On September 14, 2022, Emporia State University adopted a policy giving administrators broad discretion to terminate tenured faculty for reasons including, but not limited to, realignment of resources, low enrollment, and operating costs. The policy also set the notice requirement for terminations at 30 days, put the Kansas Board of Regents in charge of the appeals process rather than administrators and other faculty, and placed the burden of proof on faculty to show they were wrongfully fired. On September 15, ESU used the policy to fire 33 faculty members, including journalism professor Max ..read more

On October 31, 2022, a video went viral showing a Trinity College employee removing a student’s Gadsden flag and thin blue, red, and green line American flag from hanging out of his dorm room window. The employee said the college had asked all students to remove flags from their windows but did not respond when the student asked why she forcibly removed his flags while other students’ flags remained up. On November 1, FIRE wrote Trinity, explaining that while it may impose reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on the display of flags and other expressive material on campus, the free ..read more

On October 14, 2022, a recording went viral of UCSD organic chemistry professor Robert Ternansky making in-class comments pertaining to the Latino and Chicano communities. In the video, Ternansky yells grammatically incorrect Spanish at Latino and Chicano custodial workers, asks his class how to say quiet in “Mexican,” and jokingly suggests the custodial workers might have weapons. After calls for the university to take action, UCSD removed Ternansky from teaching the remainder of his fall quarter courses. On October 28, FIRE wrote UCSD urging it to immediately reinstate Ternansky and uphold i ..read more

On October 24, 2022, after weeks of standing by its First Amendment obligations in the face of  immense pressure to deplatform a controversial student-hosted comedy show featuring Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and conservative comedian Alex Stein, Pennsylvania State University canceled the event citing a “threat of escalating violence.” Hours before the event’s scheduled start-time, hundreds of protesters descended upon the school to object to the event. On October 25, FIRE wrote Penn State to demand transparency regarding the circumstances leading to the cancellation of the event and ..read more

In the fall of 2022, New York University terminated chemistry professor Maitland Jones Jr.’s contract without due process, following a student petition claiming his class was too difficult. On October 24, FIRE wrote NYU explaining its decision to fire Jones violated the academic freedom and due process rights that the university guarantees faculty and is a clear affront to faculty rights. The post New York University: Professor Terminated for Complaints His Class Was Too Difficult appeared first on FIRE ..read more

On March 2, at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, protestors disrupted a Federalist Society event featuring constitutional scholar Ilya Shapiro. Before and throughout the event, audience members chanted and yelled at Shapiro to prevent him from speaking. After the event, UC Hastings released a statement condemning the actions of the disruptors as violating university policy and urging students to engage with opposing views instead of trying to silence them. On March 4, FIRE called for the university to uphold the free exchange of ideas on campus by ensuring students can ..read more

The post Dauphin County, PA: Local Government Prohibits Political Activity in Public Park appeared first on FIRE ..read more

On September 30, 2022, Furman University initiated an investigation into Professor Chris Healy and banned him from campus after images surfaced of him standing in a crowd at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The university did not say it was investigating Healy for participating in violence or other unlawful conduct that day (no one has alleged he did), but rather for his mere association with viewpoints it deems “harmful.” On October 5, FIRE wrote to Furman explaining that both its free speech commitments and South Carolina law bar it from investigating or punishing ..read more

In September 2022, students at Simmons University discovered that two years earlier, when Professor David Kane had taught at Harvard University, he had been accused of writing pseudonymous blog posts about race that some found offensive. Simmons responded by opening a concurrent section of Kane’s introductory statistics course and allowing students to transfer without penalty. Once enough students transferred, the university canceled Kane’s course and non-renewed him. On October 4, 2022, FIRE wrote to Simmons explaining that its actions against Kane violate its strong promises to faculty that ..read more

On August 20, 2022, Tennessee Technological University’s Backdoor Playhouse held a drag show hosted by Upper Cumberland Pride, a local LGBTQ+ rights advocacy organization, and two university-recognized student groups, Lambda Gay-Straight Alliance and Tech Players. On September 7, a spliced video of the show prompted condemnation online. The next day, Tennessee Tech President Philip Oldham canceled the student groups’ scheduled events and launched an investigation of the event because he was“disturbed and dismayed” by the drag show, which he claimed did not “represent Tech’s values.” On Septemb ..read more