Federal Anti-DEI Legislation Affects Student Publications
Story and Header Photo by: Poojasai Kona
University of Alabama senior Hannah Grace Mayfield “never thought censorship could happen” to her.
Mayfield first got involved with Alice once she got on campus as a freshman, where she would go on to be a contributing photographer for two years, before being appointed the magazine’s photo editor the semester before it got shut down.
“Everybody was crying,” Mayfield said. “It was terrible. It took me completely by surprise because I felt like everything we were doing was completely fine.”
Sophomore Mack Rudder, who is The Crimson White’s newspaper Assistant Sports Editor, which is the university’s student newspaper, and is a former design contributor for Alice,initially didn’t believe the university was serious behind its intentions.
“I thought it was a joke,” Rudder said. “The day before we were in the middle of planning our second edition for spring. I got my assignments, starting working on it, but the next day, they were like Alice does not exist anymore. I don’t think anybody really saw it coming.”
Two of The University of Alabama’s student magazines, Alice, which focused on women’s issues, and Nineteen Fifty-Six, which focused on Black student culture, were suspended by UA in December 2025.
The university cited a non-binding* memo issued by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The magazines’ staffs were told by the university that because the magazines targeted specific audiences of race and gender, the university had believed they were what Bondi called “unlawful proxies” for discrimination. When hearing about the suspension of both magazines, members of Masthead’s board of directors, like Melissa Brown, called an emergency meeting.
“The fact that the University interpreted a federal memo as justification for shutting these student magazines down concerned us,” Brown said, who currently works at the Tennessee bureau chief at Chalkbeat. “To shutter these magazines felt incredibly short-sighted by the University, and most of all, we were concerned about the students who had dedicated so much time to these magazines as they were being ripped from them.”
Masthead is a nonprofit organization that operates independently from the University. Established in 2020, Masthead sought to support student journalists at a variety of media outlets at UA. For Brown, who had spent time at The Crimson White — UA’s student newspaper — felt a “sadness for these students” when hearing about the magazines’ suspensions.
“These students are real journalists,” Brown said. “We were so impressed by the work they had been doing running and creating diverse publications. For me, I know how important my student media experience was to me and to my career still today, and I really hated that those students were going to lose that.”
Having sadness turn to indignation and determination for Brown and the rest of Masthead, discussions immediately pivoted to how their resources could be used to try and “do anything to help preserve the ability for these students to practice journalism at the university.”
“Co-founder of Masthead, Victor Luckerson, decided to launch a pretty ambitious fundraiser with the idea to see if there was an appetite to help fund independent publications for the spring semester,” Brown said. “People were very concerned about the decision by the University, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much support it got so quickly.”
Masthead would go on to raise nearly $30,000 within a few weeks, allowing it to move forward and work with the students who had previously worked at Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six by creating new, independent brands and magazines that served as the second iteration of both respective magazines.
Hence, the birth of Selene and Sixty-Three.
Serving as the photo editor for Selene, Mayfield recounted the issues the editorial board faced getting the new magazine running.It was a very emotional time for everyone. It was so difficult to get anything done as our resources were decentralized,” Mayfield said. “We could not use our UA email addresses. We couldn’t use Microsoft Word through our UA emails. It’s insane how much UA does that you don’t realize.”
A federal district court reached a preliminary decision in May of 2026, in the case of Pointer v. Phelps, where eight students sued The University of Alabama, alleging the University had violated the First Amendment when it closed the two student-run magazines. The federal court ruled the University did not violate the First Amendment. With Alabama being “the birthplace of college press freedom,” Jonathan Gaston-Falk, the staff attorney of the Student Press Law Center, said anti-DEI directives from the federal government is alarming, as they pose a threat to student press freedom nationwide.
“It gives universities a dangerous route to close publications whose missions administrators might dislike,” Gaston-Falk said. “Our worry is if other colleges around the country look at federal directives and think that they can do the same thing on their own campuses, copycats might crop up all over the country.”
For Brown, she worries about the about the chilling effect some of this legislation is having on young student journalists who are still finding their way in journalism.
“My main concern as a professional journalists is students are being misinformed about their own rights under this legislation and the kind of journalism they can do on college campuses,” Brown said. “My hope is that there are enough people and professionals who can and are willing to openly support student journalists, so that they feel emboldened to practice responsible and rigorous reporting.”
Now editor-in-chief of Druid, the University’s new lifestyle magazine focused on Tuscaloosa and Southern culture, Mayfield hopes to continue doing what her magazine experience taught her best — giving students a voice.
“I want others to realize that we’re not trying to replace them and we’re not trying to erase them,” Mayfield said. “Everyone’s who’s involved with Druid saw the tears and the horror at what happened. We want to get back to giving students and Tuscaloosa residents a voice to talk about cool things that they’re doing and talk about the hard stuff. But ultimately, just to tell their stories.”
*Editor’s Note: While the memo is “non-binding” in theory, schools can face repercussions for not adhering to these directives, including a loss of federal funding. In a Dec. 1, 2025 statement, UA stated it could not continue to fund the magazines “under the compliance landscape,” but added the students’ First Amendment Rights “remain fully intact” and the University will “never restrict [its] students’ freedom of expression.” UA stated it will “continue to fund the new publication [Druid] and continue funding other student media.”