[82], In 2022, FIRE released a series of advertisements in Boston, Massachusetts, accusing Emerson College of censoring free speech on campus. [62][63] The school eventually agreed to rewrite its speech policies, paying $650,000 to settle the lawsuit. Argentina. 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 . 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. But first, some context. FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN EDUCATION INC PHILADELPHIA, PA 19106-3622 | Tax-exempt since July 1999 EIN: 04-3467254 Classification ( NTEE ) Censorship, Freedom of Speech and Press Issues. It has also been involved in at least two lawsuits alleging campus discrimination against conservatives -- one supported by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and another in which the group was represented by the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom. Josh Gerstein wrote in Politico that "part of the push may challenge the American Civil Liberties Union's primacy as a defender of free speech." [65] In March 2022, the school settled the lawsuit. [34], At the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, FIRE opposed university practices that required student journalists to submit their questions ahead of time or seek permission from the school before interviewing university employees. 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. 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. 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. [9] [10] It also grants funding for education in small amounts, primarily to libertarian think tanks. [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. 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. January 2, 2023. [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. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Inc. Mission The mission of FIRE is to defend and sustain individual rights at America's colleges and universities. The College Fix is operated by the Student Free Press Association, a nonprofit that appears to receive the bulk of its funding from anonymous right-wing donors through DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. Thank you! This paper presents the annual report of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for 2011. [40], FIRE also targets situations where students and faculty are adjudicated outside the bounds of due process afforded to them by Constitutional law or stated university policy. ADF has also long opposed anti-bullying efforts in schools, decrying any anti-bullying policy that includes sexual orientation or gender identity. [94][95][96] FIRE partnered with Korchula Productions and the DKT Liberty Project to produce Can We Take a Joke?, a documentary released in 2016 about comedy and speech. Lukianoff said his group also regularly defends left-leaning students and faculty members when their freedom of expression is threatened. ", "Who Funds Conservative Campus Group Turning Point USA? An upcoming conference at Bard College could shed important light on the right-wing funders behind a deceptive campaign to protect free speech while advancing conservative ideology on liberal campuses. Suspiciously? 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. Faculty at public colleges and universities can also call FIRE's Faculty Legal Defense Fund Hotline at 254-500-FLDF (3533). The State Policy Network (SPN) is a web of right-wing "think tanks" and tax-exempt organizations in 50 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, and the United Kingdom. In addition to pushing hate in state laws, court cases, and public schools, ADF has also represented Turning Point USA in at least one lawsuit alleging campus discrimination against a conservative student, and has partnered with chapters of Students for Life to create draft legislation for newly elected Republican legislatures in 2010. 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. No wonder theyre looking to scapegoat frightened students and deans. The Mercatus Center has received more than $9 million from the Charles Koch Foundation, and a combined $9.3 million from dark-money ATM DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund in recent years. 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. Kirks group claims to have a presence on 1,000 college and high school campuses nationally. A major focus of CPAC panels and training sessions has always been on recruiting a new generation of right-wing leaders, particularly on college campuses. [15], In June 2022, FIRE announced it was expanding its efforts beyond college campuses, to American society in general. The megaphone social media platforms have given to voices spouting untruths has also prompted some former free-speech devotees to reconsider their views. Annual lobbyist employer reports. Among those endorsing FIREs expansion are former ACLU President Nadine Strossen and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. 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. [55], In 2008, college professor Kerry Laird was ordered by Temple College to remove the quote, "Gott ist tot" (God is Dead), a famous quote from Nietzsche, from his office door. And while the ACLU and its affiliates are involved in hundreds of court cases each year in 19 policy areas ranging from voting rights to privacy to immigration, FIRE had only six cases in active litigation in the last fiscal year, according to its annual Internal Revenue Service filing. "[92] In 2022, Columbia University finished in last place. The group is sponsoring a lawsuit that challenges the . FIREs new expansion is also a challenge of sorts to the ACLU, which has faced criticism in recent years for drifting from its unapologetically pro-free-speech roots and taking a more direct role in partisan political fights. I think for FIRE to spread its wings is very constructive, said Summers, who served as president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006 and was National Economic Adviser for from 2009 to 2011 under President Barack Obama. [93], Since 2016, FIRE has produced "So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast," hosted by Perrino. Summers told POLITICO hes troubled that a stifling conformity in discussions about issues related to identity on college campuses seems to be spreading. 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. [72], FIRE criticized Brandeis University on both free speech and due process grounds in early 2008 over its treatment of veteran politics professor Donald Hindley. FIRE wrote a letter to the Temple administration hinting at the possibility of legal action. Part of the push may challenge the American Civil Liberties Unions primacy as a defender of free speech. In fact, I've long believed that the First Amendment's protections for freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition are indispensable ingredients for the success of a country with. [90] That month, FIRE challenged the New York State Senates practice of blocking critics on Twitter, representing a resident who had criticized gun control legislation. OKeefe is a right-wing conservative video artist who specializes in recording undercover videos of progressive activists and campaign staffers and releasing edited and confusing versions of the footage to allege misconduct. One thing threatening freedom of expression on campus is the free speech crusade itself. 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. Kirby Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation operated by the wealthy Kirby family. Rankings, in general, are a weak tool for understanding schools' individual characteristics they hide nuance and context, encourage rigid thinking, and by rolling all metrics into one overall number, both reflect and obscure the biases of the list-maker. "[10], FIRE has received major funding from groups which primarily support conservative and libertarian causes, including the Bradley Foundation, Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Charles Koch Institute. 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 tax forms list single grants ranging from $301 to more than $11 million awarded to a wide range of institutions of higher education as well as major conservative-leaning think tanks and news outlets. Reports indicate that the Charles Koch Foundation is one of several Koch funding groups donating to universities and think tanks to forward their political goals and to build a talent pipeline of libertarian-minded students. The foundation supports free-market teachings at the university level, including by funding individual faculty positions. FIRE is justified, up to a point, in criticizing black protesters who shout down and intimidate classmates and professors by branding their colleges as racist, and in challenging feminist government and university bureaucrats who impose unfair standards and procedures when judging sexual assault charges. 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. United States. Now it's trying to sue its critics", "The World and Everything in It: September 5, 2022", "Stanford, Georgetown, U. of Florida listed among 10 'worst free speech colleges' in U.S.", "The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression ranks Penn second-to-last college in free speech", "Week 3: Can Protests Make A Difference? Media Matters has mapped out some of the biggest actors behind astroturf conservative campus activism, creating an echo chamber of seemingly grass-roots right-wing student media and campus groups that are actually propped up by a handful of the same conservative funders and, sometimes, even prominent hate groups. [83] The ad campaign came in response to Emerson investigating and suspending the campus chapter of Turning Point USA, which distributed stickers featuring a hammer and sickle with the caption "China Kinda Sus" (slang for "suspicious"). "[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. See the metrics below for more information. When you support The American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent able to give, and countering the class system for information. 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. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is renaming itself the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and keeping the "FIRE" acronym as it launches a drive to. Its also donated nearly half a million dollars to the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom. Thats not as Orwellian as it may sound. 02/21/23 11:14 AM EST, Video & Audio Video & Audio In addition to funding medical research and more standard philanthropic endeavors, the F.M. Right-wing extremists have redefined the notion of freedom by detaching it from any sense of the common good and ethical considerations while reducing any vestige of liberty to an individual and . However, he said in the last fiscal year, about 69 percent of FIREs funding came from individual donors and about 31 percent from foundations. [61], In 2014, FIRE sued Chicago State University (CSU) for trying to shut down a faculty blog critical of CSU's former administration. 02/21/23 10:52 AM EST, The Conservative Dark-Money Groups Infiltrating Campus Politics, Newsmax host: Trump is still easily the mostpopular conservative candidateand is again running forpresident and Fox is pretendingthat he's not, Fox News host claims the FBI is part of a plot to defeat Republicans in elections, Sean Hannity claims the FBI has put their thumb on the scale for Democrats in every major election since 2016, Fox News host says Democrats are euthanizing the homeless, CNN's Bakari Sellers: Dominion filings show Fox hosts get the leeway to say whatever they want to say whether or not it has veracity, Right-wing media figures stand behind James OKeefe after Project Veritas ouster, Gavin McInnes on James O'Keefe ouster from Project Veritas: Inside scoop, all of the major money dudes are leaving with James, Steve Bannon: James O'Keefe is a patriot and a hero, American Conservative Union and Conservative Political Action Committee, Campus Reform and The Leadership Institute, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Mercatus Center and Institute for Humane Studies, identifies, organizes, and trains conservative college students to promote and defend their values on campus, Higher Educations Internet Outrage Machine, a driving force of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-black movements, the dark-money ATM for the conservative movement, the Mercatus Center, the Institute for Humane Studies, one of the oldest student-oriented educational organizations in the nation, counter the progressive ideology taking over American colleges, internships and professional development courses, the center of the Koch college universe, 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. Some backers see FIRE moving to take on fights ceded by ACLU. FIREs move seems likely to face an uphill battle with many on the political left disillusioned about unfettered free speech following former President Donald Trumps successes at perpetuating misinformation. [1] Kors and Silverglate had co-authored a 1998 book opposing censorship at colleges. 24. [105] Freedom also shared his personal story about censorship in his home country of Turkey. 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 Eklavya Foundation, Bhopal 462026, India. This is a welcome development, Romero said in a statement. Lukianoff acknowledged disappointment with major liberal foundations, who have balked at supporting FIREs efforts. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that defends free expression rights in the United States, with a special focus on college students and faculty. The foundation supports high school and college campus chapters under the umbrella of Young Americans for Freedom, which was originally established by William F. Buckley in the 1960s and now purports to help students diligently advance conservatism by speaking out against the liberal agenda. Since 2012, Young Americas Foundation has received more than $15 million from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation and a combined almost $1.5 million from DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. 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. 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