Education
MEDIA ADVISORY: Faculty, Student and Civil Liberties Groups to Announce Campaign to Preserve Academic Freedom and Fight Limits on Campus Free Speech
Source: Free Exchange on Campus
Mar 14, 2006, 18:30

WASHINGTON--(COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--March 14, 2006--Free Exchange on Campus, a broad coalition of student, faculty and civil liberty groups, will hold an audio news conference on March 16 to outline its campaign to fight legislative attempts to limit academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas on campus.
 
Twenty-four states have introduced legislation, the so-called �Academic Bill of Rights,� that would limit speech by faculty members on a wide range of topics. Last month, author David Horowitz, the major proponent of these proposed limits, also published a blacklist of who he refers to as the �101 most dangerous academics in America.�

In Thursday�s news conference, coalition members will outline plans to expose and fight these attacks on academia and related efforts to place government control over campus speech. 

WHO:
Megan Fitzgerald, Center for Campus Free Speech
Susan Unrein, Arizona Student Association
Elena Cross, student, Pennsylvania State University
Lisa Klein, President of the Rutgers Council AAUP/AFT
Larry Estrada, professor at Western Washington University and one of the 101 professors named in the Horowitz blacklist.

WHAT/WHEN:
Free Exchange on Campus Audio News Conference, 11 a.m. Eastern, Thursday, March 16. Reporters need to call 202/879-4447 in advance of the news conference for dial-in instructions.

More information is available at www.freeexchangeoncampus.org.

Coalition members include:
American Association of University Professors
American Civil Liberties Union 
American Federation of Teachers 
Campus Progress / Center for American Progress
Center for Campus Free Speech
National Association of State PIRGs
National Education Association / NEA Student Program
People For the American Way/Young People For Action
Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood
United States Student Association

Contact:
Jamie Horwitz (AFT)
202/879-4447
[email protected]