On December 1, 2025, the University of Alabama’s Office of Student Media informed the staff of two student publications that their magazines would be immediately and indefinitely “paused” in connection with non-binding US Department of Justice guidance recommending restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion activities on campus.

The two student publications included Alice, a self-described fashion and wellness magazine, and Nineteen Fifty-Six, a magazine focused on “Black culture, Black excellence, and Black student experiences.” Both magazines had won recent awards. According to Steven Hood, the university’s vice president for student life, the university decided to suspend the publication of both magazines in order to comply with a July 29, 2025, memo from US Attorney General Pam Bondi that outlined activities that could cause universities to lose federal funding, including what the US government has deemed “unlawful” diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. In a meeting with students, Hood implied that the university had determined that both magazines were “unlawful proxies” or “ostensibly neutral criteria that function as substitutes for explicit consideration of race, sex, or other protected characteristics,” as defined by the July 29th memo.

Scholars at Risk is concerned about a university restricting student expression based on the content, editorial focus, or identities of the audience addressed. University authorities have a responsibility to facilitate student expression and to resist external pressures to censor or otherwise interfere with nonviolent discourse on campus. While institutions have an obligation to follow the law, the institution’s responsibility to academic freedom and autonomy demand that they challenge any purported assertion of law which clearly violates students’ rights to academic freedom and free expression. The university’s failure to defend students’ rights in the face of a facially suspect federal assertion of authority undermines academic freedom and democratic society generally. 

Sources:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-university-shuts-down-2-campus-magazines-because-they-might-look-like-dei
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/us/u-of-alabama-student-magazines-dei.html
https://www.alreporter.com/2025/12/03/university-of-alabama-suspends-two-student-magazines-over-dei/
https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2025/12/05/university-of-alabama-suspends-black-female-student-publications/
https://thecrimsonwhite.com/125358/news/university-suspends-alice-nineteen-fifty-six-student-magazines/