The 2024 College Free Speech Rankings are out!

It’s that time of year, friends of free speech! For the fourth annual College Free Speech Rankings, FIRE and College Pulse surveyed 55,102 college undergraduates at 248 schools about their perceptions and experiences regarding free speech on their campuses-and the results might shock you.
Go to rankings.thefire.org to see if your school measures up.
And to join the fight to defend free speech on campus, visit us at TheFIRE.org.
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.

[@biggaudits]

Love what you folks are doing

[@TheFIREorg]

Thanks!

[@kerryford6677]

Wow! Very informative!

[@stevenjm12]

Amazing that Oregon State ranks so high in one of the most "liberal" states in the nation.

[@DRourk]

Outside of Portland Oregon isn't all that communist. Stop calling them the L word, call them what they are.

[@stevenjm12]

@@DRourk well I put "liberal" in quotations for a reason. Nothing liberal about them

[@DRourk]

@@stevenjm12 I know... Much better to speak truth to power though. That word was hijacked a long time ago by the communists. Take it back, use it right, and call them what they are.

[@deanedgx]

great work

[@TheFIREorg]

Thank you!

[@deldridg]

Please come to Australia. You may not get to speak to 55,000 students, but you would shed light on unhealthy dynamics we all suspect are manifesting here. Great work and we hope it will make a difference. Cheers from Sydney - David

[@AVG400]

Defund the Ivy League

[@richmotroni]

Sadly my alumni, San Jose State University, was ranked #186, below average.

[@JCResDoc94]

do you know the way to San Jose? so we can avoid it. -_-

[@JCResDoc94]

*shes hot enough that i care about free speech now!* another win for fire. ima go RT the ranking. pl love rankings. _JC

[@judyh.9518]

Love Michigan Technology! They also have a shooting range.

[@lowercherty]

Go youse Huskies from da Tech!

[@riffmondo9733]

The larger the donations to the schools the more speech seems to be censored.

[@toddm9910]

Left leaning students caring about free speech: ……… Same students after Oct 7th: Woah…. Harvard doesn’t respect free speech!

[@leonardoD81]

So I guess a person violently striking someone in order to attend a speech that he/she is being prevented from attending is also acceptable.

[@stevenjm12]

yeah, they dont think this far down the line logically. Violence is only acceptable when they say it is

[@kylethedalek]

In our chat groups we allow anything but hate speech. Some people complain about bad language or sexual stuff, but we ask them to point out how that’s hateful and they are shut down. There is no reason to have hateful speech, remarks or what ever this were all hateful movements start and progress and get bigger and spread and then you have people hating others and discrimination starts and it could get worse. To stop bullying, suicide, discrimination you stop it as soon as it starts and that’s with speech. Why is it wrong for wanting to be a good person? What is hate? Hatred, dislike, discrimination. To say you hate, is hate speech. I know people who got bullied at school and even work places. And some have even committed suicide. So sticks and stones break bones, but names destroy my mental health, self esteem. We are human we are Emotional, we have feelings and they can hurt us. Like this auditors using their freedom to film places, car wrecks (with dead bodies.) and they wonder why they are changing laws on this. You can shout fire in a crowded theatre, make false alarms. Why? It’s immoral. It can lead to death, injures and a waste of time, resources and money.

[@AsLoudAsAudio]

So in your chat group who gets to decide what is hateful? What if people disagree? Give an exact definition of what hate speech is; if you can, you would be the first person ever. Who gets to be the arbiter of what is considered hate speech at a societal level? There has never been a consensus on what is considered hate speech. It ultimately ends up being speech that one side doesn’t agree with. Can you see the problem? If you are a democrat, everything that is not inline with the party values are hateful. If you are on the right, almost nothing is considered hateful. Where is the line exactly? Who gets to decide and why, please explain.

[@chriskruger4218]

The reason "hate" speech laws are unconstitutional is because they make the GOVERNMENT the arbiter of what "hate" is and what is "hateful." It amazes me that anyone would trust a government that has killed 3-4 million people since 2003 to determine what is "hate" or "hateful." Don't believe me? Look up the Watson Institute at Brown University. Hard to imagine anything more hateful than starting wars and overthrowing governments. You are being brought up in a fantasy; the U.S. is a murderous empire that has zero compassion for anyone, including it own citizens.

[@kylethedalek]

@@AsLoudAsAudio Hate is hatful. So just saying “I hate….” Is you making a statement that you hate this or that. So that is clearly hate speech. Discrimination, dislike or hate to people for no reason, bullying. All seems pretty obvious, or just someone feeling hated against. It’s subjective and you have the right to have your feelings validated. It is to stop bullying, harassment, suicide. Stop it at its roots.

[@mikealvord55]

The problem is who decides what is hate? You really need a reality check. Some people saying that trans community should leave kids alone some people say that’s hate speech. Well no it’s not. calling the right domestic terrorists that’s actually hate speech but you know what you get to say stupid stuff and it’s our job to refute it and prove you wrong. I had a post deleted this morning for hate speech. I’m not sure which post it was. I answered another question on fire about the study. I don’t exactly my exact quote, but somebody didn’t like it

[@mikealvord55]

@@AsLoudAsAudioGreat points. I think SCOTUS sets the line. And there are libel laws are defamation laws those restrictions on speech, codified, and law, by if not a legislature, the supreme court somewhere.