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The Torch
September 5, 2008
As students head back to college, we encourage them to join FIRE's Campus Freedom Network (CFN) and take part in FIRE's newly launched CFN Incentive Program. When students recruit new members, publish op-eds about FIRE issues, or host FIRE speakers, they earn points and receive prizes including books, gift certificates, and FIRE promotional items. FIRE will induct students with the highest point totals into the CFN's elite Prometheus Society and guarantee them acceptance to the CFN's Summer Conference. The CFN member with the most points at the end of the fall semester will receive the choice of either a $2,500 college scholarship or a technology bundle including a 42" widescreen, flat-panel HDTV, a library of FIRE DVDs, a MacBook with a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a 13" screen, an 160GB iPod classic fully loaded with FIRE videos and podcast library, and an 8.0MP Canon PowerShot Digital Camera. The second place will receive the choice of the HDTV or the Macbook and the third place will receive the choice of the iPod or the digital camera. All benefits are available only to student CFN members. Sign up today!
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September 2, 2008
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for September 2008: Pennsylvania State University. Penn State's "Penn State Principles" require students to agree that "I will not engage in any behaviors that compromise or demean the dignity of individuals or groups, including intimidation, stalking, harassment, discrimination, taunting, ridiculing, insulting, or acts of violence." By maintaining this policy, Penn State—as a public university in the Third Circuit—is flouting two binding court decisions clearly holding that policies such as this one are unconstitutional on college campuses and even in public high schools.
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August 25, 2008
The 2009 edition of U.S. News and World Report's America's Best Colleges issue, released today, includes a full-page advertisement from FIRE highlighting the five colleges and universities that have earned FIRE's Red Alert distinction for being the "worst of the worst" when it comes to liberty on campus. Students should think twice before choosing to attend Red Alert schools, which include Brandeis University, Colorado College, Johns Hopkins University, Tufts University, and Valdosta State University.
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Read More About Colorado College: Students Found Guilty for Satirical Flyer »
Read More About Brandeis University: Professor Found Guilty of Harassment for Protected Speech »
Read More About Johns Hopkins University: Student Punished for Party Invitation »
Read More About Tufts University: Conservative Student Journal Investigated for Harassment »
Read More About Valdosta State University: Student Expelled for Peacefully Protesting Parking Garages » The Torch
August 20, 2008
The Brandeis University administration continues to maintain public silence about its unfair treatment of Donald Hindley, a beloved professor of nearly 50 years who had a monitor placed in his classroom after he critiqued the term "wetbacks" in class. President Jehuda Reinharz has never responded to FIRE's letters. Why have Brandeis's alumni chosen not to confront Reinharz and Provost Marty Krauss as the faculty and many students have done? While the faculty and the press (including national media and both student newspapers) have come to the defense of Hindley, where are notable trustees and alumni such as Mitch Albom, Sidney Blumenthal, Martin Peretz, Robert Zimmer, and Vartan Gregorian?
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Update: August 25, 2008, Read More About Brandeis University: Professor Found Guilty of Harassment for Protected Speech » The Torch
August 18, 2008
In an article published on InsideHigherEd.com today, Will Creeley, Samantha Harris, and Greg Lukianoff of FIRE explain why the Third Circuit reached the correct decision earlier this month in DeJohn v. Temple University. Arguing that critics of the decision fail to understand important aspects of the case, Creeley, Harris, and Lukianoff write that "the Third Circuit's clear pronouncement that the First Amendment rights of adult college students must not be abridged should be welcomed by public universities, not feared."
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Read More About Temple University: Speech Code Litigation » FIRE Update
August 15, 2008
President Bush signed the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act into law yesterday. Referred to by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as a bipartisan effort, the law affirms the importance of defending free speech and due process rights of college students across the nation. The law includes new, non-binding provisions stating that it is the sense of the Congress that "an institution of higher education should facilitate the free and open exchange of ideas" and that "students should not be intimidated, harassed, discouraged from speaking out, or discriminated against." In defense of due process, Congress added that college "students should be treated equally and fairly" and any student sanctions should be imposed "objectively and fairly." These strong words, though lacking the force of law, illustrate the public's unequivocal commitment to the core principles of free speech and due process that FIRE works to uphold on campus, and they should serve to remind universities of their obligation to live up to their unique and important role in society as the premier marketplace of ideas.
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August 13, 2008
"The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit just made hundreds of colleges wonder how long their restrictive speech codes can survive," begins a staff editorial assessing the significance of last week's ruling in the case of DeJohn vs. Temple University in today's issue of The Washington Times. The editorial goes on to assert that "[c]olleges and universities generally know the game is up." While we at FIRE have been working to dismantle oppressive and unconstitutional speech codes for nearly ten years and know that the policies won't go quickly or quietly, the DeJohn ruling is a major victory for free speech, and the Times rightly captures its significance when stating that universities "will have little plausible defense if they insist on speech codes as nebulous and facially unconstitutional as Temple's." FIRE-which submitted an amicus brief in support of the case in 2007 and whose research is mentioned in the editorial-is pleased to have such continued attention drawn to this important decision. Furthermore, the editorial cites the comprehensive efforts of FIRE' Spotlight in exposing the widespread speech code abuses at colleges and universities across the United States. FIRE thanks the Times for bringing attention to the DeJohn ruling and to FIRE's speech code efforts.
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Update: August 18, 2008, Read More About Temple University: Speech Code Litigation » Press Release
August 4, 2008
Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an opinion in DeJohn v. Temple University upholding a decision by a federal district court that Temple University’s former speech code is unconstitutional. Temple’s code prohibited, among other things, “generalized sexist remarks and behavior.” In September 2007, FIRE filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Third Circuit to uphold the lower court’s ruling.
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Update: August 18, 2008, Read More About Temple University: Speech Code Litigation » The Torch
August 4, 2008
In the current issue of The Boston Phoenix, FIRE Co-Founder and Board Chairman Harvey Silverglate decries the downfall of parody and satire as legitimate forms of expression on college campuses. Among the cases from the past twenty years discussed in the piece, titled "Parody Flunks Out," Harvey mentions FIRE's work defending the publishers of the conservative Tufts University newspaper The Primary Source, which was the subject of a harassment investigation following the publication of a satirical Christmas carol. Given the popularity of the satirical newspaper The Onion and television personalities Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert with the college crowd, Harvey notes the disconnect that students face today: "the political arts of parody and satire are, ironically, experiencing a renaissance among the young. But these parodies should come with a warning label to students: don't try this on campus."
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August 1, 2008
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for August 2008: Jackson State University in Mississippi. Jackson State's harassment policy provides, in relevant part, that "The scope of any form of harassment includes language to physical acts which degrades, insult, taunt, or challenges another person by any means of communication, verbal, so as to provoke a violent response, communication of threat, defamation of character, use of profanity, verbal assaults, derogatory comments or remarks, sexist remarks, racists remarks or any behavior that places another member of the University community in a state of fear or anxiety." This policy is so extraordinarily jumbled that it is impossible to tell exactly what is prohibited—a sure prescription for an unlawful chilling effect on campus speech. Moreover, although the full scope of the policy is impossible to discern, it is clear that much of what is prohibited is constitutionally protected expression. Jackson State's student handbook promises that "[a]s U.S. citizens, students enjoy the same freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and right of petition that other citizens enjoy." But under the university's current regulations, nothing could be farther from the truth.
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