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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, ÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥ and 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 ÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥ staff 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. ÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥ condemned the move as unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and worked with students to stage a newspaper distribution event. ÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥ continues to stand with The Retrograde against UT Dallas’s escalating campaign of censorship and calls for the full restoration of press freedom on campus.