What You Need To Know:

• The Battalion, the student newspaper of Texas A&M University, has served the student body since 1893.

• TAMU President Kathy Banks ordered the publication cease the physical printing of its publication on Friday, Feb. 11.

• The Battalion staff has a choice to operate as a student organization without funding, space, or faculty advisor, or operate alongside KAMU in the new performing arts building in the Fall of 2022. 

• The Battalion will keep printing and distributing on campus until the end of the Spring 2022 semester.

• Students have expressed concern that this move strips the publication of its independent student-run spirit.

• A petition on Change.org entitled #SaveTheBatt, aims to preserve The Battalion in its current form.

Since 1893, The Battalion has served the student population at Texas A&M, but now the publication is faced with a decision, as University President Kathy Banks quite literally halted the presses on the storied student newspaper. Battalion leadership faces the tough choice to remain as a student organization without university funding, a faculty advisor, or their office space in the Memorial Student Center, or to operate alongside KAMU in the new performing arts building in the Fall of 2022. 

Although President Banks made it clear that the publication would remain present on campus in the form of a purely online newspaper, she announced that it would be stripped of its physical printing rights following their final issue of the Spring semester. Battalion staff members, such as senior Arts Criticism Writer Katen Adams, find themselves dismayed by this decision to remove the print edition and transition to a digital-only publication.

“As a writer, picking up your first published article in a tangible piece for others to view is a huge accomplishment that you will live with forever in your career,” said Adams.

This move isn’t motivated by a desire to save university funds by transitioning to digital-only publishing. Instead, it’s a result of a belief that print publications are on the decline. President Banks commented on the future of the publication, stating that it’s “a new era for the Battalion,” but that it wouldn’t be printed anymore. 

“Gen Zs and millennials predominantly receive their news [digitally], and that is the market, here in College Station, certainly [among] college students,” said Banks. Having received all three of her university degrees in engineering, President Banks later recognized that she isn’t a journalism professor and that she didn't understand why it’s important to the field. 

Students have expressed concern that even though the Battalion can potentially remain on-campus as a digital publication, this move strips it of its student-run spirit and indicates a move towards centralizing campus media.  Although President Banks emphasized that the move to online-only and the relocation under the new Department of Journalism has nothing to do with censoring the publication, the Battalion states that they have never had university oversight in the history of their paper. This, for many, would constitute an infringement on the “independent” nature of student journalism. 

Currently, there is a petition on Change.org entitled #SaveTheBatt. This petition states that maintaining the print edition is integral to the spirit of the university. “The physical copies of the Battalion are as integral a tradition to Texas A&M as the Century Tree, the MSC grass, and Midnight Yell,” reads the description on the Change.org petition. 

For now, it appears that Battalion student leadership will have the option to wrestle with their decision for at least a few more months. In a statement released late Friday afternoon, Banks announced that the Battalion can continue printing until the end of the Spring semester. Copies of The Battalion will be available for pickup every Thursday on the Texas A&M campus, and will no doubt be coveted items as the future of the publication remains uncertain at this point.