FIRE Reaches Virginia Tech Community with Column in ‘The Collegiate Times’

Yesterday on The Torch, Adam wrote convincingly about how Virginia Tech's efforts to impose vague requirements of a commitment to "diversity" on faculty for tenure and promotion is every bit as much a violation of academic freedom and freedom of conscience as requiring a commitment to similarly amorphous ideals, such as "patriotism" or "Christianity."

The Collegiate Times, the student newspaper of Virginia Tech, has published a version of Adam's Torch entry in its editorial section today, helping FIRE's concerns about this invasive and unconstitutional threat to reach the constituency most in need of hearing them: the more than 30,000 students and faculty members of Virginia Tech.

FIRE, along with the National Association of Scholars and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, has been leading the public awareness effort against these requirements, but also instrumental in the effort has been the Times' editorial staff, which last week wrote an impressive and principled editorial defending the individual rights of Virginia Tech's faculty. FIRE thanks The Collegiate Times for inviting our submission, and is reassured to know that the Virginia Tech community has them to look to for guidance on this issue.