The Indiana Daily Student staff walked out of Franklin Hall — home of the IU Media School and the IDS newsroom — ceasing content for the day. Photo courtesy of Olivia Bianco, Indiana Daily Student.
THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN | SPRING 2024 EDITORIAL BOARD
To the Butler community, Indiana University administrators, and the staffs of the Indiana Daily Student, WIUX and IU Student Television,
Today, Thursday, April 25, 2024, the editors of the Indiana Daily Student (IDS) announced a one-day walkout. For 24 hours, the IDS will not publish online content nor enter their newsroom. This walkout serves as a response to concerns regarding potential budget cuts due to their ongoing deficit and lack of support from university administration. In the past, downsizing has led to a decrease in professional staff, a lack of resources for print production and gross under-compensation. Now, such cuts would severely impede IU student media’s ability to provide quality news content to members of the Indiana University community and the state of Indiana as a whole.
The Butler Collegian’s editorial board stands in solidarity with the IDS, WIUX and IU Student Television. We are continuously inspired by IU student media’s commitment to outstanding student journalism and their tenacity in the face of threats from their university’s administration.
We believe — with the editors of the IDS — that potential budget cuts are a fundamental threat to free press and students’ freedom of expression. In the wake of the violent suppression of students’ free speech at Columbia University, The University of Southern California and others, Indiana University’s lack of support for its student media is particularly troubling. When campuses become social and political battlegrounds, collegiate journalism seeks the truth, provides necessary perspective and incites positive change.
In recent weeks, Indiana University student media has extensively reported on graduate student strikes, administration violating university policy in a professor’s suspension and a no-confidence vote against Indiana University President Pamela Whitten and other administrators. The administration’s lack of support for student media should be understood in this context.
Withdrawal of support from Indiana University’s student media sets a dangerous precedent for collegiate journalism across Indiana. If the future of one of the largest and most awarded student media groups in Indiana is in jeopardy, student journalism across the state is in danger.
We call on Indiana University’s administration to commit to IU student media’s future and properly invest in student media.
We further ask all Indiana collegiate media organizations — including, but not limited to, the Purdue Exponent, the Ball State Daily News, the Campus Citizen at IUPUI, the University of Indianapolis Reflector, and Valparaiso University’s The Torch — to rally support for our colleagues at Indiana University.
We also ask that the Indiana Collegiate Press Association affirm its support for student media at Indiana University.
As Indiana University’s student journalists find themselves under duress, we are compelled to act. A threat to students’ free expression anywhere is a threat to students’ free expression everywhere.
— The Butler Collegian Spring 2024 Editorial Board
