National Free Speech News & Commentary

Frederick M. Hess
Forbes

Excerpt: It’s been a long few years when it comes to free inquiry on campus, with tales of silenced speakers and stymied discourse having become all too familiar. Amidst plunging trust in higher education, it’s safe to say that all this has had real costs. Last week, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and College Pulse jointly issued their annual report on the state of free speech in higher education. They surveyed more than 55,000 students across 248 colleges.

The numbers are troubling but not as hopeless as more hysterical accounts suggest.

Joshua T. Katz
City Journal

Excerpt: It’s September, students and teachers are returning to classes, and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), in partnership with the survey research and analytics company College Pulse, has released its 2024 College Free Speech Rankings. The statistics are as disheartening as ever.

Of the 248 colleges and universities surveyed (plus six “warning colleges”)—up from 55 in 2020 and 203 (plus five) last year—only four are ranked “Good”: Michigan Technological University, Auburn, the University of New Hampshire, and Oregon State.

Jay Bhattacharya
The Free Press

Excerpt: My parents had taught me that people here could criticize the government, even over matters of life and death, without worry that the government would censor or suppress us. But over the past three years, I have been robbed of that conviction. American government officials, working in concert with big tech companies, have attacked and suppressed my speech and that of my colleagues for criticizing official pandemic policies—criticism that has been proven prescient.

The headline is a good one: the federal government can no longer threaten social media companies with destruction if they don’t censor on behalf of the government.

Zack Beauchamp
Vox

 Excerpt: Rufo claims that the American system as we know it has been overthrown, subtly and quietly replaced by “a new ideological regime that is inspired by ... critical theories and administered through the capture of the bureaucracy.” Rufo’s “counterrevolution” is aimed at reversing this process; taking America back, starting with Florida’s universities.

Radicals haven’t taken over mainstream America; they’ve been taken over by it. It follows, then, that Rufo’s “counterrevolution” is not countering much of anything. His war on American institutions is not a defensive action against an ascendant post-Marxist left; it is instead an act of aggression against the liberal ideals he occasionally claims to be defending.

Liz Navratil
Star Tribune

Excerpt: Amna Khalid hears frequently from fellow professors who are shying away from teaching controversial material as political polarization rises and attacks on teachers' independence become more common.

"It's a rational decision for professors to be dropping it," said the Carleton College professor and founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance. "I don't like it, but I totally understand it."

Jonathan Turley
Jonathan Turley's Blog

Excerpt: Below is my column in The Messenger on the new ranking of colleges and universities on the protection of free speech on campuses. There are few surprises on the list with many of the most elite universities filling out the bottom of ranking as the most hostile to free expression. Harvard now holds the ignoble distinction of being the most anti-free speech university in the country. For full disclosure, George Washington University (where I teach) was again ranked “below average” on free speech, coming in at 185 out of 248.