Wichita State University: Student Journalists Relegated to Less Favorable Parking Than Their Professional Peers

In January 2022, Wichita State student paper The Sunflower published an article describing how student journalists received parking privileges different from other journalists covering university basketball games, imposing hardships for student reporters forced to park farther from the stadium. On February 2, FIRE wrote Wichita State arguing that treating student journalists differently from professional journalists solely because of their student status disregards the important function of the student press and is inconsistent with the university’s obligations under the First Amendment. On February 18, Wichita State agreed to improve parking privileges for student journalists, moving one of The Sunflower’s two spots to the closest parking lot and granting the assistant sports editor at The Sunflower an additional temporary spot in the closest lot.