Inside Fall 2003 Fall www.thefireguides.org www.thefire.org online: us Visit 215-717-3440 Fax: Tel:215-717-3473 PA19106 Philadelphia, 303 Suite Square WashingtonWest 210 Inc. Education, in Rights Individual for Foundation Directors of Board the From University Illinois Westernat Ends Zone Censorship FIRE’sNetwork Legal Program Internship 2003 FIRE from TaylorJr. Stuart by Speech” of Freedom Squelch Censors Campus “How TechUniversity Target:Code Texas FIRE’sSpeech Third

National Journal National THE 10 9 9 6 4 3 Newsletter of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Education in Rights Individual for Foundation the of Newsletter F last issue of issue last the in featured was code speech (Shippensburg’s Pennsylvaniain University Shippensburg against lawsuit a with campaign litigation its launched FIRE April, In FIRE. by initiated lawsuit such second the was College Citrus against lawsuit The language.” or expression “offensive... outlawed had policy That challenge. legal for target a as FIRE by identified publicly been had lawsuit, specific this of part a not though that, policy another revoked also Board The policies. the revoking resolution a adopted unanimously Trusteesof Board College Citrus the began, campaign FIRE’s after days 16 just 5, June On p.m. 10 and 4 between classes take 6 p.m. 6 to a.m. 8 from weekdays on used be only could areas the Lastly, allowed. was whatsoever cation amplifi- sound No message. intended their of also but areas” speech “free the use to intent their of only not college the notify to required were Students areas. these of outside themselves ing express- for arrested even or expelled, suspended, be could Speakers campus. of parts remote and small three to speech free quarantined that policies two challenged It Stevens. Chris student of behalf on Sobel A. Carol attorney Network Legal FIRE by 20 May on filed was lawsuit The rights. speech free students’ its restricted unconstitutionally that policies revoked College Citrus California’s weeks three than less in FIRE, Citrus College Victory: SpeechCodeFallsat — education. Due to litigation facilitated by facilitated litigation to Due education. higher public in codes speech against challenges legal bring to campaign wide nation- the in victory first its scored has IRE even though more than a third of students of third a than more though even The FIRE Quarterly FIRE The ). Since the victory the Since ). QUARTERLY campaign can be seen on our website. website. our on seen be can campaign litigation FIRE’s on Details precious. is Liberty non-negotiable. is Amendment First the but litigation, Weby saddened universities. are other featured on page 3 page on featured lawsuit against Texasagainst lawsuit Tech University a bring to helped has FIRE College, Citrus at Citrus College Plaintiff, Chris Stevens Chris Plaintiff, College Citrus — and is planning lawsuits at lawsuits planning is and Volume 1 Number 2 Number Volume1 — which is which

From the President

t is extraordinary being the president of FIRE, and although I do it pro bono, the rewards are deeply satisfying. I come in several days a week to an office that overflows with the intelligence, energy, ideals, warm humor, and moral will of its underpaid and overworked staff. On any given day, volunteers and I interns work with dedication on the stuff of freedom on our campuses. How remarkable that there is this place–210 West Washington Square, Suite 303, in Philadelphia (come visit)—where everyone believes in individual rights, individual responsibility, legal equality, dignity, fairness, and the boundless prospects of human liberty. What a privilege. One exchanges one’s time and labor for something one wants in return. I am well rewarded for what I give to FIRE.

In addition, there are the confrontations with the ideological and careerist bullies against whom FIRE fights... the victories, and the ongoing struggles. They both exhaust and energize me. The exhaustion passes. The energy remains and grows. Stay with FIRE in all this. We will win in lots of essential ways—changing the debate about our campuses; letting those in the next generation who cherish liberty know that they are not alone; freeing those students from insufferable tyrannies; sweeping away what seemed enduring speech Alan Charles Kors codes; educating students about freedom and responsibility—and who knows, we may win it all in the end. What matters profoundly is never to let fatalism triumph over the dignity of individual rights, above all on campuses where the next generation of citizens is being formed.

Finally, there is the immeasurable joy of hearing from and getting to know so many of you, FIRE’s friends, supporters, and donors. Every day, amid the spam and my own university’s bureaucratic memoranda, there are the emails from you… encouragement, advice, honest opinion, and the kinship of those who care about the rights of a free people in a free society. You include truck drivers and nobel laureates, academics and entrepreneurs, homemakers and executives, students and parents.

You make it possible. You add to the joy of doing what I do.

Stay in touch. Come visit. Keep supporting FIRE. Liberty is a precious thing, and its defense is a truly thrilling enterprise.

Alan Charles Kors

Quarterly Web Traffic 2000-2003: www.thefire.org 80,000

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2 The FIRE Quarterly FIRE’s Third Speech Code Target: Texas Tech University

“Free Speech Gazebo” at Texas Tech. A public university of 28,000 grants its students 280 square feet of freedom.

Greg Lukianoff, FIRE’s director of legal and public advocacy, was a guest on MSNBC’s Buchanan & Press on June 2 and Scarborough Country on June 6 to discuss FIRE’s efforts at Texas Tech. IRE is coordinating a lawsuit against a speech code at Texas Tech University—the third such F lawsuit in a national campaign to eliminate speech codes at public universities. The suit was filed on behalf of a conscientious Christian law student by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Phoenix-based nonprofit organization devoted to protecting religious liberty. Jordan Lorence, an attorney with ADF, and Kelly Shackelford, an attorney with the Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute, are assisting in the litigation. Lorence and Shackelford are both members of FIRE’s Legal Network.

Texas Tech bans “communications [that] humiliate any person,” giving as examples of such punishable expres- sion “sexual innuendoes,” “referring to days in advance, which means, of course, an adult as ‘girl,’ ‘boy,’ or ‘honey,’” or that they cannot respond in a timely and “sexual stories.” In addition, this spontaneous manner to local, national, university of 28,000 quarantines free or global events. expression to one small gazebo, approxi- mately twenty feet in diameter. Students “Students deserve more than 280 must have official approval to engage in square feet of freedom: one square protests, demonstrations, pamphleteer- foot per 100 individuals,” said FIRE Co- ing, or even the distribution of director Harvey A. Silverglate. “Texas Students at Texas Tech wear newspapers outside of the “free speech Tech’s policies show contempt for the these buttons to protest the gazebo.” Students must ask for official Bill of Rights and, in particular, for the speech restrictions. approval for these activities at least six First Amendment.”

Fall 2003 3 How Campus Censors Squelch Freedom of Speech

By Stuart Taylor Jr. This episode provides a window into the But in fact, campus censorship lives on, politically correct censorship that pol- often justified under the guise of teve Hinkle, a student at lutes so many of our nation’s campuses. enforcing vague rules against racial or California Polytechnic State For seeking peacefully and politely to sexual “harassment.” Administrators University, was posting fliers exercise his First Amendment rights, typically interpret these rules to encom- Saround campus last November Hinkle was subjected to a seven-hour pass any speech that offends nonwhite 12 that advertised a speech to be given disciplinary hearing, from which his students or insults the left-liberal-radical- the next evening. The fliers contained a lawyer was barred. He was found guilty feminist-postmodernist orthodoxies of photo of the speaker, black conservative of “disruption” of the “meeting.” And the academic class. The rules are typi- Mason Weaver, and the words “It’s OK he was ordered to apologize to the cally enforced by campus kangaroo to Leave the Plantation,” the name of a offended students, in writing, or face courts with no semblance of fairness. book in which Weaver likens African- much stiffer penalties, possibly including American dependence on government expulsion. All of this is to go on Hinkle’s Here are some representative examples programs to slavery. permanent record, perhaps hurting his of rules that appear to be current as far chances of getting into graduate school. as FIRE could tell from checking When Hinkle approached a public bul- university Web sites: Georgetown warns letin board in the lounge of the campus The bottom line is that like many other against “expression” that is “inappropri- Multicultural Center, some African- campuses, “Cal Poly gives some people ate” and that severely offends others on American students who were sharing the power to veto what others have to matters of “race, ethnicity, religion, gen- pizzas nearby objected. They told say,” says Thor L. Halvorssen, the head der, or sexual preference.” (Would that Hinkle not to post the flier because they of the Foundation for Individual Rights include quoting Justice Antonin Scalia’s found it “offensive” and “disrespectful.” in Education (FIRE), a nonpartisan, acerbic dissent from the June 26 By all accounts, his response was Philadelphia-based free speech group Supreme Court decision upholding gay something like, “How do you know it’s that has come to Hinkle’s defense. rights?) At the University of offensive? Why can’t we talk about it?” The offended students then said that Cal Poly’s legal counsel, Carlos Cordova, the flier violated the Multicultural responded to a complaint from FIRE by Center’s “posting policy,” and claiming in a May 9 letter that “many of threatened to call the campus police. your factual assertions ... are incorrect” Hinkle left, without posting the flier. and by denying that the disciplining of Hinkle was motivated by the perceived That was not the end of the matter, offensiveness of the flier. But Cordova however. One black student did call did not specifically dispute any of the campus police, with what was recorded facts recounted in the first four as a report of “a suspicious white male paragraphs above, which are based in passing out literature of an offensive part on notes prepared by Hinkle’s racial nature.” She and others also faculty adviser at the hearing. Those urged university authorities to discipline facts amount to an egregious violation Hinkle, a member of the Cal Poly of the First Amendment. College Republicans, for what she called The offending flier: Undergraduate “hate speech” (i.e., the flier). Cal Poly is but one of hundreds of cam- Steve Hinkle posted this flier in Cal puses that penalize student speech of Poly’s Multicultural Center and was Incredibly, university authorities did just which they disapprove. This censorship convicted of “disruption.” that, under the pretext of punishing regime has attracted little attention since Hinkle for “disruption” of what com- the mid-1990s, after successful legal Massachusetts, students can be disci- plaining students later claimed to have challenges at the University of Michigan, plined for speaking in ways that create a been a Bible study dinner and meeting. the University of Wisconsin, and “sexually offensive” environment, or for (Nobody had told Hinkle that this was a Stanford University seemed to Copyright 2003 by National Journal Group Inc. “meeting” at all, and he saw no Bibles.) foretell the demise of speech codes. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

4 The FIRE Quarterly FIRE typically employs the threat of In February, for example, it helped public exposure to persuade campus persuade Texas Tech not to confine a administrators to back off in individual protest against President Bush’s Iraq censorship-through-discipline cases. It policies to the gazebo. But the vast has also produced pamphlets informing majority of the students and professors students in detail of their legal rights. complaining of campus censorship are to And in the past few months, FIRE has the right of center. American Enterprise helped launch a litigation offensive magazine recently published some num- Thor Halvorssen was a guest on MSNBC’s against speech codes that is designed to bers that help explain this: At top univer- Scarborough Country to discuss FIRE’s make it “clear to universities across the sities—including Brown, Cornell, defense of Steve Hinkle at Cal Poly. country that they infringe on students’ Stanford, and the University of California rights at their own peril,” in Silverglate’s (Berkeley)—the ratio of professors regis- displaying “offensive or sexually sugges- words, by winning a succession of defini- tered in parties of the left (including tive” pictures, cartoons, or posters. At tive judicial rulings. The defendants so Democrats) to those in parties of the Princeton, they can be disciplined for far have been Shippensburg University, right (including Republicans) in many “unwanted sexual attention that makes a in central Pennsylvania (whose code departments ranges from almost 10-to-1 person feel uncomfortable.” (Asking for a prohibited conduct that “annoys, threat- to more than 20-to-1. And many of them date after being once turned down?) At ens, or alarms a person or group”); think of free speech as a right reserved Brown, “unwelcome verbal expres- to the politically correct. sions,” “degrading language,” “jokes or innuendoes,” “sounds or whistles,” Despite the cries of “McCarthyism” raised and “gestures” can amount to sexual by the Left since September 11, there has harassment. At Dartmouth, “sexual been only a smattering of unwarranted harassment [can be] subtle and attacks on leftist or anti-American speech. indirect, possibly even unintentional.” And on campus, you are a lot less likely Many campuses define “leering” as a to be disciplined for assailing President form of harassment. A training docu- Bush than for assailing militant Islam. ment once used at the University of Take the Ethiopian student at San Diego Maryland even warned against “hold- State University who reproached some ing or eating food provocatively.” Saudi students in September 2001 for (Handle bananas with care.) Thor Halvorssen was a guest on FOX News gleefully celebrating, in Arabic, the mur- Channel’s Hannity & Colmes with Steve Hinkle. ders of 3,000 people at the World Trade It is unclear how often such provisions Center and the Pentagon. A university are enforced. In any event, they hang Citrus College, near Los Angeles (which committee warned the Ethiopian—not over campus speech like a Sword of has already surrendered); and 28,000- the Saudis—that offending fellow stu- Damocles. Their vagueness and student Texas Tech University. dents in this way could get him overbreadth violate students’ First suspended or expelled. Amendment rights in the case of public Texas Tech bans “communications [that] universities and may violate their humiliate any person,” such as “sexual Political biases aside, campus censors contractual rights in the case of those innuendoes” or “referring to an adult as commit a fundamental error in private universities that advertise ‘girl,’ ‘boy,’ or ‘honey.’ “Like many other supposing that devotion to civil rights themselves as devoted to free and open campuses, it also quarantines demon- requires shielding traditionally debate. Such rules nonetheless persist strations, protests, and other free subordinated groups from hurt feelings because few students or professors have speech activities to a single “free speech by suppressing the civil liberties of the stomach to challenge them. zone”—at Tech, a 20-foot-wide gazebo others. As Kors has put it, “No one who that can hold about 40 people. On the tells people that they are too weak to The good news is that since 1999, those rest of the campus, students must seek live with freedom, legal equality, the Bill willing to fight back have a potent ally. official approval at least six days in of Rights, or academic freedom is FIRE has battled campus censors with advance to hold protests or demonstra- their friend.” great success since its founding by two tions, make speeches, distribute news- men whose passion for the freedoms of papers or literature, or engage in other speech, association, and religion tran- free speech activities. Stuart Taylor Jr. is a senior writer scends their politics: left-leaning lawyer with National Journal magazine and Harvey A. Silverglate of Boston and FIRE champions flag-burners as well as a contributing editor at Newsweek. right-leaning University of Pennsylvania flag-wavers, anti-Bush and anti-American [email protected] professor Alan Charles Kors. dissidents as well as conservatives.

Fall 2003 5 FIRE’s 2003 Internship Program

2003 Summer Interns: Their Schools and Their Home Towns

Ned Andrews University of Virginia School of Law, 2006 Oliver Springs, TN

Anthony Dick University of Virginia, 2005 Philosophy and Cognitive Science Herndon, VA

Adam Gerber Villanova Law School, 2004 Versailles, MO

Wonny Lervisit Back row: Ned Andrews, Ian Polonsky, Adam Gerber, Charles Mitchell, Marko Paunovic University of Pennsylvania, 2005 Front row: Stephanie Steward, Kellie Miller, Anna Ross, Wonny Lervisit Political Science and History Dallas, TX

Kellie Miller Ave Maria Law School, 2005 his summer, FIRE held its fourth actively helped to combat them. Their Marlton, NJ annual internship program, intelligence and hard work was of great assembling a group of dynamic assistance to FIRE. Charles Mitchell college and university students Bucknell University, 2005 T History and Economics — united by a common belief in and FIRE’s Internship Program included, as Glen Mills, PA commitment to—liberty. always, an outstanding educational oppor- tunity, with weekly seminars, lectures, and Marko Paunovic The interns, chosen from a pool of talent- active discussion. This intellectually stimu- University of Pennsylvania, Fels Institute ed applicants, were selected for their aca- lating environment has inspired four years of Government, 2004 Government Administration demic achievement and their dedication of interns to bring the principles of FIRE to Belgrade, Serbia to the defense of individual rights. They their own campuses and to continue the were given the opportunity to have an fight for civil liberty and academic freedom Ian Polonsky active role in carrying out FIRE’s mission. both there and in the larger society. Harvard University, 2006 Film Studies Working independently on projects Cherry Hill, NJ designed by FIRE, the interns contributed Thank you! Anna Ross their ideas and acquired knowledge in Wesleyan University, 2006 several areas. They learned about non FIRE Doctor of Freedom K. Tucker Andersen Psychology profit fundraising and worked on individ- generously matched contributions made to Wynnewood, PA ual cases. By conducting important FIRE’s Internship Program this summer. Stephanie Steward research for FIRE’s Free Speech on FIRE and its interns would like to extend a University of Pennsylvania, 2005 Campus Program, the students found special thank you for his commitment to American History and Philosophy, Politics, direct evidence of speech codes and individual rights. and Economics Eugene, OR

6 The FIRE Quarterly FIRE Intern Defends Free Expression at Wesleyan University

By Anna Ross

hen prospective students and Gay Student Group traditionally had come to Wesleyan made the most use of chalking as political Anna Ross University for Wesfest, a speech, and a policy intended, in theory, W weekend-long event to protect them now silences them. time, place, and manner, it has consistent- created specifically to woo and impress Bennet imposed this ban without consult- ly resisted the enforcement of blanket “pre-frosh,” they expect to have the full ing students or faculty, and he defended bans on expression. President Bennet’s Wesleyan experience, which includes his controversial action in a campus-wide ban is unreasonable and sets a dangerous anything and everything that has earned email, in which he wrote, “Chalking, as precedent for future limitations on Wesleyan the common nickname, practiced, undermines our sense of com- speech. He promises to have any chalk- “Diversity University.” Unfortunately, munity and impedes substantive dialogue.” ings erased before even reviewing the President Douglas Bennet has ensured The opposite, of course, is true. In his content. Wesleyan students should not that what prospective students will see is view, however, a ban on dialogue some- be punished for expressing themselves a campus whose administration has how furthers dialogue. boisterously and openly, but applauded purged its spirit and expressive traditions. for effectively raising awareness and At Wesleyan, free expression now must President Bennet’s new chalking policy generating dialogue on important take a backseat to clean sidewalks. sought to “satisfy two complementary campus issues. principles: to protect free expression and Sidewalk chalking, a practice in which at the same time to enhance Wesleyan’s Despite President Bennet’s chilling students informally and anonymously civility.” He appeared open to suggestions message to the Wesleyan community, publicize issues of importance to them, is from the Wesleyan Student Assembly, students have rebelled, in some cases by a popular form of expression at Wesleyan. allowing public forums to discuss an issue using spray paint instead of chalk. Some students say that that is dear Although these messages were also chalking is the only form to many stu- erased, students are clearly unwilling to of communication in “Universities are forums for dents’ hearts. sit back quietly while they are infantilized which they can truly con- open discourse and independence, However, after by the administration. vey their feelings and not for selective repression considering spark meaningful discus- and censorship.” numerous pro- Students at Wesleyan must continue sion on campus. Most posals, which to fight to amend the prohibition against students seem to accept included a chalking and to have President Bennet that passionate and even offensive speech chalkboard, a chalking zone, and provi- restore free speech to his campus. is, for better or worse, a part of our sions that anybody specifically named who Only by challenging the administration culture, and they recognize that such perceived harassment could contact the to make Wesleyan live up to its reputation messages should be discussed rather than administration for redress, President as “Diversity University” can visiting silenced. One would expect such a Bennet instead decided to ban chalking pre-frosh once again view the opinionat- mature response from students of a great permanently. If I took a piece of chalk ed chalkings that make Wesleyan stand and diverse university, and it is troubling and scrawled the word “liberty” on out as such a vibrant community. that President Bennet does not see his a campus sidewalk, I potentially could Perhaps The Princeton Review said it own students that way. At increasingly be expelled. best in its description of Wesleyan, repressive universities, students need such stating, “Wesleyan is home to a passion- outlets to stimulate debate and to express Wesleyan has, at the least, a moral obliga- ate, involved student body. At best, their honest views. tion to free speech and academic freedom. they change the world. At worst, Its own policies promise as much. they’re entertaining.” This past fall, President Bennet, citing Universities are forums for open discourse increased complaints of allegedly harassing and independence, not for selective messages on issues of sex and of race, repression and censorship. The rest of FIRE Intern Anna Ross is a sophomore issued an indefinite moratorium on society has said that while free speech can at Wesleyan University. chalking. Ironically, Wesleyan’s Lesbian be regulated by placing restrictions on

Fall 2003 7 In the Mail

8 The FIRE Quarterly FIRE’s Legal Network

Speech code litigation campaign explained to academia

On Aug. 1, The Chronicle of Higher academic, and moral arguments made Education, the nation’s leading source in memorandums and letters. However, for news and information about acade- speech codes have proved remarkably mia, published a lengthy explanation of impervious to reasoned arguments, for FIRE’s legal and moral fight against while FIRE often can snatch individual campus speech codes. The piece was students from the jaws of speech written by FIRE Co-director Harvey A. prosecutions, administrators Silverglate and FIRE Director of Legal rarely abandon the codes them- and Public Advocacy Greg Lukianoff. selves… FIRE thus initiated its litigation campaign.” The article explains the need for the litigation project: Silverglate and Lukianoff also dis- pel many common misconceptions “FIRE generally eschews litigation in about speech codes, including claims favor of reasoning with campus adminis- that they are not enforced, that they are codes, students are trators in detailed philosophical, not directed at protected speech, and more likely to interact honestly. that they are harmless if students are Having one’s beliefs challenged is not a not routinely punished under the codes. regrettable side effect of openness and “A whole generation of American In its conclusion, the article reempha- intellectual diversity, but an essential students is learning that its sizes the need for a fundamental change part of the educational process. And, in members should hide their deeply in attitudes about free speech in higher fact, liberty is more than simply a pre- held unpopular beliefs, while other education: requisite for progress; it is, at the deep- students realize that they have the est level, a fundamental and indispensa- “Colleges must recognize that growth, ble way of being human.” power, even the right, to censor progress, and innovation require the opinions they dislike.” free and occasionally outrageous The full article can be found at -Harvey A. Silverglate and Greg Lukianoff, exchange of views. Without speech www.thefire.org. The Chronicle of Higher Education Censorship zone ends at Western Illinois University his spring, FIRE helped to during university business hours, against (and outside of ) the “free eliminate a “free speech area” 9-5, and not weekends. In addition, speech area.” On May 5, WIU President policy—in reality, a censorship WIU required that the area be reserved Al Goldfarb announced that the T area policy—at Western Illinois “at least five days in advance,” and that university was dropping the policy. University (WIU). Students at that no one individual or group may use the FIRE has been in communication with public institution contacted FIRE in April area more than three days every month. administrators there, and will offer assis- for help in opposing the quarantining Those who violated the policy faced tance to them in drafting new policies of free speech on their campus. WIU’s severe punishment. that respect the First Amendment and policy stated that anyone wishing “to the spirit of authentic liberty. engage in open public speech” may do FIRE advised the students, who, on so only in one designated area, and only April 29, held a successful protest Fall 2003 9 From the Board of Directors

Who Deserves Free Speech? About the Publication By Daphne Patai Volume 1 Number 2

he language police are spreading avoid identity politics and its attendant The FIRE Quarterly is published four times their net, both in academic brow-beating. It insists on principled per year by the Foundation for Individual institutions and in our work- objections to infringements on our rights Rights in Education. T places. What began in universi- and freedoms, coming from any direc- ties has become a general movement to tion. It proudly disregards the political The mission of FIRE is to defend and sustain shut down speech that someone, some- passions of race, gender, and the rest of individual rights at America’s increasingly where doesn’t like. Recently, the Topeka the identity grab bag. On a daily basis it repressive and partisan colleges and and Shawnee works to prevent us from being the first universities. These rights include freedom of County Public free society to give up its freedoms vol- speech, legal equality, due process, religious Library forbade staff untarily for the sake of making life comfy from talking at work for everyone. liberty, and sanctity of conscience—the about this summer’s essential qualities of individual liberty and Supreme Court deci- In Brave New World (1932), Aldous dignity. FIRE’s core mission is to protect the sion against sodomy Huxley envisioned precisely such a sani- unprotected and to educate the public and laws. Some staffers tized society, in which everyone was communities of concerned Americans about had complained that always upbeat. No unkind words could the threats to these rights on our campuses talk celebrating the affect anyone’s self-esteem, because this and about the means to preserve them. decision created a was simply programmed into all people “hostile work envi- (in their different castes), through FIRE is a charitable and educational, tax- ronment.” In “hypnopaedia”—that is, through endless exempt foundation within the meaning of America, however, repetitions of uplifting messages about Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue the issue is not one’s worth, played night after night, Code. Contributions to FIRE are deductible Daphne Patai which point of view until they become permanently embed- the staff member ded in the soul. In Huxley’s perfectly to the fullest extent provided by tax laws. attacked or praised, but the right of free regulated feel-good society of ego-mas- citizens to speak freely. Free speech is sage, drugs, and organized orgies, the Managing Editor: Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, III not a matter of right or left, straight or state makes sure that no one ever has to [email protected] gay, white or black, female or male. It is, feel bad about anything. The age-old Layout & Design: Yoonsun Chung rather, a matter of individual liberty tension between freedom and happiness [email protected] guaranteed by the First Amendment. is resolved—in favor of comfort. As Huxley wrote, “There isn’t any need for a How to reach us: Sadly, however, in this age of identity civilized man to bear anything that’s politics, who-says-what-to-whom has seriously unpleasant.” FIRE become a major factor in defending or 210 West Washington Square, Suite 303 assailing speech. Many people assert If Huxley didn’t envision the assaults on Philadelphia, PA 19106 group entitlements, not claims of liberty, free speech that today are commonplace Phone...... 215-717-3473 to defend the right to speak freely—and in the name of comfort, Marco then only for the beliefs they support. Bramvilla’s 1993 film Demolition Man Fax...... 215-717-3440 Too few individuals these days are pre- did. The film, with many references to Email...... [email protected] pared to defend the principle of free Huxley’s text, is set in a perfectly man- speech regardless of their personal aged future where the total monitoring On the web: feelings on particular issues. of individuals touches all aspects of life. www.thefire.org People go to “compu-chat” machines on www.thefireguides.org That is what is so important about FIRE the street for instant therapy and encour- and its mission. FIRE is the only organi- aging words. The imposition of pleasant- zation I know of that actually tries to ness and comfort is taken so seriously continued on page 11 10 The FIRE Quarterly Invest in Freedom

I-Ninety FIRE

FIRE Chancellors of Freedom Terry and Anita Steen are devoted to individual rights. They believe that FIRE’s work on America’s college cam- puses is essential to the survival of a free society. Beyond their financial support of FIRE, they recently donated the billboard pictured above on busy Interstate 95 in Philadelphia. Numerous students, faculty, and administra- tors from the area’s many colleges and universities now can see FIRE’s larger than life presence, thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Steen. Terry and Anita Steen Gifts in Kind any of FIRE’s supporters have generously assisted FIRE with in-kind donations. In addition to financial support, FIRE wel- comes gifts of goods or services that increase our organizational capacity and allow us to decrease our overhead expenses. FIRE donors have previously contributed equipment, computers, software, and professional services. In-kind donations M are tax-deductible for the fair-market value of your gift. For more information, or to make a donation, please contact Robin L. Rudikoff at [email protected] or 215-717-3473.

Who Deserves Free Speech? continued from page 10 that whatever is not good for people is actually resembles some contemporary banned, including alcohol, caffeine, trends in American life. Daphne Patai teaches at the University of contact sports, meat, chocolate, anything Massachusetts-Amherst, a school that has spicy, gasoline, uneducational toys, sexu- FIRE knows what counts: We need first of kept her busy fighting for academic freedom. al contact, and, of course, offensive lan- all to preserve our right to free speech— She is a member of FIRE’s Board of Directors. guage (conveniently monitored by ubiq- a right urgently needed by all sides of the Her book What Price Utopia? and Other uitous computers that automatically political spectrum. Without it, we could Essays will be published in 2004. impose fines on any citizen who dis- not even begin to question any other obeys). How interesting that this parody brave new idea that is headed our way.

Fall 2003 11 The Last Word

“Over the course of a long lifetime, I have witnessed a serious decline in tolerance and respect for freedom of

Milton Friedman speech in the academy. FIRE is currently the most effective force countering that trend. It deserves the support of every believer in a free society.”

–Milton Friedman

Visit us online at www.thefire.org

Non Profit Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Presorted 210 West Washington Square, Suite 303 Permit 5634 Philadelphia, PA 19106-9906 Philadelphia PA 19154