Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

FIRE opposes campus speech codes.[19] In April 2007, Jon B. Gould, an author and George Mason University faculty member, criticized FIRE's rating methods, claiming that FIRE had grossly exaggerated the prevalence of unconstitutional speech codes.[20]

In his book Speech Out of Doors: Preserving First Amendment Liberties in Public Places (Cambridge University Press, 2008), law professor Timothy Zick wrote "in large part due to [FIRE's] litigation and other advocacy efforts, campus expressive zoning policies have been highlighted, altered, and in a number of cases repealed."[21]

FIRE opposes the security fees some campuses charge to organizations which host controversial or unpopular speakers. These fees are charged to pay for extra security which colleges say is necessary due to the likelihood of demonstrations and disruption of events.[22]

The group also targets situations where students and faculty are adjudicated outside the bounds of due process afforded to them by Constitutional law or stated university policy.[23]

FIRE joined with a number of other civil liberties groups in the case of Hosty v. Carter, involving suppression of a student newspaper at Governors State University in Illinois,[34] and has been involved in a case at Arizona State University where it condemned the listing of a class as open only to Native American students.[35]

FIRE sparred with the University of New Hampshire in 2004 over its treatment of student Timothy Garneau, who was expelled from student housing after he wrote and distributed a flier joking that female classmates could lose the "freshman fifteen" by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. After FIRE publicly criticized the decision, Garneau was reinstated.[36]

In May 2007, Valdosta State University expelled T. Hayden Barnes, who had protested against the construction of two new parking garages on the campus which he saw as encouraging the use of private transportation. University president Ronald Zaccari misconstrued a caption of the proposed garages as the "Ronald Zaccari Memorial Parking Garage" as a threat to himself. With FIRE support, the expulsion was overturned and a court found VSU to have violated Barnes's due process rights.[37]

In 2008, college professor Kerry Laird was ordered by Temple College to remove the quote, "Gott ist tot" (God is Dead), a famous quote from Nietzsche, from his office door. FIRE wrote a letter to the Temple administration hinting at the possibility of legal action.[38]

In October 2011, Catawba Valley Community College suspended a student (Marc Bechtol) for complaining on Facebook about a new policy that required students to sign up for a debit card to get their student ID and grant money. CVCC decided that the comments were "disturbing" and a "threat", and used that reasoning to suspend the student. FIRE took the side of the student.[39] Charges were dropped in December 2011.[40]

In 2012, FIRE filed a lawsuit against Iowa State University (ISU) after ISU prevented the university’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws from designing T-shirts featuring the school’s mascot.[41][42] The lawsuit eventually ended with nearly $1 million in damages and fees awarded.[43]

In 2014, FIRE sued Chicago State University (CSU) for trying to shut down a faculty blog critical of CSU’s former administration.[44][45] The school eventually agreed to rewrite its speech policies, paying $650,000 to settle the lawsuit.[46]

In 2021, in response to the board of trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill declining to give Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure, FIRE released a statement saying "if it is accurate that this refusal was the result of viewpoint discrimination against Hannah-Jones, particularly based on political opposition to her appointment, this decision has disturbing implications for academic freedom."[47]

FIRE has criticized Columbia University's sexual misconduct policy;[48] according to FIRE, the policy "lack[ed] even the most minimal safeguards and fundamental principles of fairness".[49] The criticism led to the resignation of Charlene Allen, Columbia's program coordinator for the Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Education, whose policies were at the center of the controversy.[50]

FIRE criticized Brandeis University on both free speech and due process grounds in early 2008 over its treatment of veteran politics professor Donald Hindley. Provost Marty Krauss informed Hindley in October 2007 that comments he made in his Latin American politics class violated the school's anti-harassment policy. Krauss placed a monitor in Hindley's class and ordered him to attend racial sensitivity training.[51] FIRE, along with Brandeis' own Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities, has criticized Krauss for never explicitly telling Hindley what specific in-class comments constituted harassing speech and for not granting Hindley a process by which to appeal the decision. According to Brandeis' student press, Hindley is rumored to have used the epithet "wetback." An anonymous student-witness, quoted in the Brandeis Hoot,[52] called Hindley's remarks "inappropriate." Other students praised Hindley's pedagogical approach as encouraging "students to face racist narratives head on" and that any disagreement "is a dispute for students and faculty to solve through rational dialogue, not one for the administration to settle in secret inquisitions."[53]

In 2015, FIRE defended Erika Christakis, associate master of Yale University’s Silliman College, after she questioned the school’s Intercultural Affairs Council for highlighting the cultural implications of Halloween costumes.[54][55][56] Lukianoff recorded a video of students confronting Christakis’ husband, who served as master of Silliman College, on the Yale campus.[57]

In 2021, FIRE advocated on behalf of Stanford University student Nicholas Wallace, who satirized the Federalist Society and Republican political figures in an email to his peers.[58] Wallace’s diploma was initially put on hold for the email, prompting FIRE to contact Stanford in his defense.[59] The school’s investigation was ultimately dropped and Wallace was allowed to graduate.[60]

In 2022, FIRE released a series of advertisements in Boston, Massachusetts, accusing Emerson College of censoring free speech on campus.[61] The ad campaign came in response to Emerson investigating and suspending the campus chapter of Turning Point USA, which distributed sticks featuring a hammer and sickle with the caption “China Kinda Sus” (slang for “suspicious”).[62][63] Emerson claimed the stickers represented “anti-China hate,” while FIRE blamed the school for violating “freedom of expression.”[64] FIRE also launched the website “Emerson Kinda Sus" in response.[65]