Report Says These Are the 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech

Free speech on America’s college campuses has certainly seen better days. Many universities and colleges have taken away the freedom of expression, citing censorious university rules and campus cultures that are restrictive.

According to a survey, these are the 10 most hostile colleges for free speech. Ranking update The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expressions (FIRE)

Note: The ranking 1-10 was purely for formatting purposes. FIRE didn’t necessarily name any of the listed as “worse” It is more than other.

10. Hamline University

This Minnesota-based liberal arts college fired an art history professor for daring to… teach art history? That’s right: After an art history professor showed an important historical painting depicting the prophet Mohammed—which some Muslims find offensive—she was not re-hired and dubbed “Islamophobic.” She warned students that the painting would be displayed and that they didn’t need to be there if it was offensive to their faith. The university made absurd claims. “respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom.”

9. Pennsylvania State University

This public university earned FIRE’s condemnation because it canceled a controversial speaking event featuring right-wing speakers due to “security concerns,” Effectively, you are giving in to temptation “heckler’s veto” instead of relying on its many resources to ensure that the event can proceed safely.

8. Collin College

This college is also known as the “epicenter of censorship” Texas. It’s on this list because it fired professors who formed a union and criticized the institution’s handling of COVID-19. It was sued by one of these professors and lost in federal courts. It is also being sued for firing a professor that supported the removal of statues from the Confederate era.

7. Texas A&M

This college earned FIRE’s ire by repeatedly attempting to restrict or limit the freedom of student groups, from an LGBT association’s drag event to an independent campus newspaper to a freshman orientation group.

6. University of Pennsylvania

This Ivy-League university used to earn FIRE’s highest rating for free speech. But not anymore.

Now, it’s in the hot seat from FIRE because it is pursuing disciplinary charges against a tenured professor, Amy Wax, over her controversial comments on race and immigration, which, while indeed inflammatory, are protected under academic freedom.

5. Emerson

This Massachusetts college of the arts is well-known for its censoriousness. It has taken numerous anti-free speech actions against Turning Point USA (a MAGA-style student group), including suspending and investigating the group. “China kinda sus” stickers. (This campaign was clearly targeted at China’s government, but the university unfairly framed it as racism).

It also prevented TPUSA’s screening of a documentary about, ironically enough free speech, as well as prohibiting it from spreading material on campus.

4. Emporia State

This public Kansas university is under FIRE’s scrutiny for its move to effectively end tenure and fire more than 30 faculty members, including one who publicly criticized the university. This is what academic freedom looks like.

3. Tennessee Tech

A president of a drag-show hosted by the university in August 2022 offended this public research university and led to it targeting an LGBT student group. Newsflash to this university’s administrators: There’s no exception to the First Amendment just because you really don’t like something someone said.

2. University of Oregon

The University of Oregon was included on this list because it penalizes potential faculty members who don’t align with the university’s strongly-ideological viewpoints in job considerations “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” statements. A prospective professor might believe this, for example. “it’s better not to have outreach or affinity groups aimed at underrepresented individuals because it keeps them separate from everyone else, or will make them feel less valued” In the job search, you would be penalized.

This kind of ideological litmus testing is, as it should be, against academic freedom and free expression principles.

1. Loyola University of New Orleans

This university is listed because of the horrible treatment of Professor Walter Block (an anarcho-capitalist economists professor). He was subjected to mandatory diversity training because of his WrongThink, and threatened with termination for his speech.

Bonus: Georgetown University

The famed D.C. university has earned FIRE’s “Lifetime Censorship Award” After a frustrating saga in which it suspended Ilya Schapiro as a faculty member for a poorly-phrased tweet regarding Supreme Court Justice Ketanji brown Jackson, the suspension was clear that academic freedom was within its bounds.

It also has a terrible history of censoring pro – abortion. pro-Bernie Sanders movements on campus and having generic speech policies so chilling that it earns FIRE’s “red light” rating. Georgetown now joins just a handful of other colleges in receiving FIRE’s top dishonor, the Lifetime Censorship Award.

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