The Student Press Law Center is delighted to honor the Indiana Daily Student and its journalist Cate Charron and the staff of The Battalion at Texas A&M University with the organization’s 2022 Awards for Outstanding Courage in Collegiate Journalism and Advocacy for Student Press Freedom.

SPLC presented the awards on Friday, October 28 during the MediaFest 22 conference in Washington, D.C. The winners were selected by an advisory committee of journalists and journalism educators, including Logan Aimone, professor of journalism at the University of Chicago Laboratory High School and SPLC Board Member; Ellen Austin, a retired high school journalism teacher; Candace Perkins Bowen, director of the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University; Steven Holmes, former executive director of standards and practices at CNN and SPLC board member; and Hadar Harris, executive director of the SPLC.

“Both winners represent the best in student journalism, but also the significant challenges that college journalists face in telling the stories of their campuses and communities,” Harris said.

Reveille Seven Courage Award in Student Journalism

The Indiana Daily Student and journalist Cate Charron received the 2022 Reveille Seven Courage in Student Journalism Award for its six-month investigation into why Indiana University failed to comply with its 2016 disciplinary decision against a music student who was found responsible for sexually harassing another student. The investigation also explored how the music school’s ongoing relationship with the abuser, in violation of its own policies, impacted other students’ sense of safety.

Charron persevered in reporting through a series of follow-up stories, despite IU’s refusal to release the student’s disciplinary records — an act that Indiana’s public access adviser said violated the law. in the public archives of the State. Charron’s bold reporting led to numerous letters to the editor, a community forum, and protests in which frustrated students voiced their demands for the university to do more to protect survivors of sexual assault.

“Cate Charron went to extraordinary lengths to cover up Indiana University’s handling of this sexual assault and its lasting impact on campus, despite the university’s refusal to release material information,” Harris said. “It’s hard to imagine a more important topic on campus than student safety. The community’s response to Cate’s bold journalism shows the critical role student journalists play in shining a light on how universities protect and discipline their students, and in holding universities accountable for their actions — or lack thereof.

Charron said that while reporting and working on the investigation, she was not doing the work for awards, accolades or clips.

“I just wanted to do my best to bring to light the misconduct that weighs heavily on the Indiana jazz community and others involved,” Charron said. “I am so honored to receive this award, especially given the significant and historic progress of its namesake.”

The Reveille Seven Courage in Student Journalism Award is given annually to a college news organization or journalist who speaks truth to power and demonstrates outstanding reporting that impacts their community. The Reveille Seven were a group of student journalists from Louisiana State University who were expelled in 1934 after publishing criticism of Louisiana Governor Huey Long. Years later, they were cleared of any wrongdoing. The Reveille Seven College Press Freedom Award is presented in partnership with Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communications and the Associated Collegiate Press. LSU is also offering a $2,000 prize to the winner.

Student Press Freedom Award

The staff of The Battalion at Texas A&M University, former editor Myranda Campanella and former adviser Doug Pils received the 2022 Student Press Freedom Award for his efforts to maintain editorial independence after the university attempted to close that of the battalion 129 year old print edition. The award, in its first year, recognizes bold advocacy to protect student press freedom.

In February 2022, the president of the university, Mr. Katherine Banks, announced, without notice, that The Battalion, which was created in 1893, will immediately cease its print edition. She explained that it would help students focus on their digital journalism skills.

The staff announced the news in an online post, promising to print its next edition, which it did. The Battalion staff spearheaded a broad advocacy effort, working with campus readers, Battalion alumni, fellow journalists, SPLC and other journalism organizations highlighting fear for the editorial independence of staff and seeking to preserve the historic newspaper. The administration quickly backed down, the newspaper continued to print, and the administration set up a task force to study any potential changes in the future.

In a 10-page print edition declaring ‘Print is not dead’, staff pledged not to allow the university to control its content or the platforms through which it reported to the campus community . Over the next few weeks, the staff continued their tradition of bold reporting, including an in-depth investigation into how a shadowy group of influential alumni and policymakers exerted influence over A&M’s trustees. A document staff uncovered during the investigation quoted the group’s founder calling for a number of areas on campus that needed to be ‘cleaned up’, including The Battalion.

“The Battalion staff showed extraordinary courage in standing up to the president of the university to defend his First Amendment right to report on important issues,” Harris said. “Administrators at Texas A&M and elsewhere who wish to diminish the voice of their students be warned: it won’t work.”

Doug Pils, former managing director of student media at Texas A&M and advisor to The Battalionsaid he was proud of the courageous advocacy of student journalists.

“It is such an incredible tribute to the student leaders and staff members who have worked for The Battalion this past school year,” Pils said. “They stood their ground in a time when it would have been easy to bend over and do what they were told to do. They fought for their right to be the decision makers of their future and it’s a fight they continue as Texas A&M makes changes and improvements to the journalism curriculum and the reinstated degree.

The SPLC Student Press Freedom Award is a new honor in 2022 to recognize college journalists for their courageous advocacy on behalf of a free student press.

Since 1974, the Student Press Law Center has worked to support, promote, and defend the First Amendment and the free speech rights of high school and college student journalists, and the counselors who support them. The SPLC is an independent 501c(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C.

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