Despite the economic realities of the outside world, campus magazines survive. Or maybe not if other colleges and universities, like the University of Alabama, start interpreting federal guidance.
Students at my school, Syracuse University, last semester published a fashion magazine, a food magazine, and a black student life magazine, among others. And it’s just one semester: Most of the time magazine updates are based on student interests and interests. (I wouldn’t miss a well-designed but particularly provocative sex magazine.) These student-run publications offer young people an opportunity to develop critical thinking, writing, and editing skills as they critique their icons and question their world. They also empower. For these digital natives, it’s especially meaningful to have your name and thoughts printed for the world to see. Student media helps young people make sense of a confusing present and uncertain future.
Students at the University of Alabama continued the tradition until Dec. 1, when campus officials effectively canceled two magazines. Nineteen fifty-six Established in 2020, it is named after the year Alabama’s first black student, Autherine Lucy Foster, enrolled. The magazine’s website states that it is a “student-run magazine focused on black culture, black excellence and the experiences of black students at the University of Alabama.” Alice Launched in 2015, the magazine is “a fashion and wellness magazine serving University of Alabama students.” As with most professional consumer fashion or health publications, women are the primary audience.
Although the Alabama state government cited federal anti-DEI guidance as impetus for its decision, crimson whiteAlabama’s student newspaper reported that both magazines “disallowed participation based on personal characteristics such as race and gender identity” and that both publications “hired staff members who were not part of their target audience.” The same is true in industry; some of the most talented editors I’ve ever worked with were not the target audience for the publications they headed.
In their 2021 book, Curating Culture: How Twentieth-Century Magazines Influenced America (Bloomsbury), editors and scholars Sharon Broyd-Peshkin and Charles Whitaker observe that magazines “provide information, inspiration, empathy, and advocacy to readers with specific interests, identities, goals, and concerns.” In a 2007 article, magazine scholar David Abrahamson explained that magazines “play a special role in readers’ lives, building a community or affinity group of which readers feel they are members.” The intent and design of the magazine is unique and niche. That’s why audiences love them. Today, media outlets across all platforms follow the magazine’s lead. What is a “for you” feed if not enticing curated content?
In Alabama, university officials were quick to point out that they were simply cutting financial support for the magazine, not attacking free speech because students at public institutions are protected by the First Amendment. (Though the Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that public universities can charge activity fees to fund programs that promote speech as long as the program is viewpoint-neutral, meaning the funds are allocated in a way that does not privilege one viewpoint over another.)
The state of Alabama cited Attorney General Pam Bondi’s nonbinding 2025 guidance for recipients of federal funds to suggest that because the two magazines primarily target certain groups, they are “unlawful representations” of discrimination. Student journalism advocates are unconvinced by this rationale — one called it “nonsense” — but perhaps Alabama’s leaders don’t want to know whether meager funding to support one magazine read by women (and others) and another read by blacks (and others) could be considered illegal “allocation of resources” or “agency discrimination.” Or maybe defunding a magazine that codes for women would provide enough cover to cut a magazine that explicitly targets another group. That Alice The magazine doesn’t even market itself as a “women’s magazine,” which is enough to suggest who and what content is no longer defined by editors or the free market but by the specter of Trump’s Justice Department.
The chilling effect creates ripples. Universities concerned about retaliation from the Trump administration may be wary not just of student-run magazines but of any publication produced with public funds, including academic journals. So be careful, southern historian. You might be next.
