The University of New Hampshire earns FIRE’s top rating for free speech
New Hampshire’s flagship public research university has become the fortieth institution in the country to earn the highest rating for free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
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Category: Newsdesk, Press Releases Schools: University of New Hampshire
By censoring art, University of Southern Maine misses an opportunity
Last month, the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn campus removed three oil paintings from their Atrium Art Gallery by local painter Bruce Habowski, despite objections from the exhibition’s curator, after it was discovered that Habowski is a convicted sex offender.
Habowski, of Waterville, Maine, was convicted of unlawful sexual contact in 1999. He was sentenced to 4 years in jail, but served a suspended sentence of 6 months. Habowski’s art was part of an exhibition featuring pieces that highlighted Maine’s industrial landscape.
The exhibition’s curator, Janice Moore, says the paintings were removed after a family member of Habowski’s victim called [...] » Read More
Category: Newsdesk, Top Story Schools: University of Southern Maine
2018 FIRE Faculty Conference: Apply now!
FIRE is excited to announce that the general application process to attend our 2018 faculty conference is now open! We will be accepting applications on a rolling basis through July 31. Space is limited; apply early to secure a spot!
The 2018 faculty conference will take place from Oct. 11–13 in Chicago, at Loyola University Chicago’s downtown Water Tower campus, with accommodations at the nearby Omni Hotel.
As with last year’s faculty conference, our goal for the meeting in Chicago is to bring together faculty from a range of disciplines and institutions, who have a [...] » Read More
Cornell professors: ‘No viable alternative’ to free speech on campus
Author Cynthia Meyersburg is a psychology research fellow with FIRE’s ongoing Speech, Outreach, Advocacy, and Research (SOAR) project. She has a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University.
This month, Inside Higher Ed published an opinion piece by Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci with a message that resonates with me: “[T]here really is no viable alternative to allowing free speech on college campuses.”
Williams and Ceci, both psychology professors at Cornell University, are among the best known and most respected researchers in psychological science. Williams’ work, both her research on intelligence, and her national [...] » Read More
Category: Newsdesk, Top Story
Schools: Cornell University
Lewis and Clark Law School faculty make statement on free speech
Last month, the faculty of Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, voted unanimously to endorse a statement on free speech. The statement reaffirms the law school’s commitment to free expression and robust debate as essential elements of a quality legal education. Endorsing the marketplace of ideas, the statement encourages community members to counter offensive or hateful speech with more speech. The statement advises:
Such views may be confronted with civil engagement and alternative speech, or ignored as unworthy of engagement, but they cannot be subject to attempted disruption or silencing.
The faculty statement simultaneously commits the institution to [...] » Read More
Category: Newsdesk, Top Story Schools: Lewis & Clark College
College Republicans event featuring Israeli reservists disrupted at UC Irvine
Last Thursday, protesters at the University of California, Irvine disrupted a panel discussion featuring members of the Israeli organization Reservists on Duty that was hosted by the university’s College Republicans chapter.
The event, which featured members of the Israel Defense Forces, was running as planned through the first 40 minutes before a group of protesters trickled in. After taking seats in the nearly-full classroom, the protest began when one of the people who had just sat down interrupted the speaker to ask, “You guys talking about how it’s cool to shoot the kids at the Gaza border?” As the moderator [...] » Read More
Category: Newsdesk, Top Story Schools: University of California, Irvine
Syracuse University threatens to expel students for satirical fraternity ‘roast’; fires professor who defended free speech
SYRACUSE, N.Y., May 7, 2018 — A Syracuse University engineering fraternity has been dismantled and its members face possible expulsion after videos of a satirical “roast” leaked from a private Facebook page last month. An adjunct professor who questioned the university’s response to the incident was also dismissed. On Friday, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education wrote to Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud to demand that Syracuse respect student and faculty expressive rights and drop the investigation.
The roast, an event at which new members were invited to lampoon other fraternity members, consisted of several recorded skits. One » Read More
Category: Newsdesk, Press Releases
Schools: Syracuse University
Cases: Syracuse University: Students threatened with expulsion for satirical fraternity ‘roast’; fires professor who defended free speech
FIRE’s 2018 West Coast Regional Conference inspires students
Nearly 50 students from across the country traveled to Los Angeles on Saturday for FIRE’s West Coast Regional Conference, a one-day event held at University of California, Los Angeles. At the conference, students learned how to identify censorship on campus, networked and collaborated with their peers, and received tools and tips necessary for protecting and defending their right to free expression.
FIRE Staff Attorney Brynne Madway kicked off the conference with a session aimed at helping students tackle common arguments used to stifle freedom of expression. Later, conference attendees learned from Senior Program Officer and Investigative Reporter Adam Steinbaugh, [...] » Read More
Announcing FIRE’s 2018 Summer Conference
FIRE is thrilled to announce our 11th FIRE Student Network Summer Conference. It will take place this year from July 20–22, in Philadelphia.
FIRE’s yearly conference is a weekend-long, intensive workshop designed to teach students about their rights on campus — and provide the tools to assert and defend them. Our conference brings together college students from around the country and across the ideological spectrum who share a passion for free speech and due process.
In addition to our two keynote speakers, whom we will announce soon, the 2018 FSN conference will feature dynamic and thought-provoking workshops led by » Read More
So to Speak podcast: ‘Lust on Trial’ with Amy Werbel
Anthony Comstock is a name that has become synonymous with censorship in America.
In 1873, he founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, and his career led to the confiscation or incineration of more than 3 million pieces of allegedly “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” material.
On this episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, we speak with Fashion Institute of Technology Professor Amy Werbel about her new book, “Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of Anthony Comstock,” and the legacy of Comstock’s “Comstockery.”
You can subscribe and [...] » Read More
Category: Newsdesk, So To Speak, Top Story
