The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) honored student journalists from Indiana University’s Indiana Daily Student and Purdue University’s The Exponent with the inaugural Fred Brown SPJ Ethics in Journalism Award for standing together in defense of journalism amid administrative pressure.
SPJ President Chris R. Vaccaro and Vice President Nicole DeCriscio presented the award Monday, April 27 at the Indianapolis headquarters of SPJ.
The honor recognizes the two staff’s responses in October 2025 when the IDS’s student media director, Jim Rodenbush, was fired after refusing to enforce a directive dictating that the next edition of the newspaper focus on homecoming coverage rather than news. After his firing, publication of the printed paper was canceled. The IDS Editors-in-Chief, Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller, pushed back on university administrators’ actions in several letters from the editor. After opposition from alumni, IU staff, the public and others, the print paper was re-instated. When the IDS was unable to print, The Exponent printed their own solidarity issue chronicling the situation and delivered it to the IU campus.
Representatives from both universities were on hand for the ceremony in Indianapolis. Accepting the award were Hilkowitz, Miller and Exponent Editor in Chief Olivia Mapes.
During the presentation, Vaccaro spoke about how the IU and Purdue students met the moment at a time when press freedom is under attack every day at all levels.
“You stuck true to what your mission is as journalists,” Vaccaro said during the presentation. “We’re endlessly proud of what you did and what your staffs did.”
Fred Brown, the award’s namesake, was one of America’s most influential voices in media ethics. Brown was SPJ’s long-time media ethicist and a legendary Denver Post political reporter. He died April 1 at age 85.
SPJ is American journalism’s oldest professional society. The award’s presentation kicked off SPJ’s Ethics Week programming. For more information about SPJ, visit spj.org.
