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Missing in School Reopening Plans: Black Families’ TrustDeep-seated mistrust among Black families toward their public school districts is holding back school reopening, even as Black children suffer inordinately from remote learning.For Farah Despeignes, the choice of whether to send her children back to New York City classrooms as the coronavirus pandemic raged on last fall was no choice at all.Ms. Despeignes, a Black mother of two, watched in despair as her Bronx neighborhood was devastated by Covid-19 last spring. She knew it would take a long time for her to trust that the nation’s largest public school system could protect her sons’ health — and by extension her own.“Everything that has happened in this country just in the last year has proved that Black people have no reason to trust...

February 2021 Speech Code of the Month: Johns Hopkins UniversityWe’re proud to say our long-running Speech Code of the Month series — in which we highlight a policy that is particularly restrictive of students’ free speech rights — gets results, with about 50% of schools responding by revising the speech code in question. But some universities seem to be stuck in a time loop, like Bill Murray’s character in the movie “Groundhog Day,” holding onto those same, problematic policies. Back in 2006, FIRE selected the “Principles for Ensuring Equity, Civility and Respect for All” policy at Johns Hopkins University as Speech Code of the Month, as it broadly states: “Rude, disrespectful behavior is unwelcome and will not be tolerated.” Fifteen years later, the policy, which appears in the set of ex...

University of Notre Dame Merit ScholarshipsDescription English: The Main Building, Golden Dome, at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana. Date 7 May 2015, 16:07:13 Source Own work Author Matthew Rice https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Main_Building_at_the_University_of_Notre_Dame.jpgFinding individual college merit scholarship information can take a lot of time. Instead, we’ve gathered the statistics you need to know about University of Notre Dame’s merit scholarships, at a quick glance. Before diving in, make sure to review The Ultimate Guide to Merit Scholarships.   University of Notre Dame’s Merit Scholarships Statistics Percentage of students with no financial need: 50% Percentage of students with no financial need who were awarded merit scholarships: 4% Averag...

First Amendment News 281: Clearview face-recognition controversy continues — privacy v. free speechLast August we posted a story titled “Floyd Abrams’ march into postmodernity — facial recognition and the First Amendment.” That post began by quoting from a New York Times article: Clearview AI has hired Floyd Abrams, a top lawyer, to help fight claims that selling its data to law enforcement agencies violates privacy laws. . . . Litigation against the start-up “has the potential of leading to a major decision about the interrelationship between privacy claims and First Amendment defenses in the 21st century,” Mr. Abrams said in a phone interview. He said the underlying legal questions could one day reach the Supreme Court. At the time of that post, Mr. Abrams told FAN that there “are t...

Five years of the ‘Chicago Statement’: What have we learned? Part 2Editor’s Note: This is the second in a multi-part series reflecting on the impact of the “Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression” at the University of Chicago (better known as the “Chicago Statement”), which was released in January 2015. Since then, FIRE has successfully advocated for colleges and universities across the nation to adopt the statement themselves in order to express their commitment to freedom of expression. In our first installment of this series, we journeyed back to 2014 to explore the beginnings of the Chicago Statement and discuss the impact it had on campuses across the nation to begin conversations about free expression. In this entry, we’ll explore some common critiques of the Chicago State...

House Resolution calls for global abolishment of blasphemy laws; U.S. colleges with overseas campuses should take noteHouse Resolution 512, sponsored by Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, passed the House of Representatives overwhelmingly on Monday with a vote of 386-3. The resolution calls “for the global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws.” These laws operate in dozens of countries and tend to punish religious minorities, non-believers, and secularists. This is a vital issue for human rights defenders around the world, and one that is relevant to American higher education as well.  The resolution urges countries to abolish their blasphemy and apostasy laws and ensure the freedom and safety of those imprisoned under such laws. According to the resolution, “many countries continu...