About two-thirds of college students believe there are at least some rare occasions in which it is acceptable to shout down a speaker to prevent a speech on campus, according to a new survey.
Seven percent of students who participated in the the fifth annual Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and College Pulse campus-climate survey said it is “always acceptable” to shout down campus speakers, 30 percent said it is “sometimes acceptable,” 32 percent said it is “rarely acceptable,” and 32 percent said it is “never acceptable.”
The survey, which had 58,807 student respondents from 257 colleges and universities, was used to create a free-expression rating system. The school that earned the highest rating was University of Virginia, followed by Michigan Technological University, Florida State University, Eastern Kentucky University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology — Main Campus, all of which are state universities. Harvard and Columbia tied for last place, each getting a score of zero. New York University was not far behind, with a score of 3.33.
Not a single Ivy League institution was ranked in the top 100 colleges for free expression. Yale University was the highest ranked Ivy League institution for free expression, getting a score of 44.04 and landing at number 155 in the rankings.
Almost 70 percent of respondents said they were “very” or “somewhat uncomfortable” publicly disagreeing with a professor about a controversial political topic, while 50 percent said they were “very” or “somewhat uncomfortable” disagreeing with a professor on a controversial political topic in a written assignment.
Just over half of students (53 percent) said they were “very” or “somewhat” uncomfortable expressing their views on a controversial political topic during an in-class discussion, while a majority (67 percent) said they were “very” or “somewhat uncomfortable” expressing an unpopular political opinion to their fellow students on social media under their own name.
When asked about blocking other students from attending a campus speech, 4 percent said it is “always acceptable,” 18 percent said it is “sometimes acceptable,” 29 percent said it is “rarely acceptable,” and 48 percent said it is “never acceptable.” A majority of students (68 percent) said it is “never acceptable” to use violence to stop a campus speech.
The survey asked students to state whether their school should or should not allow speakers who would promote a specific idea.
Thirty-seven percent of students said their university “definitely should not allow” a speaker who would promote the idea that “transgender people have a mental disorder,” while 31 percent said their school “probably should not” allow it. Only 12 percent said that such a speaker should “definitely” be allowed.
When asked about a speaker who would promote the idea that “Black Lives Matter is a hate group,” 36 percent of students said their school “definitely should not” allow it, and 33 percent said their school “probably should not” allow it.
Just over 70 percent of students said their school “probably” or “definitely” should allow a speaker who promoted the idea that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” By contrast, 60 percent of students said their university “definitely” or “probably” should not allow a speaker who promoted the idea that “collateral damage in Gaza is justified for the sake of Israeli security.”
FIRE and College Pulse released a separate report titled “2024 Student Encampment Protests,” which surveyed 3,803 undergraduate students at 30 four-year colleges and universities in the United States; Columbia University was deliberately chosen because the encampments began there, while the other 29 schools were randomly selected.
“Almost 1 in 3 students have either been disciplined, threatened with discipline, or know someone who has either been disciplined or threatened with discipline for expression on campus,” reads the report. “The forms of expression for which students faced disciplinary action likely include a mix of protected and unprotected speech.”
Nearly three-quarters of students (72 percent) said that it is at least “rarely” acceptable for college students to establish an encampment as part of a protest on campus, and 59 percent said the same about occupying buildings.
Just over half of Muslim students (53 percent) said that the right to freedom of speech is “not at all” or “not very” secure on campus, while only 27 percent of Jewish students said the same. A fifth of Muslim students said they feel “very” or “somewhat” unsafe on campus, while more than a quarter of Jewish students said the same.