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On September 13, 2024, the University of Texas at Dallas’s Student Media Oversight Board voted 3-1 to remove the editor-in-chief of The Mercury, UT Dallas’s student newspaper. The move came after months of tension over the paper’s coverage of pro-Palestinian encampments. Administrators blocked the editor’s appeals in violation of SMOB bylaws, and The Mercury’s staff went on strike in response. On November 12, 2024, FIREand the Student Press Law Center wrote to the university, demanding it restore editorial freedom to The Mercury and reinstate the editor-in-chief. When the university did not respond, The Mercury’s staff launched The Retrograde, an independent publication. In April 2025, UT Dallas barred FIREstaff from addressing students at a Retrograde event, citing the group’s lack of recognition.

In August 2025, administrators banned all 43 of the paper’s newsracks from campus. ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½ condemned the move as unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and worked with students to stage a newspaper distribution event. FIREcontinues to stand with The Retrograde against UT Dallas’s escalating campaign of censorship and calls for the full restoration of press freedom on campus.