” Cuban posted on X on Oct. 15. “Censorship isn’t the way… I gave money to the IU general fund for the IDS last year, so they could pay everyone and not run a deficit. I gave more than they asked for.”

Even though the media school and university administration have consistently painted this as a budget-driven decision, the public has been very skeptical of the validity of this statement, with some even pointing to censorship as the cause.

“It doesn’t cost more to print one type of content versus the other,” Hilkowitz said. “It doesn’t cost us more to print news versus art if we’re printing it on the same material. I think that initial directive is very, very telling of what their intentions were.”

Across the nation, many student publications have been showing support for IDS, including their rival, Purdue University. 

The Purdue Exponent produced a special edition of their publication in solidarity with IDS. The paper detailed everything happening at IU and was delivered and distributed on IU’s campus by Purdue students. 

“I‘ve been really inspired to see how many other student journalists from across the country have really been outspoken in support of us,” Hilkowitz said. 

Locally, the editors of The News Record (TNR) at the University of Cincinnati are closely monitoring what it could mean for their publication. 

TNR Editor-in-Chief Hajra Munir, Class of ‘23, WHHS alum, has been working to keep her newsroom together as the events hit close to home.

“[Censorship] is something I think about almost every day,” Munir said. “But after reading that it actually happened to IDS, it was definitely something I wanted to take into account, and I also wanted to reassure all [our] reporters and editors that they are not doing anything wrong as long as they are meeting journalistic integrity and are being honest in their reporting.”

On Oct. 30, 2025, Indiana University’s chancellor, David Reingold, wrote a letter to the editors acknowledging that the administration hadn’t handled things well. He then reversed the original decision and said IDS would be allowed to use its budget through June 30, 2026. 

“We think it’s a step in the right direction,” Hilkowitz said. “But…we’re gonna need a lot more than just that because Jim [Rodenbush] is still fired and the media school has been left in shambles and chaos.”

While this may seem like a win to some, Hilkowitz and her staff remain concerned about the uncertainty in the long-term future of IDS. 

“In terms of the media school, it’s going to have a really big impact for years to come,” Hilkowitz said. “It’s going to take a long time to reverse what’s happened in the public eye, but I do hope that even if high schoolers want to go into journalism, [they won’t] write IU out just yet. Even though our administration clearly has some struggles, I think the faculty we have here is so phenomenal and willing to back you up no matter what.”