Purdue will help distribute student newspapers again

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Purdue University will once again facilitate the distribution of campus newspapers, following a year-and-a-half long conflict.

In June 2025, the university said it would no longer donate staff to help distribute the newspaper. The school did not place any specific obstacles in the way of The Exponent otherwise accessing but the newspaper argued that the loss of personnel harmed it, as The College Fix previously reported.

Officials cited the school’s institutional neutrality policy, arguing that it does not distribute newspapers for everyone.

“Purdue does not deliver editorial content for other independent newspapers,” the university’s legal counsel told The Fix in June 2025. “Purdue is saying that it will not do for one newspaper (the Exponent) what it does not do for others.”

The new agreement restores the distribution assistance, according to the Exponent.

While the contract formally ended in 2014, both entities continued to operate under the prior arrangement. This deal restores those terms, which include:

…Purdue had moved copies of The Exponent from loading docks at each building to their final distribution points and had distributed an additional 1,400 copies to choice locations through Purdue’s Materials Management and Distribution Center.

Without Purdue’s contributions, The Exponent estimates the total number of drop locations fell by around 30%. The Exponent currently independently distributes 6,000 copies of each edition every Monday and Thursday.

Now the university will once again help.

The student newspaper said it remains editorially independent from campus leadership.

Read the full story here.

MORE: Southern Illinois U. sends cops after student journalists for asking questions