The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) announced this week that they are launching a faculty network for professors interested in defending free speech.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) announced on Wednesday that they are launching a faculty network for professors across the country that are dedicated to defending free expression on their campus.
We’re excited to announce the launch of the FIRE Faculty Network, a diverse coalition of faculty interested in defending and sustaining academic freedom, free speech, and civil liberties on campus. By joining FIRE’s faculty network, you’ll receive information curated specifically for faculty, including the latest information on FIRE events, legal developments, strategies for activism, and noteworthy research and reporting related to free speech and academic freedom.
The faculty network will be open to professors, graduate students, at administrators at institutions of higher education. The network will connect academics to FIRE, which publishes strong research on the state of free speech on campuses around the country. The FIRE is known for their “Speech Code Rating” system which gives each university a “red,” “yellow,” or “green” rating based upon their commitment to free expression principles.
The group is somewhat similar to Heterodox Academy, which was founded by New York University Professor Jonathan Haidt. The Heterodox Academy is a bipartisan advocacy group that fights to enlarge political diversity on college campuses. Since its founding in 2015, the Heterodox Academy has over 1,865 professors on board.