Texas State University officials ordered staff to pull paid campaign advertisements for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa from The University Star's campus newsstands, igniting a First Amendment clash with free-speech advocates who call the move censorship of an independent student newsroom. The removal, which began October 23 and was completed October 28, has drawn formal objections from two national press-freedom watchdogs demanding the posters go back up.
A Paid Ad, a Pulled Poster, a Policy Fight
According to the San Antonio Current, Hinojosa purchased advertising space in The University Star, an independent student newspaper, and Texas State officials said running the ad violated the university's ban on electioneering inside campus buildings. The Student Press Law Center reports that the university directed staff to begin turning around and then removing the Star's paid political advertisements starting October 23, with the posters fully taken down by October 28, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
The University Star disputes that its ads ran afoul of any rule, pointing out that the policy Texas State cited says candidates may not post signs or electioneer inside university buildings — language the paper and the Student Press Law Center argue was never meant to cover a student publication. As the newspaper's reporting lays out, the Student Press Law Center noted that the Star is not a candidate, and nothing in the policy mentions student publications. Texas State Executive Vice President Eric Algoe countered that the university recognizes and supports the editorial independence of student media, but that physical displays on campus remain subject to university policies.
Ads Named Their Funder — and Still Came Down
The Star had consulted free-speech experts about whether the advertisement violated school policy before the posters were pulled, and the paper notes the ads all clearly stated they were paid for by the Gina Hinojosa campaign and were not an endorsement from the newsroom itself. That distinction matters financially: the Star earns its advertising revenue through Flytedesk, and for every day the contracted ads are not posted, the newspaper cannot collect that revenue, the publication reported.
FIRE's student press counsel, Marie McMullen, said the university had no right to interfere with the Star's advertising choices or its advertising revenue, according to the Current. McMullen also said removing the advertisements harmed both the newspaper's revenue and its expressive rights, and she urged Texas State to restore the signs to its news racks. FIRE's Student Press Freedom Initiative formally wrote to Texas State on October 29 urging the university to restore the posters, and the Student Press Law Center separately called on the university to reverse course, saying the removal conflicted with the university's own policies and student press protections.
Other Campuses Let Similar Ads Stand
Hinojosa's campaign purchased advertisements through the same college media buyer at four other Texas public universities — UT El Paso, Texas A&M, the University of Houston and UT Dallas — and, per The University Star's own reporting, those schools let the ads run without issue. At Texas A&M, student paper The Battalion began accepting and posting Hinojosa's ads on August 25 through a national advertising service for college media, stating that the political advertisements did not reflect the views of its staff or the university. The Battalion said it planned to take all political ads down on October 1, when Texas A&M became an early voting site — a different timeline and rationale than the one Texas State cited for the Star.
FIRE frames the Texas State dispute as part of a broader pattern at the school. The organization points to Idris Robinson and Thomas Alter, two faculty members who sued Texas State separately in 2026 after being fired, alleging their terminations stemmed from political beliefs expressed off campus. As FIRE put it, Robinson is not even the only faculty member currently suing Texas State for violating their First Amendment rights. FIRE had also previously joined the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Student Press Law Center in urging the university to reject threats by its student body president to defund the Star, according to a separate FIRE report.
Watchdog Rankings and What Comes Next
FIRE ranked Texas State third worst in the nation for free speech earlier in 2026, then named it the nation's worst college for free speech in its 2027 College Free Speech Report. FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff said the state of free speech on campus is grim and urged colleges to embrace their constitutional obligations, per the Current's reporting.
Texas State's own student media policy designates The University Star as a public forum, with student staff responsible for its news, advertising and editorial content, and states that student media will have freedom of press and speech without prior restraint as guaranteed by the First Amendment, according to Texas State University policy. Whether the ad removal ultimately amounts to a First Amendment violation remains contested: university officials maintain the ads broke electioneering rules, while the Star, FIRE and the Student Press Law Center argue the action conflicts with the school's own student-press protections. FIRE has warned that the move could chill the Star from accepting and publishing political advertisements in the future, saying Texas State cannot hide behind its own policies to commit a violation of the newspaper's First Amendment rights.
