PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
by News Release
The Shadow University Celebrates Its Ten-Year Anniversary
October marks the ten-year anniversary of the publication of The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses, an examination of the erosion of liberty on American campuses co-authored by FIRE founders Alan Charles Kors and Harvey Silverglate. Public reaction to The Shadow University was the single most influential factor leading to FIRE's establishment in 1999. The moment the book hit the shelves, Kors and Silverglate received pleas from students and professors across the country requesting aid and reporting horrific cases of censorship and abuses against liberty on college campuses. Less than one year later, Kors and Silverglate founded FIRE. To celebrate this anniversary, FIRE is giving copies of The Shadow University to supporters who donate $150 or more in 2008.
Associated Press Reports on University of Illinois Ban on Political Activity
After a Chicago Tribune article exposed the outrage among many at the University of Illinois over a newsletter from the University Ethics Office declaring that a state ethics law bars state workers from political activities on university property, a follow-up piece by the Associated Press has been circulated in over a dozen media outlets. The Tribune article reported that "[t]he university's administration has sparked outrage by telling faculty, staff and graduate students that a 5-year-old state law designed to prevent state workers from campaigning for candidates on state time or with state resources meant they could not express support for candidates or parties through pins, T-shirts or bumper stickers while on campus. Nor could they attend any political rally or event on campus, the administration said." FIRE's Director of Legal and Public Advocacy, Will Creeley, is quoted in the AP article saying that [t]he Illinois situation is part of a "disturbing trend" likely to increase as the election nears. FIRE is monitoring situations like this at schools across the country.
After Free Speech Victory in Federal Court, FIRE Sends Warning to Public Universities Violating the First Amendment
After the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an opinion in DeJohn v. Temple University upholding a decision by a federal district court that Temple University's former speech code is unconstitutional, FIRE sent letters to administrators at twenty public colleges and universities in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania warning them to abandon their own speech codes. All of the colleges FIRE contacted are rated as "red light" schools in FIRE's Spotlight speech codes database, meaning that they maintain policies that unconstitutionally restrict student speech.
Recent Media Coverage
Chicago Tribune, October 3, "U of I faces backlash after decision on campus political activity," by Megan Twohey
Chicago Tribune, October 3, "At U. of I., a question of supporting candidates on campus," by Megan Twohey
The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 3, "Adjuncts fight back over academic freedom," by Robin Wilson
Associated Press, October 3, "U of I rally supports right to campus politicking"
National Association of Scholars, October 2, "The Cave," by Peter Wood
The Washington Times, September 29, "HENTOFF: Fear and intimidation at Brandeis U.," by Nat Hentoff
Dartblog, September 29, "'The Cornell Review' contretemps," by Robert Shibley
Forbes Magazine, September 26, "The Coddling Campus," by Harvey Silverglate
The New York Times - Paper Cuts Blog, September 24, "What you can't say at Harvard Law School," by Barry Gewen
The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 24, "President of campus free-speech group is honored by Playboy Foundation," by Caitlin Moran
More media coverage at thefire.org »
October 6, ""The Shadow University" Celebrates its Ten-Year Anniversary," by Alisha Glennon
October 3, "Weekly Media Round-up: FIRE's Expertise Widely Cited, and Pressure Grows on Brandeis and Third Circuit Schools," by Peter Bonilla
October 3, "CFN Member Tim Nuccio Joined to Advance Liberty," by Luke Sheahan
October 3, "'Chicago Tribune' Highlights FIRE's Work Defending Political Speech," by Brandon Stewart
October 2, "Speech Code of the Month: University of Northern Iowa," by Samantha Harris
Read The Torch at thefire.org »
Recent Multimedia Content
Video, Voices of Vision II Trailer
FIREside Chats, Episode 128: Greg at Students' Rights Night at the University of Pennsylvania
FIREside Chats, Episode 127: Victory at Valdosta State University
More multimedia at thefire.org »
The mission of FIRE is to defend and sustain individual rights at America's colleges and universities.
Speech Code of the Month
Overbroad "bias incident" policies are a problem on college campuses nationwide. But perhaps the problem is nowhere so great as at the University of Northern Iowa, a public university, which defines a "bias incident" as "any inappropriate word or action directed toward an individual or group based upon actual or perceived identity characteristics or background of a group or person and that is contrary to law or policy." This policy is fatally flawed in many ways, most importantly in that the prohibition on "inappropriate words" is both unconstitutionally overbroad and vague. Students will have to guess at what will be deemed "inappropriate," and most speech that a reasonable person would find "inappropriate" is still wholly protected by the First Amendment.
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: 270.4.1/1514 - Release Date: 6/23/2008 7:17 AM
