For the Media

FIRE believes deeply in Justice Louis Brandeis’ famous maxim that “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” As such, members of FIRE’s senior staff are always happy to discuss our work with members of the media.

To interview someone from FIRE, please call 215-717-3473. To find background information on the organization that you may find useful in your reporting, keep reading.

FIRE Press Kit

What Is FIRE?

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, is a non-profit educational foundation based in Philadelphia, PA. It was founded in 1999 by Alan Charles Kors, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvey A. Silverglate, an attorney in Boston. They created FIRE after co-authoring The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses in 1998 and subsequently receiving hundreds of pleas for help from victims of illiberal policies, double standards, intolerable violations of their rights, and intrusions upon private consciences on college campuses.
FIRE’s mission is to defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities. These rights include:
  • freedom of speech;
  • legal equality;
  • due process;
  • religious liberty; and
  • sanctity of conscience.
Indeed, such rights are the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. FIRE protects the unprotected and educates the public and communities of concerned Americans about the threats to these rights on our campuses and about the means to preserve them.
FIRE executes its mission in the following ways:
  • Individual Rights Defense Program:
    • FIRE directly defends individual students and professors, as well as campus groups, against violations of their rights;
    • This program includes the Speech Codes Litigation Project, through which FIRE has coordinated four successful lawsuits against public universities’ unlawful restrictions on free speech.
  • Individual Rights Education Program:
    • FIRE’s Guides to Student Rights on Campus: FIRE publishes handbooks written by experts on due process, free speech, and other individual rights and makes them available free to students;
    • Public Awareness Project: FIRE continually exposes campus abuses of civil liberties in the media and on our website, which includes our weblog, The Torch, and Spotlight: The Campus Freedom Resource, a comprehensive online guide to the state of liberty on individual college campuses.

Who Is FIRE?

Harvey A. Silverglate, one of FIRE’s cofounders, is chairman of the Board of Directors. FIRE’s president is Greg Lukianoff, who serves as the organization’s main spokesman.
Greg Lukianoff, President:
  • Graduate, Stanford Law School (focused on First Amendment and constitutional law);
  • Formerly practiced law and also worked for Environmentors Project, ACLU of Northern California, and Organization for Aid to Refugees in Prague;
  • Co-author, FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus;
  • Published in Chronicle of Higher Education and other publications;
  • Frequent guest on radio and television programs, including Buchanan and Press;
  • Testified before U.S. Senate about free speech on college campuses.

FIRE has a full-time staff of 15 persons. The organization is nonpartisan; its staff, Board of Directors, and Board of Advisors comprise individuals from across the political spectrum.

For More Information

Please call 215-717-3473 or e-mail media@thefire.org.