These rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of consciencethe essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. Foundation For Individual Rights in Education filed a lobbying registration on April 13, 2012 for in-house lobbying efforts, effective March 1, 2012. On October 20 at a Bard College conference, PEN executive director Suzanne Nossel will have an opportunity to question FIRE President Greg Lukianoff, the crusades most prominent national leader, about that overreaching. And lets hope that theyll ask Lukianoff to explain his funding, premises, and the pattern and practice of his propaganda and provocations and omissions, which surround and often undermine his groups legitimate complaints. [15], In June 2022, FIRE announced it was expanding its efforts beyond college campuses, to American society in general. 02/22/23 12:31 PM EST, Video & Audio As of August 2020, SPN's membership totals 162. Earlier this month, ADF launched a March Madness-like Bracket of Shame ranking colleges and universities based on their so-called free speech records. The project uses articles from our friends at FIRE, Campus Reform, College Fix, and others to inform the bracket. Demonstrators hold signs as they stage a protest on the steps of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus on March 08, 2022 in Berkeley, California. The College Fix is a conservative blog featuring posts from college student reporters about higher-education news. Articles from The College Fix have been cited on Breitbart.com and on Fox News, fueling claims of liberal bias on college campuses with little factual evidence. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education uses 20 technology products and services including HTML5 , jQuery , and Google Analytics, according to G2 Stack. Other students praised Hindley's pedagogical approach as encouraging "students to face racist narratives head on" and that any disagreement "is a dispute for students and faculty to solve through rational dialogue, not one for the administration to settle in secret inquisitions. The voices that think of free speech as a dirty word on campus or on Twitter are actually a pretty small minority.. FIRE, by contrast, raised under $16 million in its last fiscal year. [1] +. [80] Wallace's diploma was initially put on hold for the email, prompting FIRE to contact Stanford in his defense. The groups funding connections amount to an almost encyclopedic list of conservative organizations, the vast majority with ties to the Koch network of organizations. "[2] The Times also referred to FIRE as a "familiar irritant to college administrators" and said FIRE "bristles at the right-wing tag often applied to them". It detailed a $75 million expansion plan over three years to focus on "litigation, public education, and research," with $10 million for a nationwide advertising campaign. [19][20][21] Nico Perrino is executive vice president. | Indivisible", "So to Speak podcast: Matt Taibbi, Nadine Strossen, and Amna Khalid respond to 'On the Media' free speech critiques", "Podcast: Discussing Free Speech on "So to Speak", "Samuel Goldwyn Films Acquires Docu, Asks 'Can We Take A Joke? The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is an organization whose work concerns university students and faculty members the organization considers to have been discriminated against by administrators and the government while promoting values such as free speech, academic freedom, and due process. College campuses have long served as unique places for the free exchange of ideas -- but increasingly theyve also become playgrounds for ideologically driven, right-wing billionaires and the dark-money groups they fund. FIRE | Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Free Speech Makes Free People The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression's mission is to defend and sustain the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought the most essential qualities of liberty. Belgi (Nederlands) Such offenses often prompt not intimidation and silence but more speech, including criticism from liberals. Maybe the Bard conferees will have better luck. This beacon provides an assessment of a charity's financial health (financial efficiency, sustainability, and trustworthiness) and its commitment to governance practices and policies. Which funding types raised the most money? (One of FIREs biggest funders, the Bradley Foundation, even paid for billboards in black neighborhoods that depicted a black man behind bars and the words Voting Fraud is Felony, a not-so-veiled example of voter intimidation.). An investigation into these efforts by the Center for Public Integrity noted that the centers research on tax policies, deregulation, social programs, and health care is widely cited by Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity and increasingly used in congressional reports. [71] The criticism led to the resignation of Charlene Allen, Columbia's program coordinator for the Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Education, whose policies were at the center of the controversy. Romero, the ACLU chief, said Monday that he agrees free speech is under increasing attack in the U.S. and is pleased that FIRE is branching out. Lets hope that Bard conference-goers will have read the PEN report, the Times account of it, and my own analysis of What the Campus Free Speech Crusade Wont Say.. [79], In 2021, FIRE advocated on behalf of Stanford University student Nicholas Wallace, who satirized the Federalist Society and Republican political figures in an email to his peers. [101][102] That year, FIRE also released Mighty Ira, a documentary about Glasser. [46][45][47] In 2020, FIRE supported new rules made by the Department of Education during the Trump administration about sexual assault and harassment cases that required colleges to allow the cross-examination of accusers. Now a thorough, mostly well-balanced report by the PEN (Poets, Essayists, and Novelists) American Center confirms that the conservative free speech crusade has gone too far. Examples of bias on campus from this week include: a professor who reached out to a black student about an upcoming class that would focus on slavery and white nationalism; a school supporting an emergency fund for immigrant students; and a school hosting a seminar on pay inequity and salary negotiation for women students. Weve said it before: The greatest threat to democracy from the media isnt disinformation, its the paywall. This year, CPAC was embroiled in controversy for inviting -- and then rescinding the invitation of -- Milo Yiannopoulos, former Breitbart tech editor and serial harasser. Its leader, Kristan Hawkins, has also praised Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, another anti-LGBTQ hate group. Feb 25. Project Veritas is the nonprofit group associated with citizen journalist vigilante James OKeefe. Email: ROBERT@THEFIRE.ORG. [4] [5] [6] Founded in 1946 in New York City, FEE is now headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation (also operating as the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative) is a private philanthropic group within the billionaire DeVos familys network of conservative giving. This presence includes operating a national field program to educate and unite students around free market values and supporting 350 campus chapters and 750 like-minded student groups. Another project of Turning Point USA, Hypeline News, is a young-adult driven social news site that employs college-age writers and says its taking back the media. According to leaked messages from two Turning Point staffers obtained by the Ohio State University student newspaper The Lantern, the group may also be funding individual student government races. Do I believe bad actors are abusing this? Copyright 2023 | The American Prospect, Inc. | All Rights Reserved, The Alt-Labor Chronicles: Americas Worker Centers, The Conservatives Behind the Campus Free Speech Crusade, What the Campus Free Speech Crusade Wont Say. The PEN reports failure to note all this is perhaps its only major failing. FIRE aims to protect college students' First Amendment rights This paper presents the annual report of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for 2011. It has an annual budget of more than $48 million and a network of more than 3,000 allied attorneys involved in litigating so-called religious freedom cases and spreading dangerous lies about LGBTQ people. Chapters of SFLA have partnered with the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom on creating draft legislation for newly elected Republican legislatures in 2010. Rick DeVos (one of the children of Betsy DeVos and grandchildren of Richard and Helen DeVos) sits on the board of the Student Free Press Association -- a fact that The College Fix did not disclose in its supportive posts about DeVos until it was reported by Inside Higher Ed in February. [29] In April 2007, Jon B. Gould, an author and George Mason University faculty member, criticized FIRE's rating methods, claiming that FIRE had grossly exaggerated the prevalence of unconstitutional speech codes. Tel: 215-717-3473; Fax: 215-717-3440; e-mail: fire@thefire.org; Web site: http://www.thefire.org Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive Education Level: High Schools; Higher Education Audience: N/A Language: English Sponsor: N/A | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. An anonymous student-witness, quoted in the Brandeis Hoot,[74] called Hindley's remarks "inappropriate." [91], Since 2011, FIRE has published a list of the "worst colleges for free speech. 223 transactions on record as a recipient. It was founded and is funded by the Koch brothers; it is one of several centers and departments at George Mason that together received just under $80 million from Koch foundations from 2005 to 2014. Its been frustrating, he said, adding, Most of FIREs staff leans to the left politically.. FIRE aims to protect college students' First Amendment rights The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is an active anti-LGBTQ hate group that bills itself as a Christian legal organization. Those doctrines have themselves become dangerous to democracy via casino-style financing (Donald Trump, anyone? FIRE wrote a letter to the Temple administration hinting at the possibility of legal action. Never mind that, as FIRE keeps discoveringbut never invites us to ponderthe college trustees and deans whom it condemns rightly enough for restricting speech are serving not politically correct pieties, but market pressures to satisfy student customers and avoid negative publicity, liability, and losses in brand or market share.. Like FIRE on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheFIREorgFollow FIRE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheFIREorgDonate to FIRE: http://thefire.org/donateSubscribe . How a Stanford 3L got the last laugh against the Federalist Society", "Update: Law Student Who Made Fun of the Federalist Society Will Be Allowed to Graduate After All", "Emerson College targeted by ad campaign for suspending student group behind 'China Kinda Sus' stickers", "Right-wing student group suspended over 'anti-China' stickers", "Conservative student group blackballed by Massachusetts college for 'anti-China hate', "Turning Point Chapter Warned for Distributing China Stickers | Inside Higher Ed", "Ron DeSantis faces Florida lawsuit over anti-woke law", "Fourth lawsuit filed to challenge DeSantis' 'Stop WOKE Act', "A psychiatric facility punishes residents with painful electric shocks. Last month, I disclosed the conservative-movement funding, premises, strategy, and practices of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which purports to protect free speech on college campuses, but expends more energy blamingand chillingpolitically correct activists and administrators. FIRE took the side of the student. According to Brandeis's student press, Hindley was rumored to have used the epithet "wetback". Students for Liberty is largely funded by a network of anonymous conservative donors through DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, along with several Koch-affiliated groups. The ACLU faced internal upheaval in 2017 after its Virginia chapter provided legal assistance to white-nationalist groups seeking a permit to demonstrate in Charlottesville, Va. The video didnt make much of a splash.. [39] The school settled the lawsuit and agreed to revise its policies. [citation needed], Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Challenges to college residence life programs, Last edited on 26 February 2023, at 08:37, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "Once a Bastion of Free Speech, the A.C.L.U. Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression aims to defend the fundamental rights of college students and faculty members while creating favorable resolutions for individuals facing campus disciplinary actions and those negatively impacted by a culture of censorship within higher education. It has also frequently weighed in on sexual misconduct cases, arguing that the definition of sexual harassment should not include large amounts of constitutionally protected expression, such as any unwanted sexual comments, gestures, jokes, or looks, and defended campus organizations that use hateful rhetoric or seek to exclude potential group members based on sexual orientation. Student journalists, student media, and their advisors can contact FIRE's Student Press Freedom Initiative Hotline at 717-734-SPFI (7734). ), predatory lending, and ever more intrusive, degrading consumer marketing. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, is a non-profit civil liberties group founded in 1999 with the aim of protecting free speech rights on college campuses in the United States. The David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC) is an anti-Muslim hate group founded and run by extremist David Horowitz, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has called a driving force of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-black movements. DHFC says it combats the efforts of the radical left and its Islamist allies to destroy American values, and that it focuses this endeavor on our nations campuses, where the Freedom Center protects students from indoctrination and intimidation and works to give conservative students a place in the marketplace of ideas from which they are otherwise excluded. DHFC operates several projects, including an online outlet called FrontPage Magazine and DiscoverTheNetworks.com, a so-called Guide to the Political Left which largely claims to show connections between anybody on the left and the terrorists. DHFC has also launched anti-Muslim campus campaigns in recent years, including Stop the Jihad on Campus and Stop the Jew Hatred on Campus, and peppered campuses with offensive posters that sometimes cite individual students or professors by name and call them terrorists. The DHFC utilizes information from a dangerous doxxing website called Canary Mission -- which compiles information about individuals who support the BDS movement, including publishing photos of professors and students and links to social media profiles -- to inform its posters and campaigns.