Group takes national lead in campus free-speech f

PHILADELPHIA -- When part-time college student Jihad Daniel received a campuswide e-mail invitation to see a movie about lesbians, he balked.

"These are perversions," he replied to the e-mail's sender, asking that he no longer be sent information about "Connie and Sally" or "Adam and Steve."

The next thing he knew, the 68-year-old student at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., was accused of violating the school's anti-discrimination policy.

A letter of reprimand followed in June, describing his brief comments to the sender -- the head of the women's studies program -- as "derogatory or demeaning."

He took his case to a Philadelphia organization that has become the go-to group for college students and professors of all stripes who believe their rights to free speech have been violated.

Since 1999, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has battled pro bono for evangelicals and atheists, animal rights activists and campus conservatives, and others who say they have been silenced by school administrations because of their points of view.

The group filed a complaint with the university saying Daniel's rights to free speech and due process had been violated. The New Jersey attorney general sided with the school, but the foundation said it will fight to have the reprimand lifted.

With 11 employees in Philadelphia and a network of dozens of volunteer attorneys nationwide, the foundation has grown from an organization that publicized student complaints to a resource for college communities.

Foundation president David French said the group's goal is to "transform the culture of education into one that respects free speech for everybody."

He said the foundation has successfully defended students, professors and student newspapers.