Due Process
On March 7, 2022, Oklahoma Christian University fired tenured professor Michael O’Keefe without due process based on a guest speaker’s presentation to O’Keefe’s class, which included the speaker telling a story about peer pressure involving the phrase “truth or dick,” as well as on allegations that O’Keefe told students not to complain about the speaker.... Read more Read more
On April 1, 2022, the University of Southern California held “The Black Men Will Summit,” an event aimed at addressing “the lack of restorative and healing spaces for Black male identified students at USC and in the larger community.” The event was initially described as “a space for all students who identify as Black men... Read more Read more
On February 14, 2022, Concordia University Wisconsin professor Gregory Schulz wrote an opinion article criticizing the university for “coming under the influence of Woke-ism.” Four days later, CUW suspended Schulz, banned him from campus, and prohibited him from contacting other members of the CUW community. FIRE wrote to CUW on March 4, explaining the university... Read more Read more
As part of its “Forum on White Supremacy and Global Colonization,” Elizabethtown College scheduled a three-part event, “Mediocre + Multimedia Content,” in October and November 2021. The college limited attendance at the event to “participants who identify as individuals of color.” FIRE wrote to the college on October 11, calling on the administration to remove... Read more Read more
On June 10, 2020, the Victim Rights Law Center, Equal Rights Advocates, Legal Voice, and Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation challenged the 2020 Title IX regulations as arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. FIRE, joined by Speech First and the Independent Women’s Law Center moved to intervene as defendants. After the U.S. District... Read more Read more
On July 19, 2021, FIRE, joined by Speech First and the Independent Women’s Law Center, petitioned the Supreme Court for certiorari to review the First Circuit’s ruling affirming denial of our motion to intervene and resolve a circuit split on the proper standard for intervening in a lawsuit alongside the government. Under Federal Rule of... Read more Read more
On March 29, 2021, Linfield University professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner posted a Twitter thread criticizing the university for allegedly mishandling sexual abuse allegations. Pollack-Pelzner also accused Linfield president Miles K. Davis of making anti-Semitic remarks, which Davis denied. On April 27, Linfield abruptly fired Pollack-Pelzner, a tenured professor, without due process, citing “false public accusations that... Read more Read more
On March 30, 2021, FIRE and the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote to Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine amid reports the school had accused approximately 20 students of academic misconduct, urging the medical school to be cautious in evaluating the logs allegedly indicating that students had accessed materials during their exams. Students complained publicly —... Read more Read more
On January 28, 2021, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania informed members of its Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) community that “any future significant violation of Greek specific rules or Code of Conduct violations will result in the cancelation of the entire [Fraternity and Sorority Life] community at Bloomsburg” and banned them “from affiliating with derecognized groups.”... Read more Read more
On June 6, 2020, a coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit challenging the Department of Education’s Title IX regulations in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On June 25, FIRE, joined by Independent Women’s Law Center and Speech First, moved to intervene as defendants, which was... Read more Read more