The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has released its latest looks at free speech on America’s college campuses. The “Spotlight on Speech Codes 2024” report grades alleged schools of higher learning on their speech policies.
I’ve not always agreed with past results for schools in New Hampshire, but it is literally academic. FIRE looks at documented policy, not necessarily how well it is practiced. I’d expect the schools to know this if they even care, but if you are looking for a campus on which to plant your child with an eye toward protecting them from indoctrination, those are few and far between. Hillsdale College comes to mind, and not everyone can send a kid there.
If trade schools are out of the question with their lower costs, little or no loan debt, faster conversion from learning to income, and – if we’re honest – higher immediate and lifetime earnings with but a few elite school examples, FIRE has some advice we should consider.
The new report rates 489 of America’s top colleges and universities as “red light,” “yellow light,” or “reen light” institutions based on how much their policies threaten student speech. FIRE found that 85% of schools have at least one policy that could be used to improperly restrict students’ freedom of expression.
New Hampshire colleges and universities fared fairly well in FIRE’s ratings, with only Dartmouth failing to receive a “green light” rating:
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- Keene State College – Green
- Plymouth State University – Green
- University of New Hampshire – Green
- Dartmouth College – Yellow
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If you skim the report, you’ll notice that among public schools, there is a significant number in the yellow, with red and green being equal. Private schools have double the red light rating, with a significant number with yellow and very few with green.
The percentage of schools that earned an overall red light rating increased for the second time in a row this year, reversing a 15-year trend in which the percentage of red light schools decreased. The percentage went from 19.3% last year to 20% this year, with 15.2% of public schools earning a red light rating compared to 36.3% of private schools. This continued backslide is due, in large part, to schools’ continued maintenance of overbroad policies on harassment that can too easily be applied against protected speech.
Note that: “…the speech code ratings do not take into account a university’s “as-applied” violations of student speech rights or other cases of censorship, student- or faculty-led calls for punishment of protected speech, or related incidents and controversies. For a look at the campus climate at top colleges that incorporates such factors, view FIRE’s annual College Free Speech Rankings at: rankings.thefire.org.”
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