Media School Dean David Tolchinsky announced plans Monday for a task force that will make recommendations on ensuring the editorial independence and financial sustainability of IU student media.
In an email to student leaders of the Indiana Daily Student, Indiana University Student Television and WIUX, Media School faculty and staff, and some Radio and Television Services employees, Tolchinsky wrote he expects the task force to be appointed by Nov. 3. It will deliver recommendations to him early in the 2026 spring semester.
“A variety of legitimate questions are at play here -- specifically regarding the intersection between business decision making and news operations,” Tolchinsky wrote in the email. “At the core: What is the purview of the editorial staff versus the purview of the school or university when an entity is funded by the school or university? So, what is an editorial decision versus a business decision?”
The task force will comprise faculty, staff, students and alumni, according to a Media School press release.
Tolchinsky did not respond to an IDS request for clarification by publication on what specific items the task force’s recommendations will be on, how it will be appointed and if the current IDS, IUSTV and WIUX staffs will have representatives.
The task force announcement came after Tolchinsky fired Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush on Oct. 14, citing a “lack of leadership and ability to work in alignment with the University’s direction for the Student Media Plan.” Rodenbush had refused administrators’ orders to interfere in the paper’s content by forbidding news coverage in the Oct. 16 Homecoming special publication.
IDS student leadership condemned the termination and called the Media School directive “unlawful censorship” in an editorial the same day. IUSTV and WIUX leaders also decried Rodenbush’s firing.
Hours after removing Rodenbush, Tolchinsky cut print publications entirely through emails to IDS co-Editors-in-Chief Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller and journalism faculty. In a follow-up letter, Hilkowitz and Miller called it a “blatant reaction to our protests” against the alleged censorship.
The task force “will build on prior work,” the press release states, including from a 2024 proposal created by a committee of students, faculty, staff and alumni appointed by Tolchinsky.
That proposal outlined an “umbrella organization” combining the IDS, IUSTV and WIUX. It also recommended IU consider increasing university advertising in the IDS’ print paper and website and raising either the university-wide or Media School student fee to support student media.
The Media School’s IU student media action plan, released Oct. 8, 2024, came after the committee’s proposal. It outlined a reduction in the weekly print newspaper to less frequent special editions during the academic year, cross-platform advertising sales across student media and dedicated graduate workers to assist with business operations, among other initiatives.
It did not include plans to cut IDS print editions beyond reducing the special publications schedule. It instead listed “preserving key operational aspects” as a priority, including “the IDS print product, which provides critical learning experiences for student media workers.”
In response to Oct. 14’s print cut, journalism faculty members issued a letter stating the decision “broke with the Student Media Action Plan, threatened the editorial independence of our student journalists and breached the core values of journalism.” The faculty urged campus leadership to “take ambitious, meaningful actions to show their commitment to journalism’s future.”
IU Bloomington Chancellor David Reingold said in a statement Oct. 15 the university has not and won’t interfere editorially in the IDS, and that cutting print was part of implementing the student media action plan. He stated the decision was regarding the medium of distribution rather than content.
Tolchinsky said in the press release The Media School remains committed to IU student media’s editorial independence and financial sustainability.
“This task force represents an opportunity to take that commitment even further—by strengthening the foundations that support it,” Tolchinsky said in the release.
