Survey reveals ‘worst’ US university for free speech
Harvard University ranked last in a free speech survey of US higher education as students nationally fear about getting “canceled”
Survey reveals ‘worst’ US university for free speech
The oldest institution of higher learning in the US is also the worst when it comes to freedom of speech, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) survey released this week.
rankings showed Harvard University at zero, with the cumulative score actually standing at negative 10.69, FIRE’s director of polling and analytics Sean Stevens told the New York Post.
“I thought it would be pretty much impossible for a school to fall below zero, but they’ve had so many scholar sanctions,” Stevens said. Harvard disciplined seven out of nine professors and researchers over something they had said or written.
“totally surprised,” as Harvard has ranked “consistently near the bottom” since FIRE started doing the survey four years ago. It is the only school that FIRE currently ranks as “Abysmal.”
“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,” FIRE president and CEO Greg Lukianoff said, announcing the survey results.”It’s especially disturbing that some of the worst performing institutions are among America’s most influential schools, including Harvard, Georgetown, Northwestern and Dartmouth.”
The best-ranked school for free speech this year was the Michigan Technological University in Houghton, with a score of 78.01. Alabama’s Auburn University, the University of New Hampshire, Oregon State University and Florida State University made up the rest of the top five.
“canceled” for something they had said, while 27% believed it was acceptable to use violence to stop speech on campus in some circumstances.
The survey showed that the most difficult topics to discuss on campus are “abortion, gun control, racial inequality, and transgender rights.”
“defend and sustain the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought – the most essential qualities of liberty.”