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. Lynum, whose conservative group was suspended by the schools president for circulating China kinda sus stickers promoting the theory that a Chinese government lab caused the oubreak of Covid-19. In truth, as I have argued, conservative political correctness doesnt need to shout as loudly as its progressive variant only because its already baked into every Economics 101 course and into the premises and protocols of career advancement that the larger society foists on undergraduates. In February, he made an appearance on Fox News Hannity with Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. to discuss how college campuses are islands of totalitarianism & intolerance for students with conservative or freedom beliefs. Kirk has publicly aligned himself with Milo Yiannopoulos in the past, and college chapters of Turning Point USA sponsored several stops on Yiannopoulos ill-fated campus harassment tour earlier this year. But the ebb and flow of ideas cant be reduced to market exchanges, and has to transcend them. Im more afraid of top-down attempts to control Twitter than I am of the cultural harm it produces.. Faces an Identity Crisis", "Fighting for Free Speech on America's Campuses", "Ilya Shapiro controversy: Georgetown Law students speak out against liberal intolerance, cancel culture", "Free-speech group will spend millions to promote First Amendment cases", "Nonfiction Book Review: The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses by Alan Kors", "A Maverick Mogul, Proudly Politically Incorrect", "State of Conflict: How a tiny protest at the U. of Nebraska turned into a proxy war for the future of campus politics", "Colleges settle free speech lawsuits as FIRE promises more litigation", "The ACLU Just Got Some Much-Needed Free Speech Competition", "As the ACLU Recedes From Its Core Mission, FIRE Expands To Fill the Void", "The Conservatives Behind the Campus 'Free Speech' Crusade", "First Amendment Organization | Right to Freedom of Speech & Expression", "Foundation For Individual Rights In Education Inc - Nonprofit Explorer", "FIRE announces $75 million expansion into off-campus free speech advocacy, defense", "Foundation for Individual Rights in Education", "Opinion | Please, Georgetown. ADF sometimes bills its university academic freedom litigation as part of its Center for Academic Freedom, and lists the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education as an affiliated group on its website page for academic freedom cases. 24. It has created a vacuum in the viewpoint-neutral defense of free speech, which FIRE has filled.. The ACLU later recalibrated its free-speech advocacy, urging that its lawyers considering what cases to take also consider offense to marginalized groups. Romero also said it would not defend those seeking to engage in protests while armed. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is not required to disclose its funders but major foundation supporters can be found through their IRS filings. 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 2012. OKeefe also regularly incites his loyal internet followers to practice their own brand of investigative journalism. He takes pleasure in targeting college campuses that he perceives as suppressing free speech. In 2015, Project Veritas released a video purporting to show administrators at several colleges and universities literally shredding a copy of the Constitution in response to an undercover actor posing as a student upset by the document. Summers told POLITICO hes troubled that a stifling conformity in discussions about issues related to identity on college campuses seems to be spreading. op-ed titled as "Neoliberalism and . Which funding types raised the most money? This past year represented a new level of achievement for FIRE and its cause on campus. Charles Koch is also a board member at the center. ", "The Worst Campus in America for Free Speech", "Film 'Mighty Ira' brings free-speech issues to screen at Columbus Jewish Film Festival", National Center for Charitable Statistics, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foundation_for_Individual_Rights_and_Expression&oldid=1141690257, This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 08:37. The centers sister organization, the Institute for Humane Studies, serves as a libertarian recruitment firm, identifying, developing, and supporting talented students, scholars, and other intellectuals who share an interest in liberty and in advancing the principles and practice of freedom. The institute has received nearly $24 million in support from the Charles Koch Foundation, more than $4 million from DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund combined, and $2 million from David Kochs foundation in recent years. Weve said it before: The greatest threat to democracy from the media isnt disinformation, its the paywall. Kirby Foundation. With FIRE support, the expulsion was overturned and a court found VSU to have violated Barnes's due process rights. (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.). It also grants funding for education in small amounts, primarily to libertarian think tanks. Once the ACLU backs off its traditional role, who else is there? Glasser asked. No wonder theyre looking to scapegoat frightened students and deans. Even with the planned expansion by FIRE, the ACLU will continue to dwarf the upstart organization in size and funding. Waiver of right of respondent Victim Rights Law Center, Equal Rights Advocates, Legal Voice, et al. [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. The Charles Koch Foundation is the private philanthropic organization of oil billionaire Charles Koch. [19][20][21] Nico Perrino is executive vice president. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. The Bill of Rights Institute, established in September 1999 by the Charles G. Koch Foundation, is a Virginia based nonprofit that promotes teaching a conservative interpretation of the Constitution. [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. To say the least, we have not solved the campus free-speech problem, but we started to realize if we wanted to save free speech on campus we have to start earlier and we have to do things not on campus, the groups president, Greg Lukianoff, said. [58], In 2012, FIRE filed a lawsuit against Iowa State University (ISU) after ISU prevented the university's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws from designing T-shirts featuring the school's mascot. 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. [100], In 2020, FIRE partnered with College Pulse and RealClearEducation to release the College Free Speech Rankings, a comparison of student free-speech environments at America's top college campuses. These rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of consciencethe essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. [15], In June 2022, FIRE announced it was expanding its efforts beyond college campuses, to American society in general. The same foundations also fund a campaign pretending to champion voting rights by passing voter ID laws that would actually disenfranchise voters, including many college students. The report calls the organization libertarian but, confusingly, notes elsewhere in the text that FIRE is often regarded as libertarian or conservative and is viewed suspiciously by some liberal or progressive students and faculty.. [39] The school settled the lawsuit and agreed to revise its policies. Its also donated nearly half a million dollars to the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom. Do I believe bad actors are abusing this? YAL also hosts an annual conference; the 2016 conference featured speakers includingformer Rep. Paul, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), and Fox News Andrew Napolitano. Not surprisingly, FIRE is trying to put the best face it can on the PEN report, which stops short of blaming the conservative group for wielding the cudgel, and even credits the organization with calling attention to threats against free speech. [4] [5] [6] Founded in 1946 in New York City, FEE is now headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Today's SPN is the tip of the spear of far-right, nationally funded policy agenda in the states that undergirds extremists in the Republican Party. [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. Much like the ACLU, this often leads to them defending unpopular or controversial speech. The Leadership Institute also operates Campus Reform, a website where student reporters write about perceived instances of liberal bias on college campuses. [103][104], In February 2022, FIRE produced an advertisement featuring National Basketball Association (NBA) player Enes Kanter Freedom for the 2022 Winter Olympics in China, supporting freedom of speech. [80] Wallace's diploma was initially put on hold for the email, prompting FIRE to contact Stanford in his defense. The Times Jennifer Schuessler reported last weekend that although [t]he conventional wisdom surrounding American college life these days views campuses as hotbeds of intolerance for free speech, the PEN report questions that story line while warning of a different danger: a growing perception among young people that cries of free speech are too often used as a cudgel against them., In other words, one thing threatening freedom of expression on campus is the free speech crusade itself. FIRE took the side of the student. Kirby Foundation also gives substantially to several billionaire-funded groups designed to seed campus chapters of conservative organizations. Thank you! One thing threatening freedom of expression on campus is the free speech crusade itself. 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. Feb 25. 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 thoughtthe most essential qualities of liberty. Some of the college-focused sessions at this years conference included: Understanding Your Rights on Campus, led by LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedoms Casey Mattox; #LiberalPrivilege: Using Social Media to Change College Campuses, led by Campus Reforms Cabot Phillips; How to Bring Conservative Speakers to Your Campus, led by Patrick Coyle from Young Americas Foundation; Facts, Not Feelings: Snowflakes, Safe Spaces and Trigger Warnings, featuring representatives from The Leadership Institute; and a session on winning campus elections led by conservative organizers at American Majority. FIRE educates Americans about the Read more about this organization Issue Areas Include Education Human Rights & Civil Liberties Legal Assistance When you support The American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent able to give, and countering the class system for information. Pushers of these protocols insist that free markets make free men, as the old saying had it, and Lukianoff travels the country touting the marketplace of ideas on campus after campus. The PEN report misses this broader context, conscientious though it is in distinguishing real threats to campus free speech from hyped and imagined ones. The Intercollegiate Studies Instituteis one of the oldest student-oriented educational organizations in the nation, aimed at supporting conservative students with resources to publish right-leaning campus publications, host conservative lectures and events, and generally counter the progressive ideology taking over American colleges. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute receives millions in funding from a handful of private right-wing donors, including more than $8 million in funding from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, more than $11 million from the right-wing group of Scaife Foundations, $3.5 million from the conservative Bradley Foundation, and more than $2 million from the F.M. Here's why FIRE finds this policy irresponsible, offensive, and annoying: thefire.org. Waiver of right of respondent United States to . The ACLU enjoyed a massive surge in funding following Trumps victory in 2016 and now brings in almost $400 million to its coffers each year. Right-Wing Campaign to Block Teaching for Social Justice. Provost Marty Krauss informed Hindley in October 2007 that comments he made in his Latin American politics class violated the school's anti-harassment policy. Glasser, who serves on a FIRE advisory board, said in an interview that he strongly encouraged FIRE to broaden its free-speech work in part because the ACLU seems to be abdicating that role. Today, free-market globalization is undermining the individual rights, civic virtues, and republican sovereignty that conservatives claim to cherish. [53], FIRE sparred with the University of New Hampshire in 2004 over its treatment of student Timothy Garneau, who was expelled from student housing after he wrote and distributed a flier joking that female classmates could lose the "freshman fifteen" by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. 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. Its been frustrating, he said, adding, Most of FIREs staff leans to the left politically.. Were seeing some tendency to some of the same imposition of orthodoxy beyond college campuses and some elevation of comfort-seeking relative to truth-seeking much more broadly, Summers said. 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. [57] Charges were dropped in December 2011. But FIRE itself poses one of those threats when it waves its free speech banner in virtual lockstep with a broader conservative class and culture war against the democratic rights it purports to protect. In the U.S., its operations include a virtual academy and virtual reading groups; conferences; speaker and movie screenings series; and sponsorship of campus groups activism and leadership development. "[75], In 2015, FIRE defended Erika Christakis, associate master of Yale University's Silliman College, after she questioned the school's Intercultural Affairs Council for highlighting the cultural implications of Halloween costumes. $35,000. The Unite the Right rally they held ended with violence, including the death of a 32-year-old woman who was run over by a car driven by a far-right demonstrator whose friends said he was obsessed with Hitler. [62][63] The school eventually agreed to rewrite its speech policies, paying $650,000 to settle the lawsuit. 601 Walnut Street Suite 510, Philadelphia, PA 19106. 2018, the petition had 89,488 signatures); and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Letter to Fresno University President Joseph Castro, . Milwaukee, June 12, 2021. The National Constitution Center is a nonprofit institution devoted to the Constitution of the United States. Lukianoffs boards of directors and advisers include such prominent free-market conservatives as George Will and T. Kenneth Cribb, who was assistant for domestic affairs to President Ronald Reagan and a former president of the conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which trains students to counter liberal threats to the market economy.. ", "Who Funds Conservative Campus Group Turning Point USA? To this end, we place a special emphasis on defending the individual rights of students and faculty members on our nation's campuses, including freedom of speech, freedom of association, due . History Founded in 1946, The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is a libertarian economic think-tank dedicated to the "economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society." FEE publishes books, daily articles and hosts seminars and lectures. Here is what the Sourcewatch project of the Center for Media and Democracy has to say: "Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has deep ties to the Koch brothers. Email . In 2020, FIRE released Mighty Ira, a laudatory documentary film about Romeros predecessor, Ira Glasser, focusing on the ACLUs work from the 1970s through the 1990s. Eklavya Foundation, Bhopal 462026, India. Ordered By: Year (Newer to Older) Export CSV. Known as Higher Educations Internet Outrage Machine, Campus Reform posts several poorly sourced articles each day alleging professorial bias against conservative students or policies. The foundation supports free-market teachings at the university level, including by funding individual faculty positions. Since its inception, FIRE has received funding from a variety of conservative foundations, including millions from some linked to billionaire Charles Koch. [38], In 2014, FIRE assisted the Kalamazoo Peace Center in its lawsuit against Western Michigan University, after the university said the peace center could only invite rapper Boots Riley to speak on campus if it paid a security fee. It formed after the 2008 presidential campaign of former libertarian Rep. Ron Paul (TX) as a continuation of Students For Ron Paul. YAL claims to support a network of more than 900 chapters nationwide on college and high school campuses, providing materials and resources to help students organize events to communicate the problems with income redistribution through satire, educate your fellow students about the zombies in government who need to feed on the living to survive (a Halloween-themed activity), and encourage the right to self defense and access to weapons on campuses to prevent a violent crime from ever happening. The list of strategic partners on YALs website is a lengthy encyclopedia of Koch-backed think tanks and advocacy groups, and it also includes the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Students for Liberty, and Young Americas Foundation. 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. 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