Some of the nation's most prestigious universities were ranked among the lowest for freedom of speech, according to a report released Thursday.
Harvard, Columbia, NYU, UPenn and Barnard College rank in the bottom five of a list of 251 universities for freedom of speech. According to According to the report by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and College Pulse, the report cited multiple incidents of “suppression of free expression” at the school, including the disruption of events and sanctions against students and faculty who expressed their opinions, as reasons for the school's low ranking.
The rankings take into account students' perceptions of free speech by surveying more than 58,000 students from across the country, measuring factors such as how comfortable they are with expressing their opinions on campus and how their school has responded to incidents of speech intimidation, such as attempts to silence speakers or student groups. Notable events that have influenced school rankings include the violent protests at Columbia University and Harvard University's sanctions against several students and student groups.
According to the report, free speech on campuses has changed dramatically since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with more than 54 attempts to silence or disrupt events at universities across the country in response to the ongoing war in 2023 and more than 75 in 2024. Nearly three-quarters of students surveyed said speakers who espouse pro-Palestinian views should be allowed to speak on campus, and just over half of students surveyed said it is “rarely” acceptable to prevent other students from attending a talk on campus.
These elite universities have recently become the subject of controversy as they have hosted some of the largest and most impactful protests over the Gaza conflict, with violent protests at these institutions collectively resulting in hundreds of arrests, the cancellation of classes and events, and disciplinary action against students and faculty. (Related: 'Heartbreaking': Report finds elite university faculty refused to step in, protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism)
Memorial Hall and Annenberg Hall at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 29, 2023. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
“The Middle East crisis has thrown campuses into complete chaos last year, and university administrations have largely failed to respond, cracking down on free speech protections instead of fostering open space for discourse,” said FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff. press release“We cannot afford to repeat last spring's nightmare scenario this fall. The University must reaffirm its mission to be a marketplace of ideas, not a bubble of groupthink and censorship.”
The bottom five schools showed a large gap between party lines in terms of political tolerance, with students more likely to say liberal speakers should be allowed on campus and more likely to say conservative speakers should not be allowed on campus. More than two-thirds of students across all schools surveyed said that speakers with controversial views, such as Black Lives Matter or arguments against gender ideology, “definitely” or “probably” should not be allowed on campus.
The majority of students surveyed said their school's free speech policies were unclear, with 47% saying their school would defend controversial speech “somewhat” and 28% saying their school would not defend free speech rights “at all” or “very little.”
The report surveyed 58,807 undergraduate students attending 258 U.S. colleges and universities between Jan. 25 and June 17, 2024, with a margin of error of +/- 0.4.
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