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A nonprofit organization that has specialized in promoting and protecting freedom of speech in higher education for over 20 years is rebranding itself to expand its mission beyond the campus quad.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education announced Monday that it has renamed itself the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and is pledging $75 million to fight for freedom of speech beyond its usual domain of the college campus.
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“America needs a new nonpartisan defender of free speech that will advocate unapologetically for this fundamental human right in both the court of law and the court of public opinion,” organization President Greg Lukianoff said in a press release. “FIRE has a proven track record of defeating censorship on campus. We are excited to now bring that same tireless advocacy to fighting censorship off campus.”
The multimillion-dollar initiative will “focus on three main areas of programming: litigation, public education, and research,” the organization’s press release said. The group is launching a $10 million advertisement campaign for the duration of the year to “promote a culture of free expression.”
The organization’s expanded mission comes as a sort of challenge to the American Civil Liberties Union, which has long been recognized as the premier defender of civil liberties but has largely embraced a more overt liberal tilt in recent years at the expense of First Amendment protections, Politico reported, quoting FIRE board member and former ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser.
“The notion that you have to reduce your vigor with which you defend First Amendment rights or you will damage the strength of your advocacy for equal rights for women, gays, and Blacks, et cetera is just demonstrably not true and, yet, they’ve done that,” Glasser said. “It has created a vacuum in the viewpoint-neutral defense of free speech, which FIRE has filled.”
Lukianoff said the organization’s expansion was substantially informed by its experiences supporting freedom of speech on college campuses.
“Our defense of freedom of speech and inquiry on campus will remain core to what we do and will grow in the coming years,” Lukianoff said. “But we have come to realize that defending the First Amendment and a culture of free speech off-campus is essential to protecting those values on-campus, just as much as fighting for those values on-campus is essential for preserving them off-campus.”
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“We need to remind older Americans that freedom of speech is still a value worth fighting for, and we need to teach younger Americans that everything from scientific progress, to artistic expression, to social justice, peace, and living authentic lives requires the staunch protection of freedom of speech for all,” he added.
