2025 Free Expression Awards

Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media

A student-run newspaper providing a vital public service to the community

The Independent Florida Alligator has been serving the University of Florida and its surrounding community through groundbreaking reporting since its founding in 1906.

As local news outlets decline across the country, college newspapers like The Alligator are stepping up to report on their communities and provide coverage on critical issues that otherwise might not be exposed.

The Alligator’s enterprise reporting found low-income families struggled to get bus service for schoolchildren and raised questions about the county’s composting firm. The Alligator covers campus news in English and Spanish, plus city and state politics, schools, the county commission and criminal justice. The staff has reported on Florida policies about academic freedom, campus protests and K-12 education. The Alligator in August 2024 broke a story about the university’s recently resigned president that spurred a state government financial investigation.

One of the nation’s largest student-run and editorially independent newspapers, The Alligator became independent of the University of Florida in the early 1970s following press freedom disputes over controversial reporting and editorials about communism, student privacy and abortion information. Today, a weekly print edition and daily digital content are published by Campus Communications Inc., a student-run 501(c)3 nonprofit funded through donations and advertising.

The Alligator’s work has been recognized by the Associated Collegiate Press, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Hearst Journalism Awards Program. And it was recognized last year by Press Forward, a national foundation of journalism leaders, for its work strengthening its community through local news. Many Alligator alumni have become award-winning journalists.