NASSAU COUNTY CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC.
"The government is us, we are the government, you and I." Teddy Roosevelt
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NASSAU COUNTY CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC. "The government is us, we are the government, you and I." Teddy Roosevelt |
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Foundation for Individual Rights in Education- FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation devoted to free speech, individual liberty, religious freedom, the rights of conscience, legal equality, due process, and academic freedom on our nation's campuses. www.thefire.org
THE MISSION OF FIRE
The
mission of FIRE is to defend and sustain individual rights at America’s
increasingly repressive colleges and universities. These rights include freedom
of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of
conscience—the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. FIRE’s
core mission is to protect the unprotected, to educate the public and
communities of concerned Americans about the threats to these rights on our
campuses, and to instruct them on the best means to preserve them. FIRE,
through its expanding programs, works successfully for systemic changes in
higher education, changes that increase the substance and prospects of a culture
of individual rights and responsibilities on our nation’s campuses.
FIRE effectively and
decisively defends American liberties on behalf of thousands of students and
faculty on our nation’s campuses. In case after case, FIRE brings about
favorable resolutions for these individuals who continue to be challenged by
those willing to deny fundamental rights and liberties within our institutions
of higher education. In program after program, FIRE both applies the principles
of those resolutions to change the policies and double standards of our colleges
and universities and seeks to make these vital principles permanent and secure.
FIRE seeks to
continue our mission of educating a generation of America’s future leaders about
the threats to these rights and about the means of protecting and restoring them
on our campuses. FIRE also actively encourages and expands coalitions committed
to individual rights, offering counsel and advice to the allies of campus
freedom, and providing documentation, strategies, compelling arguments, and
effective assistance to the beleaguered and their defenders. FIRE works both
for justice for individuals and for systemic change on behalf of liberty.
Focusing on the role
of the university in loco parentis (the university
standing in the place of parents), where the abuse of rights is most obvious and
most readily understood, FIRE educates the public about the fate of liberty on
our campuses. We vet claims and cases for accuracy and context, thus gaining
the trust of reporters, commentators, and public intellectuals across a broad
spectrum. We expose abuses of power through an extensive Media Network. Where
necessary, FIRE links individuals to appropriate legal
assistance through our Legal Network, providing individuals and their
attorneys with legal memoranda. FIRE adds the interests of liberty to the
public and judicial debate about higher education, compelling universities to
give moral weight to legal equality and individual rights. Ultimately, FIRE
seeks both to end the debilitating fatalism that paralyzes students and faculty
and to provide protection to those who are now helpless in the face of abuses of
power on our campuses.
Since its inception
in 1999, FIRE has successfully fought battle after
battle in a sustained campaign to secure rights and to educate campuses on
issues of liberty. FIRE has resolved more than 1,000 cases to the advantage of
liberty and dignity. During this past year, FIRE’s staff and directors have
given speeches, participated in debates, appeared on television news programs,
and been guests on talk radio on hundreds of occasions. FIRE’s officers have
written for major newspapers and journals, and FIRE’s work has been discussed
and reported in thousands of newspaper and journal articles. Through these and
other activities, FIRE has been successful in our primary role as an advocate
and resource on behalf of liberty.
Erich
Wasserman
Executive Director
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
210 West Washington Square
Philadelphia, PA 19106
mail to:ew@thefire.org
tel (215) 717-3473
fax (215) 717-3440
www.thefire.org
www.thefireguides.org
www.speechcodes.org
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