The survey was conducted by FIRE, so you know this is on the level.
The College Fix reports:
Harvard, Columbia, Penn top list of worst universities for free speech: student surveyThe top five worst universities for free speech also all happen to be mostly Ivy League institutions, according to a major new student survey released today by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.Harvard, Columbia, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania and Barnard College made up the bottom five schools, respectively.Conversely, the top rated school was the University of Virginia. Last year’s highest, Michigan Technological University, came in second best for free speech. In third place was Florida State University, and fourth and fifth were Eastern Kentucky University and Georgia Tech.The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression released its annual College Free Speech Rankings for 2024 on Thursday. The free speech climate of 257 of America’s universities was assessed by 58,807 students who responded to a College Pulse online survey from Jan. 25 through June 17.Students rated their schools on a scale of 1 to 100 on six different criteria, with 100 being a perfect score. They were polled on their comfort expressing ideas, tolerance for controversial liberal and conservative speakers, administrative support for free speech, self-censorship and other topics.The survey “took into account the varied dimensions of free expression on campus — from the ability to discuss challenging topics like the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, abortion, and race, to tolerance for controversial campus speakers and whether students hold back from openly sharing their views,” said Katie Kortepeter, a spokeswoman for FIRE, in an email to The College Fix.For the second consecutive year, Harvard was the bottom ranked school with a score of 0.00.Columbia also received a score of 0.00 this year. NYU received a 3.33, Penn had a score of 12.50, and Barnard College came in at 15.62. The speech climate of the bottom five schools was listed as either “abysmal” or “very poor,” according to the poll results.
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