Friday, April 24, 2020 | 2:30 pm 3:45 pm

An online forum hosted by PEN Americas Campus Free Speech Program

This is PEN Americas third online forum in our webinar series, Free Speech & the Virtual Campus. More webinars will be announced.

As COVID-19 has shifted campuses online and media outlets have scrambled to cover the crisis, student press groups around the country have stepped up in enormous ways to serve their communities. Amid challenges with finances, staffing, printing, records access, and university staff communications, student journalist leaders continue to move their teams forward in support of an informed public.

Join PEN America and the Student Press Law Center in a roundtable with student press leaders from eight universities as we discuss ways to navigate this crisis and safeguard free expression and a free press in these turbulent and uncertain times.

REGISTER HERE

Mike Hiestand has been integral to the Student Press Law Centers (SPLC) success since 1989. He was an SPLC intern, its first legal fellow, and then served as full-time staff attorney from 19912003. Over the years, he has assisted about 16,000 student journalists and advisers. He currently works from the west coast on the SPLC hotline and related projects. In 201314, Hiestand traveled around the country with Mary Beth Tinker, teaching and speaking out on behalf of student press rights and free expression. Tinker Tour USA kicked off on Constitution Day at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The bus logged 15,595 miles across the American east coast, midwest and southeast speaking to more than 20,000 students and teachers at 58 stops, including schools, colleges, churches, a youth detention facility, courts, and several national conventions. In the spring of 2014, The Tinker Tour moved on to schools and events in the American west, midwest and southwest, as well as a stop in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Vancouver, Canada. Hiestand, who grew up in Alaska, graduated from Bartlett High School in Anchorage and went on to Marquette Universitys College of Journalism and Cornell Law School.

Read more:

[WEBINAR] Free Press on Campus and COVID-19: A Leadership Roundtable with Student Journalists - PEN America