The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression released their annual College Free Speech rankings on Sept. 5. Vanderbilt ranked No. 140, dropping from its rank at No. 89 in the 2024 list. The survey was based on responses from undergraduate students to questions about free expression on their college campuses.
Methodology
FIRE surveyed 58,807 students nationwide from 257 colleges and universities. The College Plus mobile app and website were used by students to respond to the survey, which was conducted from Jan. 25 through June 17, 2024. The results ranked the University of Virginia in first place and New York University, Columbia University and Harvard University as the bottom three at No. 249, No. 250 and No. 251, respectively. This is Harvard’s second consecutive year being the last-ranked university in FIRE’s free speech rankings.
The press release announcing the rankings claimed the results “expose threats” to the First Amendment rights of students across the country. Greg Lukianoff, chief executive officer of FIRE, claimed university responses to the Israel-Hamas conflict created situations that limited students’ rights to freedom of expression.
“The Middle East crisis plunged campuses into absolute chaos last academic year, and administrators largely failed in their response, clamping down on free speech protections instead of fostering spaces for open dialogue,” Lukianoff said in the press release. “Colleges need to reassert their mantle of being marketplaces of ideas, not bubbles of groupthink and censorship.”
Campus reactions
Vanderbilt recently updated its student handbook to limit the capacity of protests on campus, including banning camping or sleeping outside, preventing public access to campus for protests and limiting the use of art and installations for protest purposes. The university, and increasingly many other universities across the nation, has committed to a stance of institutional neutrality. Chancellor Daniel Diermeier says institutional neutrality promotes open and civil discourse and encourages free speech on campuses.
Carrie Russell, assistant dean of undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Science, said that while political speech is “afforded the greatest level of protection” per the First Amendment, students at private universities are not guaranteed the same level of freedom as those at public institutions.
“I think the stated [university] policies in place are reasonable in terms of maintaining student freedoms on a private university campus; in comparison with other university regulations that have been put in place at other private universities over the summer, at first glance, Vanderbilt’s seem relatively moderate,” Russell said in an email to The Hustler.
Russell said she does not see Vanderbilt’s ranking as any reason for concern, and she acknowledged other universities have made similar changes to their student handbooks regarding encampments and banners.
“My hope is that Vanderbilt will continue to prioritize the free exchange of ideas and the ability to test the value of differing policy positions in our open forums,” Russell said. “[I hope] they will use the tools of civil discourse to do so, all the while respecting the issue positions of students who vehemently disagree with institutional positions on things like divestment.”
In response to the rankings, the university expressed disappointment with FIRE’s methodology and emphasized its commitment to protecting free expression.
“Vanderbilt is very supportive of FIRE’s work to shine a light on the essential need for an environment of free expression on college campuses,” the university said in an email to The Hustler. “As exemplified in many ways, though, including the severe swings in individual schools’ rankings from year to year and FIRE’s means of data collection and coding, FIRE’s free speech ranking methodology is unscientific and deeply flawed. We have repeatedly communicated these concerns to FIRE’s staff and hope they will rectify these flaws.”
Junior Noah Jenkins, president of Vanderbilt College Republicans, expressed frustration with Vanderbilt’s drop in ranking, saying that FIRE was “making a mistake” in equating the restriction of free speech to a limitation of productive exercises of this freedom.
“Assuming the events of last semester and the changes to the student handbook impelled our demotion by FIRE, I believe they are wrong to punish our school for trying to dissuade unproductive forms of speech, especially in light of the administration’s push to promote speech conducted at a better time, place and manner than much of what we have witnessed in the past,” Jenkins said in an email to The Hustler. “The Dialogue Vanderbilt initiative is a key example of such an effort, and a rather successful one at that.”
Senior Andrew Kyung, president of Vanderbilt College Democrats, expressed support for students’ rights to freedom of speech.
“Encouraging freedom of speech among students is one of my greatest priorities,” Kyung said in an email to The Hustler. “I plan on doing all I can with other undergraduates and the administration to encourage access to our most fundamental rights.”
