Demonstrators at IU homecoming parade chant support for student newspaper: ‘Free press! Free press! We support the I-D-S!’
Indiana University’s homecoming parade followed its usual route Friday evening, heading south along Woodlawn Avenue. As parade entries rounded the corner onto 7th Street, they could see and hear about two dozen demonstrators who were gathered to show support for the Indiana Daily Student (IDS).



Left: Demonstrators hold a banner that says: “Why axe the IDS homecoming issue?” Right: IU cheerleaders march past the demonstrators. (Dave Askins, Oct. 17, 2025)
Indiana University’s homecoming parade followed its usual route Friday evening, heading south along Woodlawn Avenue, making one final turn west onto 7th Street in front of the Indiana Memorial Union.
Floats were built around this year’s parade theme, “There’s No Place Like Home,” the famous phrase from the movie “The Wizard of Oz” that helps get Dorothy back to Kansas. The procession featured floats decorated with yellow-brick-road motifs, and included cheerleaders, the Indiana University Marching Hundred, and various community organizations, like Habitat for Humanity.
As parade entries rounded the corner onto 7th Street, they could see and hear about two dozen demonstrators who were gathered to show support for the Indiana Daily Student (IDS). The group, organized in part by former IU employee Peg Hausman, included current and retired IU faculty members.
They chanted, “Free press! Free press! We support the I-D-S!” while holding banners, including one reading, “Why axe the IDS homecoming issue?” The banner included a link to the digital flipbook version of the special edition that would have been printed, if the IU administration had not stopped its publication.
The Indiana Daily Student is the student newspaper, which has been printed since 1867.
The demonstrators were protesting the news this week that the IDS special homecoming issue had been spiked by the IU administration, and that the print edition would cease entirely, after previously being limited to special editions.
The demonstration came days after the IDS reported that student media director Jim Rodenbush had been fired amid a dispute with the administration over the content of the paper’s special homecoming edition. In a separate piece, the IDS announced that its final print issue had been published, with a headline: “IU has now fully cut IDS print. What more is there to say?”
Support for the student paper has been growing, on and off campus, extending even to a rival Big Ten Conference school.
A statement from journalism faculty at the IU Media School said they were “appalled” about the decision to cut the special print homecoming edition. The professors called for “a complete, independent accounting of the events of the last week” saying that the administration should “take ambitious, meaningful actions to show their commitment to journalism’s future.” The statement continues, “This must include a restoration of the printed special editions of the Indiana Daily Student as agreed upon in the Student Media Action Plan.”
A statement from the American Association of University Professors’ IU chapter condemned Rodenbush’s dismissal. The AAUP letter puts the recent actions by IU administrators in a broader context citing a series of grievances: “This Administration has attempted to block constitutionally protected free speech rights after 11 pm; terminated international faculty without due process; sanctioned one professor due to an anonymous complaint without due process; and silenced the voices supporting marginalized populations through a complete erasure of diversity, equity and inclusion from its offices, programs and websites.”
Purdue University’s independent student newspaper, The Exponent, published a special print edition supporting the IDS and distributed copies in Bloomington on Friday. The op-ed in that edition was published with the headline: “The Exponent stands with the IDS after director fired, print censored.”
Among the Bloomington demonstrators was IU emeritus professor Russ Skiba, who has been active in opposition to university policies on expressive activities adopted after last spring’s Dunn Meadow protests. Skiba is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the exclusion of retired faculty from faculty governance.
Handing out flyers about the IDS situation, Skiba said some parade spectators accepted them eagerly while others declined. He called the demonstration a success, saying that it’s important to get out and make the issue visible.
Not everyone at the parade was aware of the events related to the IDS in the last few days. Parade attendees included a mix of people, from longtime residents of Bloomington, who were hoping to see a calliope that has been included in previous parades, to the grandparents of a freshman at the Kelley School of Business who wondered what the big building was just south of 7th Street. (They asked about the Indiana Memorial Union.)
Skiba said that homecoming is about representing the variety of IU. “Free speech and saying the administration is getting it wrong and needs to change their way—that is a part of the Indiana University community.”
People in the parade generally offered at least friendly waves to the demonstrators. At least one vehicle honked in support. One participant offered a clenched fist in solidarity and shouted, “Power to the people!”





Left: The sign held by a demonstrator reads "Full Court Press Don't Suppress he IDS!" Right: The cover of the special print edition of Purdue's Exponent in support of the Indiana Daily Student. (Dave Askins, Oct. 17, 2025)










IU Homecoming Parade looking southeast across 7th Street. (Dave Askins, Oct. 17, 2025)

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