Oakland University near Detroit has suspended a student for three semesters, barred him from campus, and demanded he undergo "sensitivity" counseling because he wrote in a class assignment that he found his instructors attractive. While the course specifically permitted students to write creatively about any topic, the university bizarrely chose to classify his writing as "unlawful individual activities." Joseph Corlett came to FIRE for help. Read Full Article
In a victory for student rights, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a unanimousdecision late yesterday in the case of Barnes v. Zaccari, holding that former Valdosta State University (VSU) President Ronald M. Zaccari may be found personally liablefor violating the due process rights of former VSU student T. Hayden Barnes. Barnes first came to FIRE for help in October 2007. Read Full Article
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for February 2012: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). For a number of years, UNC earned FIRE's poorest, "red light" rating for labeling entire categories of generally protected speech (such as "sexually explicit jokes") as sexual harassment. After UNC appeared to have done away with this misleading list, FIRE upgraded its rating to a yellow light. Now, however, we have discovered that the list is back, once again misinforming UNC students about their rights and chilling expressive activity on UNC's campus. Read Full Article
Arizona State University has restored access to the petition website Change.org after blocking it due to dubious concerns about "spam" emails coming from the site related to a petition advocating lower tuition costs at the university. On Friday, FIRE wrote the university asking that it immediately restore access to Change.org and assure its students that it does not block access to websites that host content critical of the university. Responding to the national outcry, which was first launched by media reform organization Free Press, that is just what the university did late on Friday.
In National Review Online, FIRE Senior Vice President Robert Shibley explores the negative impact of the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez for students at Vanderbilt University and nationwide. Robert focuses on Vanderbilt's invocation of the case to justify its recent decision to ban belief-based student groups from requiring that group leaders share the group's stated values. Robert writes that Vanderbilt's decision is "just the kind of use of an all-comers policy that the Supreme Court, in the Martinez case, said would be unacceptable" in a school that respects free speech rights.Read Full Article
Arizona State University has reportedly blocked access to the petition website Change.org, citing concerns with "spam" emails coming from the site in the wake of a petition posted on the site that advocated lower tuition costs at the university. Today, FIRE wrote a letter to the university asking that Arizona State immediately restore access to the Change.org website and assure its students that its IT department does not block access to websites that might host content critical of the university.Read Full Article
FIRE has selected ten finalists for our contest for the best tweet promoting our newest video, about FIRE's case at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where Professor James Miller was ordered to take down a poster featuring a quote from the science fiction show Firefly. With more than 80,000 views, the video is among FIRE's most popular. $500 in prizes is at stake for the participants, so please go to Prizes.org and vote on your favorite today—on Monday, it's all over!
Following a state council's ruling that New Jersey's new anti-bullying law is an unfunded mandate in violation of the New Jersey Constitution, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) notes that the law also violates college students' First Amendment rights. The law ignores the fact that harassment in the educational context has a precise legal definition, crafted by the Supreme Court with specific attention to balancing the right to freedom of expression with the government's interest in prohibiting real harassment. The law also conflicts with recent rulings on campus speech from the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, whose jurisdiction includes New Jersey. Read Full Article
