Before Lillian Stephens started writing for the student newspaper at Morgan State University, she spent seven years working in public affairs for the United States Marine Corps.

But even the military did not prepare her for what she found was an information vacuum at the historically Black university in Baltimore, she said.

“If someone put in a request for information, it was our duty in the military to supply that information as quickly as possible,” she said. “Like the Marine Corps, Morgan is a public entity, but they completely shut out [student reporters’] comment requests and denied interview requests frequently.”

For years, current and former editors said, reporters at The Spokesman, the HBCU’s student newspaper, have hit a wall getting the information they need to cover the news on the campus of 11,000 students. The university’s public relations office is often slow to respond and has rarely granted interviews with the top brass, according to student journalists. But the rocky relationship hit a breaking point this fall, when an email directed university employees to schedule media interviews through the public relations office — a move student journalists said effectively ends their tradition of interviewing their professors directly and hampers their ability to cover breaking news.

Now two national advocacy groups, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, have stepped in. Earlier this month, they sent a letter to Morgan State President David Wilson, accusing the university of infringing on free-press rights — “rights MSU, as a public institution, has an obligation to uphold,” the letter reads.

Dell Jackson, a spokesperson for the university, said in a statement that Morgan State’s press policies are nothing new, and that his office is committed to answering interview requests in a “timely and professional manner.”

“Morgan State has long-established protocols for coordinating media requests,” the statement said. “These protocols have been in place, consistently applied and unchanged for more than a decade.”

He said that it’s a common policy and that the recent email about it has been sent to faculty and staff every semester.

Journalism faculty and free-press advocates disagree with both assertions. Two professors, who asked not to be named because they didn’t have tenure protections, told The Banner that they’ve received the email twice in two years, and that the latest version strengthened its directives from “should” to “must.”

And student journalists at other local colleges, including Towson University and the University of Maryland, College Park, said they can typically interview faculty without going through their university’s public relations office.

Morgan State’s policy “is not normal,” said Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at the Student Press Law Center, the nation’s only legal organization devoted to advancing the free-press rights of student journalists.

Hiestand said there was “no way” that Morgan State could legally enforce the policy, which he called a “gag order,” on student journalists.

“When you are denying access to newsmakers and you’re telling reporters they have to coordinate with the PR office like this, that’s censorship,” he said.

The letter from the Society for Professional Journalists and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression characterized the policy as “prior restraint.” Interview requests “are themselves protected expression, but are now suppressed before they can even occur," the letter said. While the university may instruct employees not to speak on behalf of the university, the organizations argued, it cannot “issue a blanket ban” on speaking to the press.

Students and journalism faculty said the university’s public relations office took days and sometimes weeks to respond to press inquiries or set up interviews, effectively halting their ability to publish articles.

In his statement, Jackson wrote that during the 2025 calendar year, the university’s public relations office received approximately 36 media requests from The Spokesman. In approximately 86% of those cases, he wrote, the university granted an interview, provided a statement or shared relevant information. About 33% of those requests, he said, resulted in published stories.

He noted that response times are influenced by factors including the volume and timing of requests received and the availability of employees to respond.

Last year, when Stephens was editor in chief of The Spokesman, she says she told writers to reach out to other colleges for subject-matter experts rather than Morgan State to meet deadlines. The Johns Hopkins University, she said, was more responsive to interview requests than her alma mater.

Aleisha Robinson, a senior and current editor in chief of The Spokesman, said it was counterintuitive that a university with a journalism program restricts student reporters’ ability to interview professors.

“If you have a journalism school and journalism students, we are going to do journalism stuff,” Robinson said. “Morgan wants us to act like professionals and to gain knowledge and an education in journalism, but they won’t let us do what journalists do.”

The Spokesman’s adviser, Milton Kent, a former journalist who has taught at Morgan State since 2011, said the university’s protocols, “though well-intentioned, are unnecessary.”

Kent added that the policies “chill what should be a healthy relationship between student-reporters and sources who may have important information to impart and share with the Morgan community about what they know and what they do.”

The tension comes as independence of student media is increasingly threatened, as college newspapers suffer declining revenues and increased oversight. Public universities in Indiana and Alabama, for example, have suspended student media that didn’t comply with their rules, according to media reports.

Free-press advocates also took issue with Morgan State’s filming policy, which applies to the student-run television station, BEAR-TV, and the campus radio station, WEAA. The mandated approval process “poses constitutional concerns” and “drastically limits” students’ ability to report, their letter said.

Jackson clarified in his statement that the policy is separate from media interviews conducted for editorial purposes.

“Any media outlet — student or external — seeking to conduct interviews on campus or film in non-public spaces must coordinate those activities through the office of public relations and strategic communications," Jackson wrote.

In other words, cameras can be outside, but filming inside academic buildings or dormitories needs approval.

Marie McMullan, student press counsel at FIRE, said the organization was still waiting to hear back from Morgan State about their concerns.

“If the policy as enforced is going to allow for filming in these public areas, that’s something that I would love for Morgan State to publicize so students are sure what their rights are for filming,” she said. “I’m looking forward to getting their response and seeing any clarification they can offer.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.