FIRE receives substantial funding from a handful of conservative private donors, including $3.5 million from anonymous conservative donors through Donors Capital Fund and DonorsTrust, $1.3 million each from the right-wing Bradley Foundation and Sarah Scaife Foundation, and about $1 million between the Charles Koch Foundation and F.M. This past year represented a new level of achievement for FIRE and its cause on campus. "[33], In 2007, the organization said that a mandatory program for students living in dormitories at the University of Delaware resembled "thought reform". Argentina. Its leader, Kristan Hawkins, has also praised Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, another anti-LGBTQ hate group. The unvetted work from Campus Reform also served as the sole evidence for Turning Point USAs recent McCarthyist Professor Watchlist project, which publicly listed photos and details about specific college professors and administrators who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom. Top contributors to the Leadership Institute in recent years include the anonymous conservative donor funds Donors Capital Fund and DonorsTrust, and the Charles Koch Foundation. But the ebb and flow of ideas cant be reduced to market exchanges, and has to transcend them. [69], FIRE has criticized Columbia University's sexual misconduct policy;[70] according to FIRE, the policy "lack[ed] even the most minimal safeguards and fundamental principles of fairness". With FIRE support, the expulsion was overturned and a court found VSU to have violated Barnes's due process rights. "[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". Roger Kimball, the thundering author of Tenured Radicals and Taking Back the UniversityA Battle Plan and a board member of the Sarah Scaife Foundation, one of FIREs big funders, also chairs the William F. Buckley Program at Yale, which invited Lukianoff to campus last fall. Once the ACLU backs off its traditional role, who else is there? Glasser asked. Here's why FIRE finds this policy irresponsible, offensive, and annoying: thefire.org. [19][20][21] Nico Perrino is executive vice president. 02/21/23 11:14 AM EST, Video & Audio Web the foundation for individual rights in education, or fire, is an american organization that defends individual rights, especially the right to free speech, in higher. [91], Since 2011, FIRE has published a list of the "worst colleges for free speech. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education uses 20 technology products and services including HTML5 , jQuery , and Google Analytics, according to G2 Stack. 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. [88][89], In August 2022, FIRE defended the nonprofit group NeuroClastic, which had been threatened with a defamation lawsuit by the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center after criticizing the Center's use of electro-shock devices. One TV spot includes a former Emerson College student, K.J. Faculty at public colleges and universities can also call FIRE's Faculty Legal Defense Fund Hotline at 254-500-FLDF (3533). By Barbara Miner. 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. [56], In October 2011, Catawba Valley Community College suspended a student (Marc Bechtol) for complaining on Facebook about a new policy that required students to sign up for a debit card to get their student ID and grant money. The groups funding connections amount to an almost encyclopedic list of conservative organizations, the vast majority with ties to the Koch network of organizations. [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. [86] FIRE also launched the website "Emerson Kinda Sus" in response. [2][5] Silverglate had served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts. FIRE educates Americans about the Read more about this organization Issue Areas Include Education Human Rights & Civil Liberties Legal Assistance 03/01/23 8:20 PM EST, Video & Audio 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, . FIRE aims to protect college students' First Amendment rights The group fearmongers about contraception methods and abortion, a common medical procedure, and equates the work of Planned Parenthood in communities of color with racist eugenics. 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. [57] Charges were dropped in December 2011. And, tomorrow, PEN Executive Director Nossel will have an opportunity to make up for it by asking Lukianoff directly why FIRE highlights and occasionally even provokes politically correct threats to freedom of speech, as I watched it do at Yale, and why it seldom if ever mentions the many conservative politically correct pressures on students and teachers that I described in Why Bashing Politically Correct Campuses Is Hurting Conservatism.. Waiver of right of respondent Victim Rights Law Center, Equal Rights Advocates, Legal Voice, et al. There he shot the infamous video of an overwrought black 20-year-old shrieking at a professor, and also triggered (if I may) an angry demonstration against the Buckley program itself. 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. Foundation For Individual Rights in Education filed a lobbying registration on April 13, 2012 for in-house lobbying efforts, effective March 1, 2012. YALs foundation arm appears to receive the bulk of its funding from the Charles Koch Foundation and DonorsTrust. [65] In March 2022, the school settled the lawsuit. Theres a very strong belief in not just the First Amendment, but a culture of freedom of speech that black or white, liberal or conservative that most Americans think you should be entitled to your own opinion and not have to lose your job over that, Lukianoff said. The rise of the so-called alt-right is the most unexpected ideological development of our time. 03/01/23 9:41 PM EST, Video & Audio Like FIRE on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheFIREorgFollow FIRE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheFIREorgDonate to FIRE: http://thefire.org/donateSubscribe . Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. ', "Comedy, Outrage, and Free Speech: Can We Take A Joke is Available for Download Now! [32] In his book Speech Out of Doors: Preserving First Amendment Liberties in Public Places (Cambridge University Press, 2008), law professor Timothy Zick wrote "in large part due to [FIRE's] litigation and other advocacy efforts, campus expressive zoning policies have been highlighted, altered, and in a number of cases repealed. 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 group is sponsoring a lawsuit that challenges the . It also operates a campus leadership program that identifies, organizes, and trains conservative college students to promote and defend their values on campus. The institutes national field program boasts more than 1,878 campus groups that advocate for limited government, the free market, traditional values, and national defense.. And the PEN report is justified in saying that while free speech is alive and well on campusa conclusion that echoes my own observationsit is not free from threats and must be vigilantly guarded if its continued strength is to be assured.. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. 4 min read. [84][85] Emerson claimed the stickers represented "anti-China hate", while FIRE blamed the school for violating "freedom of expression". [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. Without Yiannopoulos, CPACs speakers list was still full of individuals pushing xenophobic and discriminatory agendas and figures associated with the extremist so-called alt-right movement. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that aims to protect students' First Amendment rights at U.S. colleges and universities. Its always been the case that some people have believed absolutely crazy things. 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? "[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. January 2, 2023. The American Conservative Union is a conservative political organization that oversees the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a massive annual conference with organizing workshops and speeches from prominent right-wing politicians and leaders. Such offenses often prompt not intimidation and silence but more speech, including criticism from liberals. 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. Although the details are purposely obscured, its likely that Charles Koch and his family have additionally contributed to groups in this list through the anonymous donor funds DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. 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. YAL also hosts an annual conference; the 2016 conference featured speakers includingformer Rep. Paul, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), and Fox News Andrew Napolitano. 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. [22][23] Lukianoff and Perrino have written in support of "the right to speak even the thoughts we hate. 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. 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. 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