Alice Magazine and Nineteen Fifty-Six, two of the University of Alabama’s student-run publications, had their operations halted. Black culture was the emphasis of the latter, while women’s problems were the focus of the former.
The institution said that it took this choice in order to “comply with our legal commitments,” citing a Department of Justice letter from July that described federal antidiscrimination regulations.
Some questioned if the institution believed that the periodicals’ actions violated federal policy. People from diverse backgrounds may take part, one of the magazine’s editors said.
The issue comes after comparable problems with student press freedom at other universities, such as Indiana University and the University of Central Oklahoma.
The most recent step in the countrywide struggle for student press freedom is the University of Alabama’s decision to halt the operations of two of its student-run periodicals.
University spokeswoman Alex House told the USA TODAY Network’s Montgomery Advertiser that the institution took this action to “comply with our legal requirements.”
That was in reference to a July memo from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi explaining how organizations that receive federal funding—including public universities like the University of Alabama—can avoid breaking federal antidiscrimination laws under the Trump administration, which maintains that efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion constitute unlawful discrimination.
Alice Magazine, which covered health, wellness, fashion, and women’s problems, and Nineteen Fifty-Six, which concentrated on Black culture and life on campus, were two of the student publications affected.
According to Bondi’s email, “one of our Nation’s core values is that all Americans must be treated equal” and discrimination “based on protected characteristics” is prohibited by federal law.
Additionally, the letter forbids “unlawful proxies,” which it defines as organizations that “consciously deploy purportedly neutral criteria that operate as replacements for explicit consideration of race, sex or other protected characteristics.”
However, the students in charge of the periodicals have denied that their groups broke these rules.
The chief editor of Alice Magazine, Gabrielle Gunter, told the Montgomery Advertiser that she thought “our having a definite target audience was the issue,” although she stressed that students from all backgrounds were welcome to apply and contribute for both publications.
I was a little perplexed since I thought the First Amendment’s safeguards for freedom of the press applied to us, but it does not seem to apply in this case,” Gunter said.
The First Amendment does apply to student media, according to the Student Press Law Center, a national group that defends the rights of student journalists. The organization questioned how the school came to the decision that the publications were in violation of government policy.
“These journals do not exclude anybody; they highlight the views of historically oppressed populations,” said Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel. “That is not illegal discrimination, but protected speech.”
Additionally, he said that the school’s decision to ban “just the journals that predominantly serve women and Black students – while leaving other publications alone” may be considered unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
For student media, 2025 was a “very difficult year.”
The problem arises weeks after Indiana University’s decision to remove the advisor of its student newspaper and force the Indiana Daily Student to cease print publication due to disagreements with school administration on the paper’s content sparked a national outcry.
Later, Jim Rodenbush, the advisor and director of student media at the university, filed a lawsuit against the institution alleging First Amendment breaches.
