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Given that they paid the printing costs, I guess it's up to them if they want to control it like that.

Students paid the printing costs (or, on students' behalf: their parents, taxpayers, or private donors).

This is essentially the same argument as "You can't arrest me — I'm the one who pays you." It's facile and will not get you far in the real world.

"You can't arrest me, I pay you" is facile in the legal context of individual rights vs. the common good. This is, in fact, the opposite - suppressing the common good (loosely, freedom of the press) for individual gain. I don't see how it's "essentially the same argument" at all.

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