Purdue student journalists deliver special 'solidarity' newspaper to IU Bloomington campus

BLOOMINGTON, IN — Controversy sometimes makes for strange bedfellows.

On Friday afternoon, students and staff from Purdue’s student paper, The Exponent, traveled two hours from West Lafayette to Bloomington to do what the Indiana Daily Student couldn’t: deliver a paper to newsstands.

Earlier this week, Indiana University administrators fired the IDS’ adviser and ordered the paper to stop printing its Oct. 16 edition amid a heated dispute over what content goes into the newspaper’s special editions.

The Exponent crossed enemy lines into Bloomington on Friday to deliver 3,000 free copies of a special, solidarity-themed edition across campus. On the front cover, a band of arms reach for each other atop a pile of crumpled newspapers.

Bold white text reads, “WE STUDENT JOURNALISTS MUST STAND TOGETHER.”

IU has asserted that the decision to cut the print edition is about “the medium of distribution, not editorial content.” But for students and staff at the Exponent, who themselves have butted heads with Purdue over their own print distribution, the university’s motive was clear — and the call to action was obvious.

“We have the benefit of being fully independent of the university. We own our own press,” said Kyle Charters, publisher and news adviser for the Exponent. “We were more than willing, with our extra freedom being an independent student organization, to help out.”

In the paper, columns from both IDS and Exponent editors decry IU’s actions and warn about attacks on student press freedoms. An opinion piece by former IDS Editor-in-Chief Annie Aguiar republished from Poynter lauds the IDS staff and former adviser Jim Rodenbush for exemplifying good journalism in standing ground against the university’s demands. QR codes within the paper encourage donations to the Exponent and IDS’s Legacy Fund.

Exponent staff members blasted the special edition across town, stuffing copies in IDS boxes on Kirkwood and tabling them on the entrances of some 30 academic buildings across campus — including, of course, the Media School.

“I’ve got ink all over me,” Charters laughed. “If someone catches me, I’m red-handed.”

“We can’t thank the Exponent enough for its solidarity in this time,” IDS co-editors-in-chief Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller said in a joint statement. “What happens to one student media organization happens to all, and we hope that message continues to be made immensely clear.”

Exponent students and staff reached out to IDS editors earlier this week in the wake of IU cutting their print edition, asking them about avenues to support the paper. The Exponent initially offered to print and deliver the IDS’ would-be Oct. 16 edition from West Lafayette for free, but IDS editors demurred, fearing the act might be seen as subordination by IU administrators that could result in sanctions or cuts to professional staff.

“After some consideration, they turned us down, which I of course understand,” Charters said.

But of their own accord, Exponent staff members devised a workaround: an IDS solidarity-themed edition of their paper, with their masthead still at the top.

“I said to our editor-in-chief a couple days ago, when our initial plan to just print their edition didn’t work out, that we were going to figure something out,” Charters said. “I think this worked out about as well as it possibly could.”

The Exponent, too, has sparred with its host institution over its paper’s place on campus. In June, Purdue announced it would no longer help distribute the Exponent newspaper on campus and told the paper to omit the university’s name from its branding, the IndyStar reported. Former Exponent editors and First Amendment advocacy organizations critiqued the decision, saying it was likely to suppress the paper and limit access to information on campus.

It’s that common cause that prompted Exponent staff to put aside the usual politics of the century-old rivalry. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,“ as the old proverb goes.

“Both our publications have had their run-ins with their respective universities this summer and fall,“ Charters said. “While we’re pretty significant rivals — and while I might not be rooting for their football team tomorrow — we do have something in common, and we’re happy to have that camaraderie.“

Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com. Follow him on X/Twitter at @brianwritesnews.