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Student Spotlight: Best of 2012

FIRE's Student Spotlight series highlights campus activists who are working to promote student rights at their schools. To kick off 2013, we would like to recognize four students who made significant strides for free speech on their campuses in 2012. Hopefully, their stellar examples will inspire more students than ever to get involved in free speech efforts this year:

Chris Morbitzer '12, University of Cincinnati

With help from FIRE, Chris Morbitzer and his student group, the University of Cincinnati chapter of Young Americans for Liberty, took their university's unconstitutional free speech zone to federal court in 2012—and won decisively.

David Deerson '13, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

After former FIRE intern David Deerson and his campus group drew national attention to UNC's free speech issues during Constitution Week 2012, they got some welcome news: UNC substantially revised its problematic policies to improve from a "red light" to a "yellow light" rating. David plans to keep up his efforts until UNC is a "green light" institution.

Morgan Freeman, Sam Houston State University

In 2012, SHSU student Morgan Freeman found herself in the middle of a national free speech controversy when a professor at Sam Houston State censored her group's free speech wall with a box cutter.

Alex McHugh '14, American University

Alex McHugh planned several collaborative campus events, including two successful free speech walls, to encourage discussion about free speech at American University.

You can read these students' full stories and more interviews with successful free speech activists on our Student Spotlight page. Check back on The Torch for more student spotlights in 2013, and join me in congratulating Chris, David, Morgan, and Alex!

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