Editor in Chief- Grace LaTourelle
The ninth anniversary of Student Press Freedom Day, created by The Student Press Law Center, will be on Feb. 26, 2026. The theme of this year’s celebration is “Resilience in Action.” As the independent news source for Gustavus Adolphus College, The Gustavian Weekly would like to celebrate this day and the important work done by our own students, as well as students across the country.
Established in 1891, The Gustavian Weekly has undergone many name and formatting changes during its time of reporting on the happenings of campus. According to a 2020 features article on the history of the Weekly, the paper began on an individual printing press in a student’s dorm room, to the first official publication under the Weekly’s namesake in 1920.
“We’ve got over a century of independent student journalism at Gustavus, and I think that’s something that’s worth both cherishing and protecting for the future,” Communication Studies Professor and Faculty Advisor of The Gustavian Weekly Mark Braun said.
Independent press began around the 1830s in the United States of America with the penny-press, a cheaper way to publish news. This allowed news sources to be separated from political affiliations and become more objective. Independent Journalism is news that is reported free from biased and political or administrative values; it reports the facts.
Freedom of the Press is part of the First Amendment liberties outlined in the United States Constitution. This gives journalists and newspapers the right to create and publish freely from censorship. In 1978, Justice Potter Stewart highlighted the intentionality of the First Amendment, specifically mentioning freedom of the press, separately from freedom of speech, as “an acknowledgment of the critical role played by the press in American society. The Constitution requires sensitivity to that role, and to the special needs of the press in performing it effectively.”
Student journalism, in the form of campus and high school-produced newspapers, is a type of independent journalism and has its own place in our country.
“I think student journalism itself is invaluable,” former Editor-in-Chief from 2023 to 2025 and alumnus Mel Pardock said. “As a publication, campus newspapers are able to host the opinions of students and hold administration accountable. They are also able to provide transparency regarding ongoing issues and/or new implementations on campus that otherwise may seem inaccessible to students.”
Student press has seen an extensive history of censorship. In 1988, in Hazlewood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the Supreme Court ruled that “The First Amendment offers weaker protections to curricular student newspapers established by public schools than to newspapers that have been established independently by students or are designed as forums for student expression” thus, First Amendment rights did not have to be upheld completely if a student’s publication went against the values of the school.
The Student Press Law Center, founded in 1974, seeks to “counter the effects of Hazlewood” through campaigns and legal support for student press across the country. The SPLC created Student Press Freedom Day in 2017 in order to celebrate student publications and provide support.
I am new to the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Weekly, but I have been with the team since the first day I set foot on campus, first as a news writer, then as the news section editor. I have had the opportunity and privilege to write articles that not only report on events occurring on campus, but also administrative decisions and happenings.
The Weekly has not been without its own challenges, however. According to a 2010 article titled “Judicial board hearing sparks discussion following removal of Weekly papers,” 300 papers were removed by a student from their dropboxes due to a published report of Case Day and what the student thought portrayed Gustavus in a negative light on Scholarship weekend. While this was not a case of administration involvement with the Weekly, the editor in chief at the time, Jake Seamans, claimed it was a case of censorship: “If someone is keeping us from distributing our papers, it’s censorship, whether it is individuals in the community or from [the] top down.” You can read the full article on The Gustavian Weekly blog.
The Weekly has also seen past cases of self-censorship, according to a 2016 opinion article titled, “(REDACTED): Our Failure to Report.” In it, the writer described the decisions made by the Weekly to not report on a student charged with criminal sex conduct, despite Mankato State’s The Reporter and the St. Peter Herald publishing pieces about it. The writer criticized the Weekly, explaining that the “Gustavian Weekly editorial board argued that the close-knit nature of the Gustavus campus prevents us from reporting the full facts of a story relevant to the community.” Furthermore, the writer said that this form of self-censorship violated the mission of “bringing the community comprehensive coverage of the news and events affecting our campus.”
As Gustavus is a private institution, First Amendment rules don’t generally apply in the same way. Private institutions have the right to control funding and resources directed towards organizations, such as a campus newspaper.
“On one hand, if Gustavus wanted to say ‘we’re not going to have a student newspaper anymore,’ they could do that…On the other hand, Gustavus does see value in the free expression of idea,” Braun said.
In the Gustavus Statement on Freedom of Speech, endorsed by the DEI committee, the Faculty Senate, and the Board of Trustees in 2018 and 2019, it is written that “while freedom of speech and expression are accorded constitutional protection in our civic life, the value of free expression must be given even more rigorous affirmation in an intellectual community that prizes liberal education, academic freedom, and critical thinking.”
“To me, that’s the key sentence as to why it’s so important, even at a private school, to have a free press. Because…we really prize this idea of reaching the truth through free expression and criticism of ideas that we think are wrong. And so, I think it makes us a stronger community,” Braun said.
Reflecting on the upcoming Student Press Freedom Day, as the Editor in Chief, I want to reemphasize the Weekly’s commitment to independent, unbiased journalism and denounce censorship and self-censorship. The Weekly should be a source of news for our readers, whether students, staff, faculty, alumni, or the larger communities of St. Peter and Mankato, to trust to provide not only accurate information, but also the full picture.
“While one can take one student’s opinion on an issue from YikYak…and run with it, others can gather real, credible information from a student newspaper with actual sources close to the issue and form their own opinions,” Pardock explained.
The Weekly has not produced new truths, but has brought existing truths forward; and these are the truths of our campus, of our local communities, and of our national and global realities.
So, on behalf of The Gustavian Weekly, your source for Gustavus-related news and thoughts, thank you for all of the support we have received over the years, through readership and thoughtful dialogue. We are proud to be an independent news source for campus and greatly appreciate the opportunities we’ve had and the ability to report unbiased and uncensored.