17-02-2025
Institute of American Indian Arts student fights school sanctions over critical editorials
Feb. 17—A student and former magazine editor with the Institute of American Indian Arts has enlisted help from a national campus free speech organization to force the school to lift sanctions against him after he published commentaries critical of campus administrators.
David John Baer McNicholas, who was the senior editor of the Young Warrior student magazine, is partnering with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) on what the nonprofit described as a public campaign against the Santa Fe-based school.
The campaign comes after an attorney representing IAIA issued a statement to FIRE in January stating that it will not lift punishments against McNicholas in response to his decision to publish two anonymous student submissions in March 2024. One of the pieces voiced concerns over the resignation of a student adviser who was allegedly bullied into stepping down, and the other accused an administrator of robbing a campus food pantry.
IAIA demanded McNicholas retract the submissions in the magazine and issue a public apology to the administrators he offended.
The school also barred McNicholas from full campus participation, including living in a dorm.
FIRE Program Officer Jessie Appleby said in a Jan. 2 letter to the school that the submissions McNicholas published do not meet the legal standards for defamation or harassment and are protected by the First Amendment. Appleby asked IAIA to drop its sanctions against McNicholas and revise its anti-bullying policy, which IAIA's attorney, Patricia Salazar Ives, later said the school would do as part of its annual review.
McNicholas said Wednesday he is living out of his car and is hopeful FIRE's efforts will prevail "not just in reversing the sanctions, but in forcing the school and the administration to be accountable to the Constitution and to the needs of students."
McNicholas said if the nonprofit decides to litigate, "I'll be right there."
IAIA spokesperson Jason Ordaz said the school does not discuss or comment on student matters.
The anonymous student op-ed McNicholas published urged students to speak up against the IAIA administration when officials, including IAIA Student Success Advisor Karen Redeye, "have no choice but to leave," according to the op-ed, which was cited in a FIRE letter. The op-ed accused Redeye's supervisors of bullying Redeye.
The second anonymous submission contained an image of a flyer that read, "Karen Redeye keeps pantries full(.) Redeye Redemption(.)"
The submission also accused one of Redeye's supervisors of robbing a campus food pantry.
McNicholas defended his decisions by saying that Young Warrior student magazine is a new publication that is short-staffed. At the time the submissions were published, he said he was the only regular staffer.
"I think the problem is that it takes more than the judgment and efforts of one person to adequately represent newsworthy items," McNicholas said.
If he had more staff, McNicholas said he would have liked to get differing views to balance out the piece.
"But I don't think we could have done it any differently at the moment," he said.
