Watchdog Group Ranks Harvard as America’s Worst School for Free Speech

The campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on July 8, 2020. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Despite being considered one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world, Harvard University has been ranked as the worst school in the country for free speech, according to a new survey, which described students’ First Amendment rights at the Ivy League school as “abysmal.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)—a nonprofit organization that focuses on civil liberties in the education sector—released its annual report on Sept. 6. The rankings are based on the voices of over 55,000 students currently enrolled in more than 250 colleges and universities across the United States.

Each institution was given an overall score and either a “green light,” “yellow light,” or “red light,” depending on how much its written policies could limit students’ open expression.

A “red light” means the institution has at least one policy that clearly restricts freedom of speech, while a “yellow light” indicates they have policies that are written in a vague manner that could be interpreted as being restrictive to free speech. A “green light” means a school does not maintain any policies that seriously threaten scholars’ open expression, although this ranking does not indicate whether a college actively supports free expression.

Harvard received a “yellow light” and obtained the lowest score possible—a 0.00-grade free speech ranking on a 100-point scale—ending up 11 points behind the second-worst school on the list, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) in Philadelphia.

“I’m not totally surprised,” Sean Stevens, director of polling and analytics at FIRE, told the New York Post. “We’ve done these rankings for years now, and Harvard is consistently near the bottom.”

The nonprofit said in a statement that the all-star academic school never performed well in FIRE’s “College Free Speech Rankings”—the largest survey on student free expression—and always finished below 75 percent of the institutions surveyed in each of the past four years.

“Harvard, which on paper commits to protecting free speech, has a dismal record of responding to deplatforming attempts—attempts to sanction students, student groups, scholars, and speakers for speech protected under First Amendment standards,” the organization stated.

In its survey, FIRE quoted Harvard students who said fellow scholars “love to cancel each other in the name of wokeness,” as well as a student who said they felt “uncomfortable” to “speak my mind about anything conservative” due to their fear of experiencing repercussions.

“I felt uncomfortable speaking about the immorality of abortion because it is the campus-wide view that killing an innocent human being is valid,” another Harvard student was quoted as saying. “I was ostracized in my class for saying so.”

Top-Ranked School

Topping 2024’s list for free speech rankings was Michigan Technological University in Houghton, the only college in the state to earn a “green light” for its free speech policies. The school earned 78.01 out of 100 possible points.

“I’m not necessarily surprised that a technological school has a better speech climate, primarily for the reason that they don’t really talk as much about controversial topics,” Mr. Stevens said. “They’re there to make things work as engineers.”

The top five schools this year all received “green light” speech code ratings. Auburn University in Alabama, the University of New Hampshire, Oregon State University, and Florida State University rounded out the top five.

In contrast, the bottom five schools either received a “yellow light” or “red light” rating. Those placing in the bottom five were Harvard, UPenn, the University of South Carolina, Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and Fordham in New York City.

Since private institutions are generally not bound by the First Amendment, FIRE designed a “warning” rating for educational institutions that do not promise free speech to students and faculty members. Of the private colleges and universities reviewed, six of them earned a “warning” rating for clearly and consistently stating that they hold certain values above the commitment to freedom of speech, such as religious values—which is their right as private institutions.

“As a Catholic with a lot of Protestant friends, they can be pretty ruthless when it comes to mocking my religion, to the point where I rarely if not ever speak up about my faith or defend it,” FIRE quoted a Hillsdale College student as saying.

Hillsdale College in Michigan earned 46.87 out of 100 possible points, and outperformed all of the other “warning” schools—Liberty University in Virginia, Pepperdine University in California, Brigham Young University in Utah, Baylor University in Texas, and Saint Louis University in Missouri—by at least 10 points.

FIRE’s latest “College Free Speech Rankings” is the largest survey the nonpartisan organization has conducted on undergraduate attitudes since its founding in 1999, giving a comprehensive look at the speech climate on America’s campuses.

College campuses across the United States that stifle free speech, a right protected by the First Amendment, are an ongoing issue that continues to be thrust into the national spotlight.

As FIRE continues to be inundated with allegations of free speech violations, Mr. Stevens told The Post that the erosion of campus discourse should concern everyone.

“I’d say the state of free speech on campus is stagnant at best, and possibly a little worse than last year,” he said.

From NTD News