The 12 Worst Colleges For Free Speech
Greg Lukianoff
Greg Lukianoff
is the president of the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).
U.S. News can tell you which colleges and universities are ranked the "best," but what about your right to express yourself on campus? A critical part of the college experience is grappling with ideas that you might not agree with or that might even offend you. In fact, if you go through four years of college without ever being offended, you should ask for your money back.
While over the years we at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) have dealt with hundreds of examples of universities violating student rights (check to see if your school is one of them), the following 12 colleges have distinguished themselves for showing particular hostility to freedom of speech. Some schools have earned this distinction by refusing to undo punishments of students and faculty for their free speech, others by engaging in ongoing campaigns against student speech, and one for regulating student speech to the hilt. Private religious colleges like DePaul make the list because they promise free speech but fail to deliver time and time again. (As for schools like Liberty University and Brigham Young we explain our position here.) Is your college censoring speech, too? If so, let others know in the comments section.
UPDATE: 1/28. Student at Syracuse issues statement, apologizes for offense, but refuses to sign away his right to criticize Syracuse.http://bit.ly/glzWRx
UPDATE: 2/1. Student at Syracuse announces the school has dropped investigation of him for parody website. http://bit.ly/dR9o7o
UPDATE: 2/14. Progress at UMass Amherst as it reforms policy on "controversial rallies." http://bit.ly/dI2Tjx
1. Syracuse University--Syracuse, New York
Chilly Syracuse, New York, is home to the most dramatic ongoing attempt to stifle student speech so far in 2011. The Syracuse University College of Law has beenconsidering expelling a law student for "harassment" because he liked The Onionenough to allegedly participate in a satirical fake-news blog about law school life. But SU won't reveal who his accusers are or say what was harassing about any of it. "Independent prosecutor" and law professor Gregory Germain pooh-poohs SU's free speech commitment, complaining about "people who have a sense of entitlement to free speech." Germain even wants a gag order on the student. For Syracuse to be taken seriously as a place dedicated to intellectual inquiry it needs to stop this inquisition against a humor website.
Furthermore, in October, the "public safety" director reportedly said the campus police would require students to remove "offensive" Halloween costumes and would report them for discipline because other students could become violently offended. Syracuse has other speech codes like a ban on "offensive" e-mails, and a "bias" reporting system where students can inform on one another for an "inappropriate verbal comment."
2. DePaul University--Chicago, IL
Year after year, DePaul University has walked all over the expressive rights of its students and faculty, with little accountability or sense of obligation to its free speech promises. Most recently, DePaul denied recognition to the student group Students for Cannabis Policy Reform--first saying that the university wasn't ready to "manage" the group's message, then saying that allowing the group on campus might promote poor decision-making in matters of student health. In recent years DePaul has also punished a group for holding an "affirmative action bake sale" protest, suspended a professor without due process for engaging in a debate on Middle East issues with a group of students, and banned a student group from posting flyers protesting a visit by former professor Ward Churchill. While DePaul is a private religious college, it publicly proclaims that it defends and venerates free speech, so it should be held to those promises.
3. SUNY Binghamton--Binghamton, New York
Binghamton University (formerly SUNY Binghamton) tried to suspend or expel Social Work graduate student Andre Massena merely for putting up posterscriticizing the department, which had hired a faculty member Andre thought was responsible for injustice towards the poor as director of the Binghamton Housing Authority. The department ordered Andre to leave the program for a year with no guarantee of return, required him to apologize, and demanded that he publicly disavow his own views. When he appealed, department chair Laura Bronstein added entirely new allegations. With FIRE's support and under public pressure, Bronstein dropped the charges and Massena graduated. Later, the Department of Social Work expelled another graduate student apparently because of his classroom expression. Bronstein had required him to sign away his free speech rights--his "advancement plan" stated that he could never make fellow students or instructors feel "uncomfortable." Binghamton's appeals panel upheld the expulsion without explaining why.
4. UMass Amherst--Amherst, Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts Amherst has a policy on rallies that totally disregards its First Amendment obligations to respect the rights of free speech and assembly. According to the policy, rallies deemed "controversial" (the policy does not say who makes that determination, or how) must be scheduled at least 5 days in advance and can only take place between the hours of noon and 1 pm on the Student Union steps. Perhaps worst of all, the policy requires the student organization sponsoring the controversial rally to be its own security--it must designate at least six of its own members to act as security. This is bad news indeed for student groups wishing to express views that, as the Supreme Court has put it, are "unpopular with bottle throwers." Burdening a student group for expressing controversial opinions--either financially (as UMass tried to do to a campus group in 2009) or by requiring the group to assume physical risk--is blatantly unconstitutional. What's more, UMass has a long history of censorship, from revoking a student group's permit to hold a pro-war demonstration after 9/11 to standing by while a student newspaper was stolen by students and thencensored by the student government for mocking a student government official.
5. Yale University--New Haven, Connecticut
Yale, despite its lofty promises of free speech, its exalted academic standing, and its name-brand recognition, has been a repeat offender against freedom of expression in recent years. Most egregiously, the university intervened to censor images of Mohammed in author Jytte Klausen's book, The Cartoons That Shook the World--a scholarly book about the cartoons from Yale University Press. Relying on a group of anonymous consultants, press director John Donatich chose censorship out of fear of "blood on my hands" if the images were included.Widespread criticism did not prevail. In a sillier case--but one that still teaches all the wrong lessons of censorship--a Yale dean interfered with the decision of the Freshman Class Council to distribute a shirt for the Harvard-Yale football gamethat quoted novelist F. Scott Fizgerald's line, "I think of all Harvard men as sissies." Arguing that the word "sissy" could be seen as a derogatory slur against homosexuals, the dean later claimed that she had financial and editorial controlover the Freshman Class Council.
6. Bucknell University--Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
In 2009, Bucknell University earned its status as a member of FIRE's Red Alertlist by repeatedly censoring a student group's protests. The Bucknell University Conservatives Club saw three of its events censored in just under three months: a protest of the stimulus plan and two anti-affirmative action protests. Each of these fully documented instances of censorship violated Bucknell's promise of free expression to students, who are told in the school's Student Handbook that they are entitled to "the robust and wide-open pursuit of ideas and freedom of speech" at Bucknell. Despite repeated entreaties from FIRE and national media attention from FOX News, the Wall Street Journal, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, Bucknell refuses to allow satirical protests like "affirmative action" or "gender wage gap" bake sales on campus. Unfortunately, Bucknell has been successful at convincing some students that our campaign against the administration's abuses is an attack on the students of Bucknell. Sorry, administrators--the students are doing just fine, but they deserve to see you live up to your promises of free speech on campus.
7. Michigan State University--East Lansing, Michigan
In 2008, Michigan State University (MSU) was added to FIRE's Red Alert list after it punished student government leader Kara Spencer for e-mailing a carefully chosen list of faculty members to express concern about a proposal to shorten the academic year (without reducing tuition, of course). Spencer was found guilty of "spamming," and following a national outcry--13 civil liberties organizations sent MSU an open letter protesting the decision--MSU dropped the charges. Unfortunately, the school then enacted an overbroad spam policy even worse than the one used against Spencer. As a result, every MSU student remains at risk of being punished for "spamming"--simply for sending more than 10 friends, classmates, or faculty the same unsolicited e-mail within 48 hours.
8. Colorado College--Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado College found two students guilty of sexually related "violence" for posting a parody flyer. Satirizing a feminist flyer called "The Monthly Rag" that had discussed male castration, feminist porn, and "packing" (pretending to have a phallus), the "Coalition of Some Dudes" posted a similar-looking flyer including a quote from President Theodore Roosevelt, a description of a sexual position, and a factoid about a sniper rifle. Colorado College ultimately found them guilty for their "juxtaposition of weaponry and sexuality," and President Richard Celeste and the Board of Trustees backed the punishment, giving the lie to the college'sown statement that "On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be banned or forbidden. No viewpoint or message may be deemed so hateful that it may not be expressed."
9. Tufts University--Medford, Massachusetts
Tufts University has consistently adopted policies and practices that censor student speech. Tufts found the student publication The Primary Source guilty of "harassment" for a satire of affirmative action and for printing true but unflattering facts about Islamic extremism, including the fact that all of the countries that punish homosexuality with death have Islamic governments and that author Salman Rushdie had to go into hiding after publishing The Satanic Verses. While Tufts ultimately rescinded its punishment of The Primary Sourceunder pressure from FIRE, Tufts has refused to reverse its wrongful finding of harassment.
10. Brandeis University--Waltham, Massachusetts
Brandeis University declared professor Donald Hindley guilty of racial harassment and discrimination after he used the word "wetbacks" while criticizing it in his Latin American Politics course. Brandeis even assigned an assistant provost to monitor his classes for further offenses. Hindley, now a 50-year veteran of Brandeis, never got a formal hearing, and Brandeis refused even to put the allegations in writing. He also received no support from his department chair or from Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe, who had kicked the student complaint all the way up to the Provost instead of following Brandeis' actual rulesand promises of academic freedom. Hindley appealed, but Provost Marty Krauss unilaterally "closed" the case, which led to a further meltdown of confidence in the administration among both faculty and students, who strongly supported Hindley. Nevertheless, the administration thumbed its nose at the faculty'sunanimous resolution and heartening student activism in support of Hindley's rights. Hopefully a new administration will finally resolve Hindley's case in favor of free speech.
11. Johns Hopkins University--Baltimore, Maryland
Johns Hopkins University earned its way onto FIRE's Red Alert list after punishing student Justin Park for posting on Facebook a satirical Halloween party invitation it deemed "offensive." Park was originally suspended for a full year, given 300 hours of community service, ordered to read 12 books and write reflection papers on each, and attend a mandatory workshop on race relations. After FIRE intervened and had his punishment reduced, Hopkins enacted a repressive "civility" policy absurdly prohibiting all "rude" and "disrespectful" behavior. Hopkins' adventures in censorship also include investigating members of a conservative campus newspaper for "harassment" on the basis of its written content while failing to act on thefts of the paper and limiting its right to distribute around campus, and punishing a professor shortly after September 11 for vocally supporting an aggressive U.S. military campaign against states harboring terrorists.
12. Marshall University--Huntington, West Virginia
Marshall University, a public university in West Virginia, maintains highly restrictive speech codes prohibiting a staggering amount of constitutionally protected expression. The university prohibits "incivility" and "disrespect of persons," as well as any act that has the "intent and/or effect" of causing, among other things, "stigma, disgrace, degradation, or embarrassment." It also prohibits "lewd" or "indecent" expression. When it comes to on-campus demonstrations, the Dean of Students must approve the "purpose" of any proposed demonstration in advance of the event. Students in the residence halls are prohibited from posting anything containing "profanity" or "other offensive material." Students using computers on campus are also prohibited from viewing any "objectionable" material in public places. These policies reach into almost every conceivable aspect of student life at Marshall and severely restrict the First Amendment rights to which students at Marshall are legally entitled.
