![]() In 2008 and then again just last week, FIRE issued a national letter by certified mail to all of the nearly 300 public red-light and yellow-light colleges and universities in our speech code database, warning them about the dangers of violating the constitutional rights of their students and faculty members. If upheld on appeal, this decision will finally give university counsels real reason to take sides against speech codes, and it ought to give great anxiety to administrators who might otherwise be tempted to pass or enforce speech codes.Īdditionally, FIRE has taken clear steps to tell administrators that speech codes are illegal, thereby decreasing the likelihood that they can successfully claim a defense of qualified immunity in a lawsuit. This is a critical part of our larger legal strategy to make administrators respect free speech, due process, and freedom of conscience, whether they want to or not. In what may ultimately prove to be the most important legal victory in FIRE’s history, we successfully pierced the "qualified immunity" of a high-ranking university official–meaning that he will be held personally liable for violating a student’s rights. Holding Administrators Personally Responsible for Violating RightsįIRE secured an especially significant victory in September 2010, when we won a federal civil rights lawsuit through our Legal Network against a former college president on behalf of a student whose First Amendment and due process rights were grossly violated. With your gift today, we can continue this work with even more vigor in 2011. In 2010, FIRE has made significant strides in generating added pressure for administrators to reform their campus policies and practices. The "sticks" in this approach are initiatives that demonstrate to administrators the tangible consequences they will face if they ignore FIRE and continue to violate the rights of students and faculty members on their campuses. We have focused specifically on an approach aimed at altering the incentive structure for administrators, working with both "carrots" and "sticks" to produce positive reforms at our nation’s colleges and universities. In the past year, with the help of our donors, FIRE has revitalized our strategy for "changing the campus culture" and creating permanent change within our nation’s institutions of higher education. Reason #2 to Donate to FIRE: We Are Changing the Campus Culture ![]()
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