“DO STUDENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH?”

Friday, April 7, 2023
7:30 pm – 9 pm

Synopsis

Engaged citizens use their voices to express themselves, support causes they care about, and make positive change in our world. But today’s polarized environment around critically-important issues like race, gender, COVID-19, abortion, and more, can make speaking up feel like a big risk. This presentation will teach students about their First Amendment Rights as citizens and their speech rights as students at a private college. We’ll consider the case for tolerating “the speech you hate” instead of calling for censorship, how to address “hate speech,” and how we all benefit when you speak up — even when it’s hard or scary. The presenter will encourage and answer tough questions on this topic.

Speaker Bio

Alex is an attorney and a journalist whose approach to defending student and faculty rights blends trusted legal strategy and the power of public interest reporting. She leads FIRE’s (The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) Campus Rights Advocacy program, a team of attorneys and advocates who help people of all political and ideological persuasions facing civil liberties threats on American college campuses.

Alex is a member of the First Amendment Lawyers Association. She has a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School, a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and has trained at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She attended the University of Arizona in her hometown of Tucson, majoring in journalism and French and graduating with honors. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar, where she taught English in rural, underserved schools.

Alex is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, New York, and Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband and their three children.