For the second time, Claremont McKenna has claimed the top spot in the rankings. Speech controversies at the highest-rated schools are rare, and their administrations are more likely to support free speech. The schools that improved their score the most, including Dartmouth College and Vanderbilt University, worked to reform their policies and recently implemented new programs that support free speech and encourage open discourse.
The lowest-rated schools are home to restrictive speech policies and some of last year’s most shocking anti-free speech moments, including threats to press freedom, speaker cancellations, and the quashing of student protests.
The best colleges for free speech
- Claremont McKenna College
- Purdue University
- University of Chicago
- Michigan Technological University
- University of Colorado, Boulder
- University of North Carolina, Greensboro
- Vanderbilt University
- Appalachian State University
- Eastern Kentucky University
- North Carolina State University
The worst colleges for free speech
- Loyola University, Chicago
- Middlebury College
- New York University
- Boston College
- University of California, Davis
- Northeastern University
- University of Washington
- Indiana University
- Columbia University
- Barnard College
Other key findings from the report include:
- 166 of the 257 schools surveyed got an F for their speech climate, while only 11 schools received a speech climate grade of C or higher.
- Only 36% of students said that it was “extremely” or “very” clear that their administration protects free speech on campus.
- A record 1 in 3 students now holds some level of acceptance – even if only “rarely” — for resorting to violence to stop a campus speech.
- 53% of students say that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a difficult topic to discuss openly on campus. On 21 of the campuses surveyed, at least 75% of students said this — including 90% of students at Barnard.
- For the first time ever, a majority of students oppose their school allowing any of the six controversial speakers they were asked about onto campus — three controversial conservative speakers and three controversial liberal ones.