The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) is pleased to announce the launch of the Campus Transparency Fellowship, a new program to support collegiate journalists working to produce high-quality investigative journalism at their respective colleges and universities.
The Fellowship’s initial class of 18 student journalists will spend the 2025-26 academic year reporting on important issues on their college campuses, including identity-based and viewpoint discrimination, curricular malpractice, unjust campus discipline and administrative overreach. Fellows will be encouraged to publish one in-depth investigative story monthly as part of their commitment to the program.
As part of the program, Fellows will also learn investigative reporting skills and receive training from journalists and policy experts through participating in two in-person retreats, workshops and biweekly calls. The Fellowship’s summer retreat took place in Annapolis, Maryland, from August 15 to 17.
Ryan Wolfe, director of the Center for Excellence in Journalism at TFAS, said the new Fellowship will empower student journalists to uncover underreported stories and promote open discourse on campus.
“We’re excited to launch the Campus Transparency Fellowship and continue TFAS’s support of student journalists at colleges and universities across the country,” said Wolfe. “Through their investigative reporting, this impressive class of Fellows will break important news, shed light on underreported issues, and promote a healthier, more open discourse on campus, all while helping to increase national awareness of what’s happening at America’s colleges.”
The 2025-26 Campus Transparency Fellows are:
- Jeb Allen of Amherst College
- Eric Arabadzhiev of Yale University
- Shoshana Aufzien of Columbia University-Barnard College
- Rocco Barbusca of the University of Florida
- Sherman Criner of Duke University
- Sam Davis of the University of Chicago
- Ashley Dowdney ’24 of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- James Eustis ’25 of Washington and Lee University
- Becky Flanagan of New York University
- Elsa Johnson of Stanford University
- Alex Levin of Tufts University
- Ben Marcus of Brown University
- Peter McHugh ’24 of the University of Virginia
- Benjamin Rothove ’25 of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Christina Sher of Northwestern University
- Aneesh Swaminathan of Johns Hopkins University
- Max Whalen ’24 of Cornell University
- Kendall White ’25 of Pomona College
The Campus Transparency Fellowship continues to build on the success of the TFAS Center for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ). CEJ programs like the Rago Fellowship, Novak Fellowship, Student Journalism Association and Media Accelerator Fellowship are providing world-class training and career opportunities for the next generation of young journalists. Several current Campus Transparency Fellows have previously been involved in the Student Journalism Association through writing for their campus papers.