Harvard just earned a dubious distinction.
According to an annual report released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression on Wednesday, Harvard is the worst university in the U.S. when it comes to free speech.
To determine the rankings, FIRE assessed student perceptions of free speech on campus as well as behavior by faculty, administrators and undergraduates toward free expression. Overall, there are 248 ranked colleges on the list, with Harvard earning 0 points, the lowest ever recorded, and given an “abysmal” classification. The University of Pennsylvania, University of South Carolina, Georgetown, and Fordham join Harvard at the bottom of the pack. Michigan Technological University was ranked as the best school for free speech in America, alongside Auburn, the University of New Hampshire, and Oregon State University.
Six colleges were labeled “warning schools” for having policies that prioritize “other values over a commitment to freedom of speech” and were thus excluded from the list. They are ranked relative to each other, however, with schools like Hillsdale and Liberty topping the list.
“Each year, the climate on college campuses grows more inhospitable to free speech,” said FIRE Director of Polling and Analytics Sean Stevens. “Some of the most prestigious universities in our country have the most repressive administrations. Students should know that a college degree at certain schools may come at the expense of their free speech rights.”
Key findings from the report:
- Harvard is by far the worst school in the country for free speech. It is the only school with an “Abysmal” rating.
- Deplatforming attempts that occurred at schools ranked in the bottom five had an alarming 81% success rate.
- Up to 72% of students opposed allowing a conservative speaker on campus, depending on the topic, while up to 43% of students opposed allowing a liberal speaker on campus.
- 73% of students said that using violence to stop a campus speech is never acceptable, down from 80% last year. At Oberlin College, only 53% of students said that violence is never acceptable.
- At a time of national dialogue about abortion policy, 49% of students have difficulty discussing abortion on campus. The most difficult topics to discuss on campus are abortion, gun control, racial inequality, and transgender rights.
- Of the 248 schools ranked, 73 have “below average,” “poor,” “very poor,” or “abysmal” speech climates. Just 47 have at least “slightly above average” speech climates. Last year, when 203 schools were ranked, these totals were 64 and 39, respectively. (FIRE)
“We are very pleased to see that a number of university presidents are taking the issue of freedom of speech and academic freedom seriously by signing on to free speech initiatives,” said FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff in a statement. “However, they have a long way to go toward restoring public trust. After all, an environment in which you can actually get in trouble for the ‘wrong’ academic opinion is not one that can be depended upon to produce reliable knowledge. It’s especially disturbing that some of the worst performing institutions are among America’s most influential schools, including Harvard, Georgetown, Northwestern and Dartmouth.”
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