Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

For the first time in nine years, Penn State removed its university-wide 14-credit-hour restriction on fraternities and sororities, restoring the right of Greek organizations to recruit first-semester students this fall.

That’s a big change. And it’s one we called for.

In January, we urged Penn State to rescind its deferred recruitment policy that singled out Greek life while allowing first-semester students to join university athletic teams, student government, and other campus groups or even work full-time.

The First Amendment protects students’ freedom to associate, and students should be free to choose which communities they want to be part of without unfair restrictions from administrators.

This fall, Penn State has removed that barrier, leaving the choice up to student-run Greek organizations. They can decide for themselves whether to open recruitment to first-semester students!

“Literature that never unsettles us may be comfortable, but incomplete—antiseptically free of debate, friction, and discovery.”

English professor Vinita Prabhakar believed her students deserved exactly the kind of challenge that comes from encountering ideas different from their own. But apparently, South Florida State College’s president didn’t feel the same.

After teaching Ottessa Moshfegh’s short story “Bettering Myself” for years, Prabhakar was fired after the president objected to the story and called it “political.”

Now, Prabhakar is sharing her firsthand account of what happened and why she’s fighting back with FIRE.

📄: https://www.persuasion.community/p/i-taught-a-short-story-my-college

I Taught a Short Story. My College Fired Me For It. Academic censorship is very real.

From Tiananmen remembrance becoming a crime in Hong Kong to a Swiss tourist jailed for criticizing a sacred holiday in Bali, the latest Free Speech Dispatch covers the global fight for free expression, all in one place.

🌎 https://expression.fire.org/p/in-china-and-hong-kong-remembrance

REGISTER: Which colleges are the best (and worst) for free speech? Our webinar on Wednesday, Sept. 10, will answer that question live!

Next week, FIRE’s 2027 College Free Speech Rankings, surveying tens of thousands of students about the state of free speech on America’s college campuses, will be released.

The results offer a revealing look at the state of campus expression today.

Get an exclusive chance to ask our experts your questions in real-time. Join us!

💻: https://thefire-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/6317875854349/WN_OQUpifaMTfSKylAkdkqjwg #/registration?utm_campaign=cfsrwebinar&utm_medium=Organic_social&utm_source=TW

! After a FIRE lawsuit, the University of Washington paid $600,000 after punishing Professor Stuart Reges for parodying a university-approved “land acknowledgment” in his syllabus.

Land acknowledgments in syllabi have become increasingly common at universities. Reges criticized UW’s model statement in an email to faculty, then parodied it in his syllabus to show that there are competing views on the value of land acknowledgments.

UW was not amused.

The university censored the parody, created a competing class, and investigated Reges for nearly a year under an “antiharassment” policy.

After nearly four years of litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that UW officials violated Reges’ First Amendment rights.

The $600K settlement also ensures UW can’t take further action against him over his land acknowledgment parody.

Academic freedom means professors can express their own opinions rather than toeing the university’s line. UW learned the hard way: Ignoring the First Amendment can be costly.

➡️ https://www.fire.org/news/washington-professor-who-parodied-university-land-acknowledgment-wins-600k-settlement

Polk County Sheriff's Office and Polk County Animal Control -Florida have adopted a social media policy allowing officials to hide comments and block users for speech they deem “inappropriate” or “offensive.”

That’s a serious First Amendment problem. The government can’t open its social media pages for public comment and then silence viewpoints officials dislike.

The policy also bans “hatred,” “trolling,” and “personal attacks,” without clearly defining some of those terms. That gives officials broad discretion over which criticism stays up and which disappears. Users have already reported having comments hidden or being blocked.

PCSO describes its social media spaces as “limited public forums,” which means officials may enforce reasonable, viewpoint-neutral rules. But that doesn’t give them the power to censor protected speech because they disagree with its message.

We’re calling on PCSO to rewrite its policies, stop suppressing protected speech, and unblock users who were improperly blocked.

✉️: https://www.fire.org/research-learn/fire-letter-polk-county-sheriffs-office-september-2-2026

The Whitman Republican Club was unanimously denied recognition after Whitman College student senators pressed club members to criticize the GOP and President Trump — all while groups supporting Planned Parenthood and climate justice were recognized without the same scrutiny.

This is viewpoint discrimination, pure and simple.

Without recognition, the Republican Club loses access to funding, institutional support, and other resources available to student groups.

We’re urging Whitman to ensure the club gets a fair, viewpoint-neutral decision this fall.

✉️: https://www.fire.org/research-learn/fire-letter-whitman-college-august-31-2026

Meta’s $17 billion settlement comes with a catch: our online speech rights.

Yet, the settlement includes stricter limits for minors and more robust age verification, but that could mean adults have to prove their identity to access protected speech.

The result? A backdoor for the government to eviscerate anonymous speech rights on major social media platforms.

Protecting minors online is an important goal. We can do it without sacrificing the First Amendment rights of every American who wants to speak or access information online.

🔗: https://www.fire.org/news/17b-meta-settlement-comes-catch-your-online-speech-rights