Elite Universities Ranked Lowest For Free Speech, Report Finds

Some of the most prominent elite universities in the nation have been ranked lowest for freedom of speech, according to a report released Thursday.

Harvard, Columbia, New York University (NYU), the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and Barnard College make up the bottom five in a free speech ranking of 251 universities, according to a report by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and College Pulse. The report cited several incidents of “suppression of free expression” at the schools, including disruption of events and sanctions on students and staff for expressing their views as the reasoning behind the schools’ low rankings.

The ranking considers student perceptions of free speech using a survey of over 58,000 students from across the nation measuring factors such as how comfortable they feel expressing opinions on campus, as well as how the school responded to incidents that threatened speech such as attempts to silence speakers or student groups. Notable events that impacted school rankings include the fiery protests that erupted at Columbia and Harvard’s sanctioning of multiple students and student groups.

Free speech on campus has changed drastically since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the report stated, with over 54 attempts in 2023 to silence or disrupt events at universities across the nation in response to the ongoing war and 75 attempts in 2024 . Nearly three-quarters of students surveyed answered that speakers supporting pro-Palestine views should be allowed to speak on campus, and just over half of students surveyed said that preventing other students from attending a campus speech is “rarely” acceptable.

These elite universities have been at the height of controversy recently, hosting some of the largest and most consequential protests over the conflict in Gaza. Combined, the universities saw violent protests that culminated in hundreds of arrests, classes and events being canceled and disciplinary action being taken against students and faculty alike.

“The Middle East crisis plunged campuses into absolute chaos last academic year and administrators largely failed in their response, clamping down on free speech protections instead of fostering spaces for open dialogue,” FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff said in a press release. “The nightmare scenarios of last spring cannot be repeated this fall. Colleges need to reassert their mantle of being marketplaces of ideas, not bubbles of groupthink and censorship.”

Political tolerance at the bottom five schools saw a wide gap between political parties, with students being much more willing to allow liberal speakers on campus and much more likely to say that conservative speakers should not be allowed. Of all the students surveyed from all institutions, over two-thirds said that speakers espousing controversial opinions such as arguments against Black Lives Matter or gender ideology should “definitely” or “probably” not be allowed on campus.

The majority of students surveyed reported that free speech policies at their school were unclear, with 47% saying their administration would be “somewhat” likely to defend controversial speech and 28% reporting their administration would be “not at all” or “not very” likely to defend free speech rights.

The report surveyed 58,807 undergraduate students from January 25 through June 17, 2024 from 258 colleges and universities in the United States with a margin of error of s +/- 0.4.