For us, the operation — I dubbed it “Operation Clandestine Delivery” — began two days earlier, when the newsroom collaborated on a plan to print 3,000 special edition Exponents and then distribute them on Indiana’s Bloomington campus.

The execution of the plan involved nearly every department at the Exponent. On Wednesday, Oct. 15, as news was breaking about Indiana University’s cancelation of IDS print publications and we were putting together our own print edition, a plan was hatched: The newsroom would also put together a four-page Exponent special edition, highlighting the IDS’ fight against what it perceived as IU censorship, along with a recap of our own battles over distribution with Purdue University administration. Editor in Chief Olivia Mapes and Managing Editor Avery Goldthorpe assigned stories while Graphics Editor Sawyer Rebennack worked on a Page 1 design to visually tell the story of why Exponents were sitting inside IU academic buildings.

Rebennack was in the middle of a hot streak, hitting a home run on his design of The Rivet (the Exponent’s art and culture magazine) days earlier, then nailing the “Last Dance” basketball preview cover a week later. He was up to the task on the special issue too, placing four arms (gold, black, cream and crimson) crossed, with each fist clinched on another’s wrist, a sign of solidarity, emblazoned with the words “We Student Journalists Must Stand Together” over a backdrop of torn-up newsprint. Placing the Exponent masthead in front of a crimson red background was the real kicker, a probably-never-before seen change at the top of Purdue’s student newspaper.

Inside the edition, the newsroom reprinted editorials from the IDS and a former IDS editor in chief, plus reported its own content with Mapes' editorial, stories on IU faculty reaction, the recent “suppressed student media” at Purdue and Indiana and a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at IU’s shaky recent freedom of speech record.

Mapes, Goldthorpe and Co. worked well into the evening on Wednesday to put out the regular-edition Exponent, then did so again Thursday. Rebennack created a back-page graphical ask for donations to the Exponent and IDS, a sort of throw-in idea that netted both organizations meaningful contributions.

Then on Friday, the production staff at the print facility across the river showed up on what’s typically a press day off and churned out 3,000 copies. Charlie and I loaded them up, then hopped on the interstate for a two-hour trek south.

The Exponent received a ton of attention, from the national audiences on CNN and MSNBC to regional coverage, like the Bloomington Herald-Times, which was first on the story. We were praised in the Columbia Journalism’s Review's weekly “laurels and darts” column and our story spread like wildfire on social media.

And we received donations. If you'd like to donate as well, you can do so for the Exponent and IDS. But our students didn’t pour in the extra hours for attention or to pad the Exponent coffers, they did it because they felt strongly about the message. Journalism, particularly student media, is under attack, not just here or at Indiana but across the country. And it will take them standing up and standing together to fend off the assault on the free press. The First Amendment, and the privileges that come with it, are key tenets of a healthy democracy.

All hail the Exponent staff for standing up for what is right.

Kyle Charters, Publisher

Publisher@PurdueExponent.org

P.S. If you'd like to get a hold of a printed copy of the special edition, you can do that here.