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Good morning,
I’m
excited to introduce you to Niklas Vakil. Nik joined
the FIRE team this
week as part of our annual Internship
Program. Along with eight other
undergraduate students
and three law school students, Nik will spend his
summer
learning about free speech, due process, religious liberty,
free
thought, and legal equality from FIRE staff and other
First Amendment
experts and free speech advocates.
Back
on campus, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Nik is the solicitor
General for the Associated Students of
Madison. In this role, Nik has
represented fellow students
in numerous cases in front of the Student
Judiciary,
including the defense of two student council members who,
after voicing criticism of affirmative action policies and
university
sponsored “safe spaces,” were charged with
malfeasance in office and
subject to removal from their
positions. In both of these cases, Nik won
unanimous
verdicts!
Nik
also serves on the Student Misconduct Panel on
campus. Participating in
misconduct cases, Nik has
gotten a close-up look into the troubling
lack of pro-
cedural protections for accused students. For example,
at
UW-Madison — and most other institutions of higher
education
nationwide — students’ cases are decided
using the low “preponderance of
the evidence” standard.
(An unlawful mandate by the Department of
Education
that nearly all colleges and universities use this standard
in
adjudicating sexual misconduct cases is currently
being challenged in court through a lawsuit sponsored
by FIRE.)
These
experiences have ignited Nik’s passion for civil
liberties and brought
him to intern at FIRE. By completing
an internship at FIRE, Nik will get
the hands-on training
he needs to better address free speech and due
process
concerns on his campus. In total, it will cost $5,120 to
host Nik all summer.
This cost completely covers his
stipend, books, materials, fees to
attend our activism-
focused summer conference, and more, like a tour of
the
National Constitution Center.
Would you consider sponsoring Nik?
You can sponsor Nik by making a donation to FIRE’s
Internship Program today.
Our Internship Program lies
at the heart of our efforts to empower
student activists.
It is one of our longest-standing and most successful
programs, and in a time when so many of today’s college
students are
demanding “protective” speech codes, “safe
spaces,” and trigger
warnings, it is also one of our most
important. Now more than ever, we
need to make sure
that students who care about free speech and due
process
rights are given the opportunity to gain the knowledge and
tools
needed to fight for them on campus. This summer,
FIRE has 12 brilliant
and dedicated students who want
that opportunity. Our interns are
committed to the free and
robust exchange of ideas and have each chosen
to spend
the summer learning strategies to change the culture on
campus.
Given
your help, Nik and his fellow interns can become
effective advocates
for liberty back on campus. Your
donation affords them the unique
opportunity to gain the
experience they need to translate their passion
into action.
It will also give them a lifelong appreciation for the
First
Amendment, which they will carry into careers in law, public
policy, service, and education!
I hope you will think about this request and consider saying
yes! Thank you in advance for supporting this important
program.
FIRE’s 2017 intern class
Kendall Burchard, University of Virginia
School of Law
Sam Foer, University of Rhode Island
Michael Frazier, University of Kentucky
Ethan Greist, Johns Hopkins University
Jacob Hill, The College of William &
Mary
Katherine Hung, Harvard College
Veronica Joyce, Pennsylvania State
University
Julia Kothmann, University of Virginia
Isaac Smith, University of Cincinnati College
of Law
Niklas Vakil, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Qi Xu, Swarthmore College
Lyndsey Wajert, Boston University School
of Law
Sincerely,
Molly Nocheck
Director of Campus Outreach, Internship Coordinator
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