New ‘FIRE Quarterly’ Available

By admin August 20, 2008

The summer issue of our newsletter, The FIRE Quarterly, is now available here. This edition focuses on highlighting FIRE’s recent cases at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, Tarrant County College, Harvard University, and Lake Superior State University. We also provide you with a recap of the 2008 Campus Freedom Network Conference, when over 40 college students from across the country came to Philadelphia to learn about defending their rights on campus.

FIRE’s co-founder and chairman Harvey Silverglate provided this issue’s "From the Board of Directors" article and discussed that while FIRE has been successful "in winning an overwhelming number of individual clashes with the campus totalitarians," the culture of censorship on college campuses is much harder to change. He writes:

[T]he enemies of academic freedom and due process almost always cave in when FIRE exposes them, but they don’t really change their minds, nor do they deeply understand why their actions disserve higher education as well as liberty. This being so, we wonder how and when are we going to actually change these administrators’ (and all-too-many faculty members’) minds—thereby changing the culture.

The short answer is that we need to effect a radical transformation of the way college administrators see their roles.

FIRE’s achievements provide us with more opportunities to continue with our defense of and education about individual rights on campuses. For more on the continued successes and campaigns of FIRE, be sure to check out The FIRE Quarterly.

By Emily Guidry April 29, 2008

Spring is here, and so is our latest edition of The FIRE Quarterly! This newest issue focuses on highlighting the many FIRE victories that were achieved in recent months, including our cases at Valdosta State University, St. Louis Community College, University of Virginia, University of California, San Diego, University of Utah, Montclair State University, Florida State University, and Central Washington University.

In fact, FIRE’s work has been so effective lately that Greg’s new column in the Quarterly detailed this "Season of Victories" for our readers. But, as Greg pointed out, even with our growing accomplishments, FIRE’s work is far from complete:

[A]ll of these cases teach us that we must continue to expand our efforts to inform students and administrators about basic rights on campus. Abuses like those at Brandeis, IUPUI, and Delaware never should have happened in the first place. If administrators and students had been educated in the philosophy of liberty and taught the difference between protected speech and harassment, some of these shameful wrongs would have never taken place.

FIRE’s achievements provide us with more opportunities to continue with our defense of and education on individual rights on campuses. For more on the continued successes and campaigns of FIRE, check out The FIRE Quarterly, available here.