Highlights and Lowlights for Campus Rights in 2014
For reasons both good and ill, 2014 will enter the history books as a major year for free speech, due process, and individual rights at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE won more meaningful victories for student and faculty rights than ever before and even published a book, Freedom From Speech, addressing new attacks on campus freedom and their causes. But opponents of those rights also found powerful new allies in the federal Departments of Education and Justice, driven by the explosive issue of sexual assault on campus.
» Read More
Category: Press Releases
Cases: FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project
IRA Charitable Rollover Extended Through 2014
Last week President Obama signed a bill that extended the IRA charitable rollover until December 31, 2014. This tax break allows anyone 70.5 years or older to distribute up to $100,000 directly from their IRA to a qualified charity of their choice without paying income tax on the withdraw amount. This is an excellent tax incentive that allows you to support the causes most important to you while receiving substantial tax savings. If you would like to donate an IRA withdraw to FIRE, please contact your IRA administrator right away, or call or email Alisha Glennon, FIRE’s Vice President of Development, at 215-717-3473 or alisha@thefire.org. Don’t forget, this tax break expires in three days!
» Read More
Category: The Torch
Stand Up For Speech Plaintiffs Celebrated in ‘Honolulu Star-Advertiser’
Last Friday, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser celebrated Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone, the successful student-plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the University of Hawaii at Hilo, part of FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project.
» Read More
Category: The Torch
Schools: University of Hawaii at Hilo
Cases: University of Hawaii at Hilo – Speech Code Litigation
Five Reasons You Should Support FIRE in 2014
1. We get results.
As a donor, you want to know that your contributions are making a difference and advancing a meaningful mission. At FIRE, we pride ourselves on the fact that our programs are results-driven and have a measurable impact on campus. The numbers speak for themselves.
Category: The Torch
U. of Illinois Committee Recommends Reevaluation of Steven Salaita
The Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure (CAFT) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has released a report assessing the university’s decision not to hire professor Steven Salaita because of a series of tweets he posted to his personal Twitter account just before the university’s board of trustees was set to vote on his appointment to the faculty. CAFT is part of the university Senate and is tasked with investigating potential violations of academic freedom and shared governance. Most critically, CAFT reaffirmed in its report that, contrary to statements from Chancellor Phyllis Wise, “civility does not constitute a legitimate criterion for rejecting [Salaita’s] appointment.”
» Read More
Category: The Torch Schools: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Speech Codes of the Year: 2014
Each month, FIRE singles out a particularly reprehensible campus speech code for our Speech Code of the Month designation. While all of 2014’s Speech Codes of the Month flagrantly violated students’ or faculty members’ right to free expression, two of them were so egregious that they deserve special mention as 2014’s Speech Codes of the Year.
» Read More
Category: Speech Code of the Month Schools: University of Richmond Pennsylvania State University – University Park
Kaminer: Students Seeking Censorship Might ‘Feel Right at Home in North Korea’
When it comes to tolerance for critical ideas, attorney, author, and FIRE Board of Advisors member Wendy Kaminer argues that today’s college students are in the same league as North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
Writing for Cognoscenti, Kaminer takes stock of a depressing number of recent requests for campus censorship from students and draws a parallel with the North Korean Supreme Leader’s notoriously thin-skinned approach to expression he doesn’t like.
» Read More
Category: The Torch
Tenured Prof Sues Marywood U. for Ignoring Its Own Policies to Fire Him
Frederick Fagal, formerly a tenured professor at Marywood University in Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit against the university in federal court last week alleging that it suspended him and then terminated his employment without following its own written procedures.
» Read More
Category: The Torch
Town’s Mayor Tries to Fine Wesleyan University for Student Speech
Cases where university administrators charge students activists unconstitutional security fees are not at all new to FIRE. But Mayor Dan Drew of Middletown, Connecticut, has put a new spin on the idea, sending an invoice to Wesleyan University for the police presence at an off-campus protest that Wesleyan students organized and in which they participated.
» Read More
Category: The Torch Schools: Wesleyan University
Bill Maher Delivers Commencement Speech Without Censorship
Bill Maher spoke at the University of California, Berkeley’s winter graduation ceremony on Saturday following months of demands that the university disinvite Maher because of his controversial statements about Islam. Thankfully, the UC Berkeley administration steadfastly resisted those demands, even releasing statements explaining why the university’s commitment to freedom of expression required it to allow Maher to speak.
» Read More
Category: The Torch
Schools: University of California, Berkeley
Cases: Nationwide: Colleges Across the Country Disinvite Commencement Speakers

