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FIRE Letter to Iowa State University Executive Vice President and Provost Elizabeth Hoffman, July 29, 2011

July 29, 2011

Elizabeth Hoffman
Executive Vice President and Provost
Iowa State University
1550 Beardshear Hall
Ames, Iowa 50011

Dear Provost Hoffman:

It was wonderful to share with you in the planting of the Liberty Tree on First Amendment Day this spring at Iowa State University. In particular, I appreciated your comments about the importance of free expression in your own professional life.

I am enclosing a copy of the memo that we have sent to University Counsel Paul Tanaka regarding four policies that unduly restrict the speech of students at Iowa State University. I mentioned these policies in my talk on campus on First Amendment Day, and my colleague Ari Cohn has spelled out the details.

FIRE has had very good success working cooperatively with universities to bring their policies on campus speech fully in line with the U.S. Constitution. Most recently, we have given effusive praise to the University of Virginia and Arizona State University for revising their unconstitutional policies, and we would love to be able to do the same for Iowa State University.

I also am enclosing our handbook for administrators, Correcting Common Mistakes in Campus Speech Policies. Please feel free to contact me for further information. I hope to hear from you later this summer.

Best regards,

Adam Kissel
Vice President of Programs

Enclosures

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