This is a rolling collection of letters sent to the Indiana Daily Student about Indiana University's censorship of the IDS. They have been combined due to the quantity of letters received.
Censorship of the IDS
As American journalism faces perhaps the most significant challenges in its history, the young people stepping up to pursue it as a career deserve a university committed to advancing journalism’s best traditions:
Integrity, service, dedication to the truth, independence, freedom of the press.
With the firing of Student Media Director Jim Rodenbush and the university’s embrace of censorship at the Indiana Daily Student, it’s clear those ideals have gone missing at the Media School.
An old memory from my time at the IDS in the early 1970s makes my point. I was assigned to cover the trial of a student charged with disorderly conduct during an antiwar march on Indiana Avenue, just down the street from the law school.
A cop clearing the street of demonstrators heard Gregory Hess yell, “Let’s take the fucking street,” and put him in handcuffs. The trial in City Court was all about whether the word was protected by the First Amendment. Of course, “fuck” was heard every day around the IDS newsroom, as I expect it is today, but as far as anyone could recall, it had never appeared in the paper.
So what to do? Should the story be on Page 1? Should the word be in the headline or even the lede paragraph? Should we clean it up? Like this: F—, or this: F***? What repercussions might publication generate?
Jack Backer, the veteran newsman who, as IDS publisher, held a job equivalent to the one Rodenbush just lost, left the decisions to the student staff. The story went on an inside page, and we didn’t use the word in the headline. But the full quote was in the story.
I guess there were raised eyebrows and perhaps some discussion among university administrators about our publication. But everyone who mattered at what was then the Department of Journalism understood that the spirit of the First Amendment required that students run student media and that we tell the story without mincing words.
Nothing was more important to our education as journalists than instilling that spirit. With Jim Rodenbush’s dismissal, that spirit has been snuffed out at IU.
What a shame — for the students, for IU and for Indiana.
P.S.: Hess’ lawyer, IU law professor F. Thomas Schornhorst, appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction. Maybe someone at the law school will step up now for the IDS.
Dale Eisman is a 1973 IU grad who parlayed his IDS experience and journalism education into a 46-year career as a reporter and editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Virginian-Pilot and Common Cause.
Changes for the worse at IU
Let me start this message by reminding you all of Media School Dean David Tolchinsky’s own words: “It was time to ask ourselves and define who we are, who we want to be, and what we stand for… we value ethics, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration.”
The Dean said those words in March. At the time, he was speaking specifically about the Media School, but those questions deserve to be asked of administrators and trustees alike. Who do you want to be and what do you stand for?
What does IU stand for?
As a 2005 graduate of the former School of Journalism and the Indiana Daily Student, the unjust firing of Jim Rodenbush caught my attention, but it seems this is just one of a series of failures that IU has perpetuated recently. Dissatisfaction meriting a no-confidence motion against a university president is bad enough, but for that vote to be ignored entirely by the trustees? That is disrespectful and shameful. Then to offer no resistance when the alumni-elected trustees were forced out, leaving the entire board in the hands of the governor? That is capitulation.
Before this happened, there were the snipers on the roof of the Indiana Memorial Union during student protests. What purpose did that move serve except to intimidate and suppress? Why would any parent want to send their child to a place where the only thing between them and a stray bullet is prudence and trigger discipline from law enforcement? Officers should never have been put in such a situation where that kind of mistake could be made.
Another set of self-inflicted wounds for IU are the degree cuts. Rather than fight to save some of IU’s marquee programs, university management volunteered to explore cutting them. Other Indiana colleges put just a few programs on the chopping block, while. IU put over a hundred up for disposal, including programs that draw national and international recognition. IU was a standout because of the breadth of programs it offered, at public college prices. Why announce to the world that IU is just going to give all that up?
The firing of Rodenbush is the latest example of a move that is counter-productive and self-destructive. By doing this, you administrators are telling the student body that the people in charge at IU are not willing to live up to the standards they would expect from the students themselves. You are telling Indiana, and the world, that IU is no longer a place for free speech and free thought. You are signaling to everyone that IU only respects power and will wield it freely and selfishly rather than for the common good.
Again, the questions deserve to be asked: who do you want to be, and what do you stand for?
What does IU stand for?
Several hundred thousand living alumni are very interested to hear the answers.
George Lyle IV is a lawyer and IT security professional for Purdue University. He’s also a Board Member and Secretary for the West Lafayette Community School Corporation.
In support of IDS and student journalism, from a Journalism school alumna
Dean David Tolchinsky —
I write with great concern for a vital asset of the university community and learning laboratory for Media School students: the Indiana Daily Student. I’m a 1989 graduate of the former School of Journalism who majored in journalism and English and an alumna of the High School Journalism Institute; both of those experiences lit the fuse for my 35-year career in journalism.
The administration’s move to permit feature coverage for special events and prohibit routine news coverage means it is dictating content. University leaders may couch this as a “business decision” — much like Disney’s punitive stunt of pulling Jimmy Kimmel off air — but there’s no possible way to view this other than pure censorship. I never once fell asleep in David Boeyink's media law class in the fall of 1988, so I’m fairly confident that I understand the concept of press censorship. I can't believe this is happening at an institution with such an important, enduring and respected tradition of educating journalists of integrity and courage.
My husband, Rob, and I are both proud IU graduates. Rob received the Wells Senior Recognition Award in 1989. We met on campus during the celebration of IU’s 1987 NCAA men’s basketball championship. We come back to Bloomington regularly. We’ve donated meaningfully to the IU Foundation. To date, IU has consistently figured heavily in our estate planning. If this is the direction the university is heading — stifling free expression, denying students valuable learning experiences, undermining the university community — then we will reconsider our plans without hesitation.
Please know that alumni like us — not just the Mark Cubans — are paying attention to what’s going on. And we intend to take action in our own ways.
With regards,
Bryn Mooth
Bryn Mooth is an independent editor, copywriter and journalist focused on food, wellness and creativity. She lives in Cincinnati.
Students must speak out to protect academic freedom
As a student at IU in the early '70s, I knew very little about academic freedom. That soon changed. Recently, I visited Kent State University and saw the monuments dedicated to the "four dead in Ohio." I am saddened by the administration’s politicization of the IDS, let alone the snipers on top of the Indiana Memorial Union. The snipers were on the IMU’s roof a while back, but it goes to show there could have easily been four dead in Indiana.
Academic freedom is our right in a democracy, and it has been put to the test nationally and locally. As Gov. Mike Braun eliminated members of IU’s Board of Trustees over the summer, it's about time for students to speak out. We did our best in the ‘70s when democracy was threatened, and current students have the choice to do it now. I believe old Ernest Taylor Pyle would agree.
John Leavitt was a student at IU from 1973 to 1974. He had other plans at the time and became a journeyman with Sheet Metal LU #20 in Evansville, Ind. Always active in politics, he was a city councilperson and mayor de facto of Corydon, Ky.
A call for IU to restore its journalism legacy
It is with profound sadness that I share my heartbreak over the recent developments at the IU Media School and the Indiana Daily Student.
I am a proud 1977 alumna of the IU School of Journalism and the IU High School Journalism Institute, where I later served as an instructor. The strong foundation I received from IU led me to a successful 40-year journalism and journalism education career that included more than 30 years as an editor and writer at the Tampa Bay (formerly St. Petersburg) Times.
One of the finest privileges of being at the Times was working alongside the large cohort of IU journalism grads who brought their solid training to our Florida newsrooms, where they consistently produced award-winning journalism that changed lives, exposed corruption and made the world a better place. Reporters and editors did their work guided by the highest journalistic principles and values forged at IU: Everyone fortunate enough to have studied journalism there understood that a truly free press builds trust and ensures democracy.
Never has this concept been more true than now, when the journalism that makes democracy possible is mocked and restricted on a daily basis by a corrupt government administration, one that is also shamefully threatening learning and other institutions for not bowing to its restrictions. Journalism shines light on these threats and deceits.
For more than a century and a half, the Indiana Daily Student, buoyed by the stellar education from IU's journalism programs, has stood as the gold standard.
Unfortunately, the censorship of the IDS, and more important, the clear lack of understanding and respect shown for the principles that undergird trusted journalism and media literacy, present another lesson entirely. The journalism students following their passion at IU today deserve better. As does a democratic society.
I urge Dean David Tolchinsky to restore Indiana University's journalism program to its former glory, showing students what authentic media freedom really is.
Gretchen Letterman is a retired journalist and journalism educator who spent more than 30 years at the Tampa Bay Times. Included in her Times career was guiding the establishment of three K-12 journalism and multi-media magnet programs, known as Journeys in Journalism, in Pinellas County (FL) schools. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.
CORRECTION: This page has been updated to correct the year John Leavitt was a student at IU.
