Josephine Zangrilli

BLOOMINGTON AT HEART The statue of Ernie Pyle sits outside the Indiana University Media School. Pyle, an IU alum, was the editor-in-chief of the IDS in 1922. His desk is located in the Media School newsroom.

Earlier this month, Indiana University’s student newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student  (IDS), has been experiencing pressure from the IU Media School, who allegedly instructed the publication’s staff to print no news in their recent issue. Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush spoke out on this censorship issue: days later, he was fired. After a matter of hours, Indiana University cut print copies of the newspaper altogether, silencing student journalists and cutting out page designers’ roles in the paper entirely.

The gradual silencing of the Indiana Daily Student has been affecting student journalists everywhere. Publications teacher and IU Media School alum Alexandra Sulewski considers the larger implications of the situation with the IDS.

“There’s a misconception that this only affects the IDS or only affects student journalists, but it’s not just about IU and what’s happening on that campus. This could happen anywhere,” Sulewski said.

For years, IU has said the Indiana Daily Student editorial decisions have been made solely with the leadership of IDS, though recent events contradict the promise of uncensored speech. Sulewski, now a journalism teacher, is a former IU Media School ambassador who worked in print design for the IDS.

“A part of our script that we used for recruitment was talking about the IDS’ editorial independence from the university,” Sulewski said. “That was a selling point for the media school.”

According to statements from the IDS and Rodenbush, the claim of independence was disregarded by IU officials when they sent an order censoring all news coverage to IDS. Rodenbush said he stood up for the staffers only to be fired under pretenses of “poor leadership.”

The IDS is a significant part of college for people studying journalism at IU. MHS graduate Lexi Lindenmayer, an IU alum who is now working in print design for Gannett, credits the IDS to a lot of her success today.

“When I think of my time at IU studying journalism, I feel like I learned the majority of everything from the IDS rather than my classes,” Lindenmayer said.

In recent years, about 16% of MHS graduates go to IU in Bloomington. This makes IU one of the primary choices for Munster students.

“If I am a student who’s applying to IU right now, and I see that I get into another program that is still honoring print journalism and has a good journalism program, I’m going there over IU,” Lindenmayer said.