Once Again, Harvard Ranks Dead Last in Free Speech Rankings
New York University, Columbia University, and Harvard University were the only schools on the list to receive a rating of “abysmal.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released their annual free speech rankings.
Between January 25 and June 17, 2024 58, 807 students from 257 colleges and universities were asked how comfortable they felt expressing their views on campus, how they felt their administration protects free speech, how open they are to hearing views they disagree with, and more.
These were the top five schools for protecting free speech:
1. University of Virginia
2. Michigan Technological University
3. Florida State University
4. Eastern Kentucky University
5. Georgia Institute of Technology
And these were the worst:
46. Barnard College
47. University of Pennsylvania
48. New York University
49. Columbia University
50. Harvard University
New York University, Columbia University, and Harvard University were the only schools on the list to receive a rating of “abysmal.” Like last year, Harvard ranked dead last.
These results are unfortunately unsurprising. This year, the presidents of the three Ivy League universities (Harvard University, Columbia University, and University of Pennsylvania) resigned after they struggled to find the balance of protecting free speech on campus while maintaining a safe learning environment for all students following the October 7th terror attacks in Israel.
The FIRE report also noted that 54% of students said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “difficult to have an open and honest conversation about.” This is up from 26% the previous year.
According to FIRE, there has been an increase in students who believe it is rarely acceptable to shout down a speaker to prevent them from speaking (68%), to block students from attending a campus speech (52%), and to use violence to stop a campus speech (32%).
The ALEC Center to Protect Free Speech has highlighted instances of this disruptive conduct this year. One example was at University of California-Berkeley, where students blocked peers from entering a building where an IDF soldier was giving a speech and broke the buildings’ glass windows in protest.
ALEC strongly supports the right to free speech on campus and has two model policies states that want to protect speech on their campuses can look to, the Forming Open and Robust University Minds (FORUM) Act and the Free Speech in Higher Education Act.
We hope that the universities at the bottom of this ranking will begin taking steps to protect and promote free speech on their campuses.