FIRE is here to help you ignite your individual rights. Check out our courses below to learn about what your rights are, why they’re important, and how you can stand up for them.
This course is designed for student journalists. FOIA is an acronym that stands for Freedom of Information Act, which is a federal law guaranteeing your access to information from federal agencies. It’s often also used as a catchall to refer more broadly to the larger body of law which establishes this guarantee. Take this course to learn about FOIA and how you can request information from the government in order to better inform your reporting.
Welcome to the History of Free Speech from FIRE and The Nomadic Professor! If you’re here, FIRE probably needs no introduction: the premier free speech defense organization in the country. FIRE has recently expanded its mission from the college campus to the broader public, with three main areas of focus: litigation, public education, and research. We hope this course will go some way toward the goal of public education about free speech and its role
This course is designed for student journalists. Libel? Privacy? Intellectual property?! When you’re producing a publication, there are so many legal risks to keep in mind. But don’t fear! We’ll go over tips and tricks for conducting a self-directed prepublication review, that is, how to analyze your own content to keep you out of the courtroom and in the newsroom. This course is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice or mean that
On September 7 2022, FIRE, in partnership with College Pulse, released the third annual College Free Speech Rankings, ranking the speech climates of 203 of America’s largest and most prestigious campuses in order from top (the University of Chicago) to bottom (Columbia University). This course reviews how to interpret the rankings, this year’s findings, why FIRE does these rankings, and what this year’s report can do for you.
Welcome to the Discovering Your Disagreement Style course! FIRE, in partnership with The Mill Institute at UATX, has developed this course, in which you’ll find out your disagreement style during conversations about controversial topics. This course will give you insights into your strengths and areas for improvement. Here’s how it works: You’ll take a short quiz that will identify which of the four major styles (Debater, Researcher, Responder, or Reflector) you most closely exhibit in
At too many American colleges and universities, students accused of conduct violations are put through “kangaroo courts” that lack fair procedures, in which social and political pressures or the institutional interests of the “judges” can greatly affect the outcomes of campus disciplinary procedures. Take this course to find out what your due process rights are, learn more about how other American universities treat due process, and empower yourself to use your knowledge of due process
FIRE, in partnership with New York University’s First Amendment Watch, has developed this series of lessons for universities to utilize when teaching incoming students about their free speech rights and the principles behind the First Amendment.
Before you can become a free speech advocate at your school, it is essential that you know exactly what rights the First Amendment protects, how those rights apply to university students, the ways you can take advantage of those rights, and how to promote them on campus. Learn about how to ignite your free speech rights today!
In this course, you’ll learn about how the right to freedom of speech has evolved over human history, how it promotes peace in society and uplifts minority voices, and why censorship is never the answer to dissident speech. Please note that some of this course’s content contains explicit language.