Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the US, is also the worst when it comes to freedom of speech, according to a Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) survey released this week.
The rankings showed the institution at zero, with the cumulative score actually standing at negative 10.69, FIRE\u2019s director of polling and analytics Sean Stevens told the New York Post.
\u201cI thought it would be pretty much impossible for a school to fall below zero, but they\u2019ve had so many scholar sanctions,\u201d Stevens said. Harvard has disciplined seven out of nine professors and researchers over something they had said or written.
Harvard\u2019s censorious climate has led more than 100 faculty to organize a Council on Academic Freedom earlier this year.
Stevens said he was not \u201ctotally surprised,\u201d as Harvard has ranked \u201cconsistently near the bottom\u201d since FIRE started doing the survey four years ago. It is the only school that FIRE currently ranks as \u201cAbysmal.\u201d
\u201cAn environment in which you can actually get in trouble for the \u2018wrong\u2019 academic opinion is not one that can be depended upon to produce reliable knowledge,\u201d FIRE president and CEO Greg Lukianoff said, announcing the survey results. \u201dIt\u2019s especially disturbing that some of the worst performing institutions are among America\u2019s most influential schools, including Harvard, Georgetown, Northwestern and Dartmouth.\u201d
The university in Cambridge, Massachusetts \u2013 just north of Boston \u2013 was chartered in 1650 and is considered one of the most prestigious in North America.
Rounding out the bottom five were the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the University of South Carolina in Columbia, Georgetown University in Washington, DC and Fordham University in New York City.
New York\u2019s Columbia University, last year\u2019s worst school for free speech, came in 214th this time around. A total of 248 colleges and universities were considered.
The best-ranked school for free speech this year was the Michigan Technological University in Houghton, with a score of 78.01. Alabama\u2019s Auburn University, the University of New Hampshire, Oregon State University and Florida State University made up the rest of the top five.
According to FIRE, the rankings rely heavily on the schools\u2019 speech codes and responses to deplatforming demands. A survey of 55,000 students also revealed that 56% were worried about getting \u201ccanceled\u201d 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 \u201cabortion, gun control, racial inequality, and transgender rights.\u201d
FIRE was founded in 1999, with the mission to \u201cdefend and sustain the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought \u2013 the most essential qualities of liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n