News

Anti-Semitic comments at event sponsored by UNC-Duke group fuel conflict over campus speech

“This is my anti-Semitic song.”   Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar said those words March 22 as he performed on a stage at UNC Chapel Hill’s Global Education Center.   “I know it sounds R&B and stuff, but don’t think of Rihanna when you sing this. Don’t think of Beyoncé. Think of Mel Gibson. Go that anti-Semitic.”  Nafar’s...

Kari Travis
News

UNC Asheville should host Women’s March organizer, FIRE leader says

UNC Asheville is right to defend free speech amid national criticism of Tamika Mallory, the controversial national co-chair of the Women’s March who will speak on the campus in honor of Martin Luther King, says a leading First Amendment lawyer and activist. Robert Shibley, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, praised...

Kari Travis
News

Speech battles intensify as adversaries are treated as enemies, French says

Free speech is overwhelmingly popular in courtrooms around the United States, but the jury of public opinion doesn’t support First Amendment rights, a conservative litigator and legal writer says. Political mudslinging happens when people choose sides based on what they hate rather than what they believe, David French, a senior writer for National Review, said...

Kari Travis
Opinion

Universities and the ‘coddling’ of the American mind 

In 2015, Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and Jonathan Haidt, professor of ethical leadership at New York University, wrote an article for The Atlantic entitled “The Coddling of the American Mind.” In that article, the authors argued that students increasingly react to words, books, images, and speakers with fear and anger...

News

Report gives N.C. public universities high marks for protecting free speech

North Carolina universities have drastically improved First Amendment protections since 2010, a new report says. Public and private institutions across the state were graded poorly on free speech rights less than a decade ago, show data collected by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal —...

Kari Travis

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News

Silent Sam may speak loudly in national conversation on free speech

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is poised to set a national example of allowing lawful protest while protecting free speech. But campus administrators and law enforcers so far have come up short, some experts say. As public universities bend under the force of rampant — sometimes violent — political unrest, all eyes...

Kari Travis
News

UNC-Chapel Hill faculty gives free speech a boost

CHAPEL HILL — Faculty leaders at the University of North Carolina’s flagship campus recently signed a resolution supporting First Amendment rights — a move that’s positive but may have little impact on actual policy, said Laura Beltz, a spokeswoman for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The Resolution on Principles for the Promotion and...

Kari Travis
News

Federal campus free-speech bill bears resemblance to N.C.’s state protections

RALEIGH — Campus free speech — a major topic of conversation in North Carolina — has federal lawmakers talking. On Feb. 7, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced a bill requiring public universities to dissolve free speech zones and ditch policies that squelch the First Amendment. The bill would reinforce and strengthen students’ ability to file...

Kari Travis
Opinion

Ability to exercise free speech should be critical factor when choosing a college

Earning a scholarship to a college or university — whether that scholarship is academic or athletic — is quite the accomplishment, both for the student and the respective family. It relieves a huge financial obligation to be sure, but it also portends a positive future for the new student, who is arguably getting a head...

John Trump
News

More UNC campuses giving free speech its due, FIRE reports

RALEIGH — First Amendment Rights just got the “green light” on two University of North Carolina campuses. New findings from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonpartisan research and litigation organization, show a positive shift in speech protections at UNC Greensboro and North Carolina Central University. FIRE divides public and private universities into three...

Kari Travis
Podcast

Many Valid Reasons Not To Expand N.C. Medicaid

Becki Gray on reasons not to expand Medicaid; Gov. Pat McCrory & Terry Stoops on business & education; Cathy Rossberg on reforming Medicaid; Robert Shibley on legal rights for college students; Roy Cordato on accurately assessing energy policy

Becki Gray, Dr. Terry Stoops, Dr. Roy Cordato