Is IC's New Media Policy Censorship?

I closed my laptop, dumbfounded at the email I had just read. Effective immediately, Ithaca College changed their media policy for student media on campus. A list of 84 faculty members now must be contacted via the media relations department, specifically David Maley, if a reporter would like an interview with them involving Ithaca College or their policies. In an email, President Tom Rochon said:

"Note that this policy is strictly limited to the administrators listed here AND to instances where you want to interview them about IC policies or college developments.  The procedure for speaking with all faculty, all students, all third parties and all staff not listed in this document is unchanged -- you simply contact them. The procedure for speaking with anyone on this list about any topic not related to IC policies or college developments is also unchanged -- simply contact us."

This is the first problem I have with this new policy. One of the reasonings for the change is to not distract faculty bombarded with requests from their work. Yet, they specify the type of requests that have to go through Media Relations and which ones do not. Journalists are supposed to be the watchdogs to their government. Bringing the scale down to the college level, shouldn't we student journalists then be acting as the watchdogs for the college and its administration?

This reminds me of the CNN/war general controversy we discussed in class. CNN boasted they spoke directly with the White House and got all of their sources for commentary on the war approved by the governemnt. CNN was under direct fire by many journalists, especially those in the independent media field, because the government could coach the sources on exactly the perspective on the war they wanted spread to the masses. Isn't this exactly what can happen now when sourcing must go through the media relations department? Why else would interviews involving IC policies be the only interviews they care about setting up? All other interview requests that do not have to do with Ithaca College policies can go directly to the administrator without the middle man. Is this a form of censorship?

President Rochon continued in the email to say this would not effect the quality of student reporting.

"It is explicitly NOT the intention of this policy to limit access to IC administrators, to prevent you from pursuing certain stories, or to cause an unwarranted time delay in completing your interviews. The practice of working through Media Relations is long established at IC for all independent media external to the college, and it works well.  In applying this policy also to media affiliated with IC (in the varying extent each of you are), we are simply applying a common professional standard and procedure on media access generally." 

Problem No.2: We are taught in all of our journalism classes that news is 24/7. Even in this Independent Media class, we are always talking about timeliness and the importence of putting news and spreading ideas on the internet-- the great part of the web being the instantanious aspect of it. But according to the policy, there must be at least 24 hours notice for any type of commentary. Doesn't this then inhibit our abilities to be professional journalists and thrive in an age of instant news?

To me, I see this policy as a setback for student journalists initiated by our school-- a school that is supposed to be extremely supportive of media and the fourth estate it represents. To me it seems that Ithaca College wants us to be critical reporters, just not critical of the college itself or its policies.