I’ve posted previously about my old college paper, the Michigan Review, which the University of Michigan is threatening to evict from the office it has called home for 27 years. Today, FIRE stepped into the controversy with this letter:

FIRE is deeply concerned about the threat to freedom of the press and legal equality posed by the University of Michigan’s (UM’s) treatment of The Michigan Review (hereinafter the Review) over the past two years. Most recently, this treatment has resulted in threats to evict the student publication from the office space it has held for approximately 27 years after university officials broke the organization’s five-year lease, changed policies without providing notification, provided misinformation, failed to provide information or delayed providing information when it was requested, and failed to extend application deadlines or hear appeals granted to other student organizations in other years.
These actions seem to have been taken primarily in retaliation for the Review’s frequent opposition to UM policies. Review pieces have criticized UM’s former speech code, UM’s response to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, and policies proposed by UM that would have restricted student publications’ distribution on campus. For instance, the Review’s editorial page denounced the proposed distribution policy in February 2008, arguing that “[t]he policies would create a chilling effect for existing speech as well as new student speech that seeks to enter the arena of ideas.” UM soon rescinded the policy, undoubtedly due in significant part to negative public pressure initiated by the Review.