Thought Reform at the University of Delaware
by Adam Kissel
October 30, 2008
This issue of The Lantern features a comprehensive article by Adam Kissel on the thought reform program implemented in 2007 by the University of Delaware's Office of Residence Life, which used mandatory activities to coerce students to change their thoughts, values, attitudes, beliefs, and habits to conform to a highly specified social, environmental, and political agenda. The article explains the program's invasive thought-reform activities, the horrified reactions of students and the press, and FIRE's response one year ago this week.
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October 15, 2008
With the presidential race between John McCain and Barack Obama the focus of national attention, political speech on our nation's campuses has come under sharp attack. In recent weeks, FIRE has investigated open and blatant attacks on political expression at colleges and universities across the country, from a previously unreported case at Oklahoma, to better-known cases at Illinois and Texas, to smaller schools across the country. This alarming trend towards silencing political expression has prompted FIRE to release a Policy Statement on Political Activity on Campus today.
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October 7, 2008
Since last year, FIRE has been fighting a protracted battle for liberty at Tufts University after the school found a conservative student publication, The Primary Source, guilty of "harassment" for publishing two satirical articles. In response to the uproar, Tufts created a "Task Force on Freedom of Expression at Tufts" that has produced a draft declaration on free expression and inquiry that fails to inspire freedom of expression and does not continue Tufts' historical protections of these freedoms. FIRE has released its official comment on the document, noting that adopting it without changes would jettison "over 150 years of tradition at Tufts" by revoking the university's "noble promises of academic freedom and free speech."
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by Greg Lukianoff
May 28, 2008
FIRE President Greg Lukianoff's extensive article on speech codes, entitled "Campus Speech Codes: Absurd, Tenacious, and Everywhere," was published by the National Association of Scholars in May 2008. The article is a must read, covering every aspect of speech codes: their origination, their current status on campus, why they continue to exist despite their clear unconstitutionality, and, finally, strategies to eradicate their presence on campus.
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