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Evan Cree Gee has joined our staff as FIRE’s new Assistant to the Executive Director.

Evan graduated magna cum laude with high honors in political science from Ohio’s Kenyon College earlier this year, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, involved with various singing groups, campus government, and the Outdoors Club. He also wrote occasional opinion pieces on students rights for the Kenyon’s campus newspaper, The Kenyon Collegian.

Evan’s interest in the freedom of thought on college campuses began as a Kenyon freshman when his advisor recommended that he read Allan Bloom’s “The Closing of the American Mind.” As a senior, Evan wrote an honors thesis on Plato’s “Laches,” which he says led him to more fully understand the vital role that a climate of free expression plays in an educational context.

“I became very interested in liberal education generally,” Evan said of his time at Kenyon, a liberal arts college. “I saw what this type of education can do to your mind and your character.”

And while Evan said he had a “great experience” with the Kenyon faculty, he said he “definitely saw examples of non-academic and administrative staff making decisions that didn’t seem to demonstrate a concern for student or faculty rights as a top priority.”

“I realized that one of the greatest threats to the integrity of liberal education is the suppression of speech or expression,” he said. “If one of the aims of such an education is to prepare citizens to live in a liberal democracy, then campuses have a duty to provide their students with an environment that welcomes an open exchange of ideas.”

And that’s why Evan said he chose to join FIRE.

“FIRE is the organization doing the best work in preserving this type of environment on college campuses.”

“I want to learn everything I can about each of FIRE’s projects,” Evan said of his new role.

“I’m generally just thrilled to be here and to be on the front lines of all this important work.”

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