Sexual Harassment And Diversity Training
Q. it's nonetheless taken on animpressive list of giants, including Columbia University with its
draconian sexual-harassment code (an ongoing case) and Brandeis
University (on behalf of a student FIRE and many others believed had
been denied due process in a sexual-harassment case?
A. Insight interviewed Thor L.
Halvorssen, FIRE's irrepressible
executive director and a former student of Kors, in his office by
Independence Square. FIRE started with a staff of two, but now employs
eight full time. Still very young, it's nonetheless taken on an
impressive list of giants, including Columbia University with its
draconian sexual-harassment code (an ongoing case) and Brandeis
University (on behalf of a student FIRE and many others believed had
been denied due process in a sexual-harassment case). Its also has
involved itself in the cause of Christians at Tufts University (where
the 70-member Christian Fellowship was banned after it refused to
allow a homosexual to play a leadership role in the group). Tufts,
thanks to FIRE, rescinded the ban and now the Christian group is
thriving on the campus.
Anywhere free speech is challenged on campus, FIRE may take up
the cause. It makes for a busy life at FIRE offices since speech codes
and the politically correct remain rife on America's campuses these
days. Halvorssen tells Insight that FIRE's ultimate goal is to be
successful enough that the group "extinguishes itself" because it has
no more wrongs to right. At present, though, that's not the case and
FIRE plans an expansion of its current office space to acquire
sufficient room to deal with the work that comes its way every