thefire.org

The Campus Freedom Network made an appearance for the second year in a row at the Campus Progress National Conference on July 8^th. CFN Director Luke Sheahan and FIRE Program Officer Peter Bonilla manned the FIRE table passing out FIRE Guides, signing students up for the CFN, and telling students how their rights are threatened on campus and what FIRE can do to help.

1,000 conference attendees spent the day meeting with various leaders—President Bill Clinton among them—and discussing issues ranging from climate change and human rights to health care and college affordability. A common concern among the many students who stopped by FIRE's table was that their campuses aren't open enough to engage their communities in dialogue on these and other important issues—a concern often proved correct when the students visited the Spotlight pages for their schools.

This epitomizes why FIRE gets out to student conferences of every political persuasion around the country. We were glad to see so many students with such a keen understanding of the fact that no one benefits when the university places limits on the freedom of speech. In the course of the day we registered roughly three dozen new CFN members and passed out dozens of FIRE's Guides to Student Rights on Campus. It was an exhilarating experience to talk to them about how their rights are threatened and we look forward to working with them to defend their rights.