WEST LAFAYETTE — When Quint Holguin learned that Purdue University would stop distributing the student newspaper on campus, the sophomore staff reporter was shocked.
For the past 50 years, Purdue has delivered The Exponent, a private business and independent publication, to newsstands around campus. The college even continued the service despite the last distribution contract expiring in 2014.
But in a letter sent May 30, the university abruptly announced that service would end in just two days. The letter also noted Purdue was revoking parking permits for student journalists and requested the newspaper remove “Purdue” from its website address, purdueexponent. org. “It was like, ‘OK, well now what? What’s the next step for us?’” Holguin said.
UNDER ATTACK
Purdue’s actions aren’t unique.
Across the nation, universities are distancing themselves from student newspapers over concerns their coverage and critiques could draw the eye and ire of President Donald Trump, said Dominic Coletti, a program officer for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
In the past few months, Trump has aggressively targeted dozens of universities and threatened to pull federal grants and funding for allegedly harboring antisemitism and opposing policies such as ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
At the same time, the president continues to attack media outlets around the world and slash federal funding to agencies like PBS, NPR and the United States Agency for Global Media, which broadcasts news and information to regions around the world.
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith joined in on those attacks in November, calling an election guide published by Indiana University’s student newspaper “WOKE propaganda at its finest.”
The cover of the Indiana Daily Student that day ran quotes from those critical of Trump.
“This is … why most of America looks at higher education indoctrination centers like IU as a complete joke and waste of money,” Beckwith said in a tweet. “This type of elitist leftist propaganda needs to stop or we will be happy to stop it for them.”
The dual attack on universities and the news media have now put some college newspapers and student journalists at an alarming intersection, according to Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at the Student Press Law Center.
“I think that a lot of schools are taking the ostrich approach of putting your head in the sand and trying to lay low,” he said. “But they’re recognizing the fact that student media are going to continue to make noise that could be inconvenient, according to these schools.”
A case in point: In May, Columbia University, home to one of the most renowned journalism programs in the nation, temporarily suspended four student journalists for reporting on a pro-Palestine protest on campus.
ENDING DISTRIBUTION
Now, fearing Trump’s wrath, places like Purdue are cutting long-standing ties with student publications to distance themselves from any coverage that might cause conflict with Trump, argued Coletti.
“I don’t think Purdue has come out and said as much, but it’s hard to fathom what else has changed in the 11 years since the contract expired that would lead them to only now get rid of the support that they were originally providing,” he said.
Coletti noted Purdue’s announcement that it was ending distribution came the same day it declared the end of its DEI programs on campus. The university said the decision came from a surge of federal and state policies that “have made it clear that doing so is a necessary part of our future as a public university.”
In its letter to the newspaper, Purdue said it was ending distribution in part to adhere to its updated statement on institutional neutrality, the idea that colleges and universities should not, as institutions, take positions on social and political issues.
Purdue also pointed to its policy that requires a contract for any private business to use university facilities. The university did not answer emailed questions asking why it decided to now end distribution after 11 years without a contract.
Still, the newspaper will continue to have access to free-publication racks on campus on a firstcome, space-available basis, the letter noted. The new policy means The Exponent likely won’t be delivered to 33%-50% of the locations on campus where it was previously distributed, explained publisher Kyle Charters. That’s led to students and West Lafayette residents asking where they can find a copy, he noted. “That’s been heartening from our point of view,” Charters said. “The feedback that we’ve received is that people want to receive The Exponent, and that’s been a real positive for us.”
A RISKY NEW ERA
Student journalists are also facing unprecedented ethical challenges as the Trump administration has targeted international students for deportation based on reporting and opinion pieces published in college newspapers.
In March, a Tufts University doctoral student and Turkish national was arrested on the street by masked federal agents solely in retaliation for an op-ed she wrote last year in a campus newspaper, a federal judge ruled. The article criticized her school leaders’ response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
After the student spent six weeks in a Louisiana detention facility, the judge last month ordered her release.
The arrest led a cadre of student media organizations to issue a rare alert to college newspapers around the nation recommending they revisit their policies on taking down stories and allowing anonymous sources for those whose immigration status could make them targets.
Corey Ohlenkamp, an advisor for the Ball State Daily News, said the alert hit home in his newsroom, where sources had reached out about taking down stories in which they were identified attending campus protests.
“We’ve really tried to balance the need for information and the need for accuracy and all these things with that need to not do harm to our sources,” he said. “But it’s been a challenge.”
Hiestand with the student law center said the federal government arresting students for expressing political views that are clearly protected by the First Amendment marks a risky new era for student journalists — especially those from outside the country.
He recalled a recent conversation with an international student journalist who went home for the summer and now worries about returning to the U.S. in the fall because of his reporting on pro-Palestine protests.
“I told him, ‘I cannot tell you that you would be safe,’” Hiestand said. “‘I cannot tell you that the things you’ve written won’t get you pulled over, detained or have some sort of issues.’” “I have been working at the Student Press Law Center for more than three decades, and I am now warning student journalists about things I have never had to tell them before,” he added.
For Holguin, the student reporter at Purdue, the university’s decision to distance itself from The Exponent made him briefly consider quitting journalism.
But after a lengthy discussion with his colleagues, the feeling morphed into a deep resolve to continue reporting the news regardless of the pushback. Holguin is even considering working in journalism once he graduates.
“We’re gonna put our heads down and we’re gonna get through this,” he said. “We’re all making sure that we’re being the best journalists we can and continuing to put The Exponent out there for people to read, and I think that’s magnificent.”
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