FIRE, in partnership with New York University’s First Amendment Watch, developed a series of free-to-use modules, videos, and other resources for colleges and universities to use when teaching incoming students about their free speech rights and the principles behind the First Amendment.
If you are an administrator in the field of student affairs or first-year experience and are interested in adopting the orientation program — or if you are a faculty member looking to use our materials in class — check out our FAQ on adopting the materials and reach out to us at orientation@thefire.org. FIRE and First Amendment Watch are more than happy to talk through how to best implement this program on your campus and adapt the materials to your needs!
These lessons are geared toward universities looking for resources to include in first-year experience programming or university web pages explaining student rights. Each video lesson has a corresponding written lesson for in-person administration and additional resources and activities to help students learn how to use their voices.
This module covers topics such as viewpoint neutrality in administrative decision-making, freedom of association for student groups, counter protests, and other methods of dissent.
With the help of Nadine Strossen, former president of the ACLU, learn ways to respond to offensive speech, why the First Amendment protects “hate speech,” and when offensive speech loses protections.
This module teaches students the value of meeting others with different opinions and backgrounds, as well as how to talk across differences to become more inquisitive and confident in their own knowledge.
Introduce students to how activists throughout history laid the groundwork for today’s robust protections for student speech. This module empowers students to be active participants in their university community.
This module covers the importance of academic freedom, the rights of faculty, how students can handle disagreements with their professors, and lays out the framework for a faculty-led panel on academic freedom.
This module defines and provides examples of harassment, true threats, intimidation, and other unlawful conduct. Teach students to more accurately gauge when speech may be impermissible or violate others’ rights.
By examining the role of free expression in the pursuit of knowledge and the legitimacy of government, as well as the harms of censorship, students will gain an understanding of the philosophy behind the First Amendment.
This module is designed with an eye toward student newspaper onboarding and priming incoming journalism students about their basic rights and how to navigate speech-related issues they may face.
Introduce students to how the First Amendment applies to online speech, as well as how to respond productively to speech they find distasteful without resorting to calls for censorship.
This FAQ provides the basic information incoming students need to know about how the First Amendment applies to speech on campus.
Assigned readings with a strong emphasis on the value of free expression and the follies of censorship can go a long way in preparing incoming students to be intellectually curious when they arrive on campus.
This playlist contains all of the video versions of FIRE and First Amendment Watch’s First-Year Experience lessons. The video lessons are geared towards universities looking for resources to include in digital orientation programming or university web pages explaining student rights.
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