Last week, a former Cornell student filed a lawsuit against seven fraternity members who allegedly gang-raped her in October 2024.
The outlet that broke the story? Cornell’s student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun.
Not only did they break previously unreported information, including a comment from the plaintiff, who has chosen to remain anonymous, but they also did what Cornell did not: publicly disclosed the full names of the seven alleged rapists in a Sept. 21 editorial titled “Cornell Won’t, We Will.”
Only two of the seven alleged offenders were expelled, the Daily Sun wrote, with the rest being asked to complete lesser disciplinary action, like writing essays apologizing for their behavior. The story immediately caught national attention, with social media swarming in a rage against the university.
The buzz started with a group of student journalists who had the courage to say what others did not. This is exactly why your eyes should be on student newsrooms.
Student journalists are no strangers to breaking high-stakes stories. Our newsrooms have something vital, something worth the highest level of protection and respect. In every political climate, during every major event, when our colleges and universities won’t tell the truth, we will.
In our own Catalyst newsroom, we are acutely aware of the national stage under which we write. Last week, President Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters from entering the White House — citing their “constant reporting ‘FAKE NEWS!’” on Truth Social — the latest in a string of unprecedented moves by the federal government to unconstitutionally restrict the free press.
And yet, we’ve continued to do the hard work – breaking stories of student protests, underenrollment, campus security issues, housing controversies and tuition increases.
Student journalism is developing the next generation of people who will keep democracy in check and reporters who will tell the truth even under difficult circumstances. Higher education institutions should feel that it is in their best interest to create an environment where student journalists can thrive by keeping larger systems of power in check and supporting a media-literate, well-informed student body.
However, student editors from around the nation have reported feeling more closely watched and censored by higher leadership at these institutions. At times, it has prevented them from doing their job: reporting the truth, no matter how it may be received.
Student-journalism guru — and close colleague of mine — Barbara Allen recently reported that the Student Press Law Center, a non-profit designed to protect student journalists’ free press rights, has “seen an alarming uptick in calls over the past few years.” Calls for legal help increased 42% from the 2022-23 to the 2024-25 school year, she wrote.
Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of working with Allen on a piece about the future of student journalism for The Student Press Report. At the time, the students I spoke with were well aware of the challenges our profession is facing: political hostility, AI and diminishing job prospects. All of them, still, were unwaveringly hopeful.
For the article, I interviewed The Catalyst’s own Opinion Editor, Veronica Bianco.
“The federal government,” she said at the time, “degrades journalists and does what it can to promote inaccurate, unverified ‘reporting’ by right-wing influencers instead of respecting reporters who are trying to write the news accurately.”
She’s right.
Whether we notice it explicitly or not, this federal rhetoric about the press funnels down into our university and college systems. It is not lost on me that university officials may feel enabled to restrict a student press because the federal government is consistently attempting to restrict a national press. In an increasingly difficult higher-ed landscape, especially for small liberal-arts institutions, I understand the desire to avoid any coverage that may reflect ‘poorly’ on an institution. But just as an unchecked democracy is a failing democracy, an unchecked university is a failing university.
This year, Colorado College ranked No. 161 out of 261 schools in the 2027 Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) free speech rankings. It fell 26 places from last year.
The college’s “disruptive conduct” ranking plunged 160 places after landing in the top 25 last year, FIRE reported, indicating “student acceptance of non-peaceful forms of protest” and “greater student hesitancy to speak.”
The organization called on Colorado College to “respond clearly and forcefully to defend free speech whenever censorship occurs or is demanded.”
In a media crisis this big, remaining silent on issues of free speech or sticking to the status quo of what we’ve always done is not enough. The college’s administration should be actively voicing its support for the free press and student journalism on campus. Business as usual is no longer enough.
The bottom line here is that students and faculty deserve transparency. They deserve to understand the inner workings of the institutional systems of which they are a part. And they deserve to see their ideas, opinions and concerns reflected in the community. To put it broadly, students deserve to be represented and informed.
Not only that, but student journalists deserve to be respected as a healthy part of a functioning university ecosystem. If the scholarly space is supposed to welcome discourse and discussion, why should colleges ever try to suppress a source of information that can catalyze social change?
A tumultuous higher-ed landscape does not change the fundamental truths of journalism’s role in democracy. In fact, colleges and universities should have even more reason to commit to a free press. If the goal is to be the best we can be, fostering an environment that welcomes both inquiry and criticism is essential.