Harvard pulls itself out of last place in new free speech rankings
After being ranked for two years in last place, Harvard University is no longer the worst college for free speech, according to a new report from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
While still not in last place, the university still lags behind most of its peers. It ranked 245 out of 257 colleges across the nation.
The 257 colleges were chosen to represent a variety of colleges in the United States, including large public universities, small private colleges, religiously-affiliated schools, and those in the Ivy League, according to the FIRE website.
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth University and Yale University more dramatically improved to 7, 35 and 58. In 2024, the schools ranked 140, 224 and 155.
Only 11 schools received a speech climate grade of C or higher and 166 out of the 257 colleges surveyed received a failing grade.
“This means that the vast majority of American colleges and universities are failing to protect and foster free expression. In an era when open inquiry and dissent are more essential than ever, campus speech climates are not just unhealthy — they are in free fall,” the organization said in its report.
“We don’t think this is too harsh for a few reasons. 1) It should be difficult to get an A; 2) Most schools aren’t even doing the bare minimum — which would be having a ‘green light’ spotlight rating from our Policy Reform team. A lot of these schools would at least have passing grades if they revised their speech codes to obtain that rating,” a FIRE spokesperson said.
The report is based on the opinions of over 68,000 students. It is the largest survey of campus free expression ever performed, allowing people to search by state and school. The students were surveyed over the College Pulse mobile app and web portal from January 3 to June 5, 2025.
The rankings are also based on analysis of written policies and the tracking of controversies, according to FIRE .
It is the sixth year that the organization has created a free speech ranking.
What has happened at Harvard?
Harvard came under scrutiny when Harvard’s former president, Claudine Gay, stepped down after she testified at a congressional hearing in December 2023 about campus antisemitism. She was joined by the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
During the hearing, each president equivocated over a question about whether calls for genocide violated their code of conduct. Each said that those calls would depend on the context.
Before she stepped down, a group of Harvard students released a statement that was seen by many as supporting Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
The university also made the news due to unfolding protests and an encampment related to the war in Gaza. It followed with concerns about antisemitism and anti-Arab bias on campus, and the new president, Alan Garber, apologized to the community.
“The 2023-24 academic year was disappointing and painful. I am sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community. The grave, extensive impact of the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and its aftermath had serious repercussions on our campus‚” Garber said in a message to the community.
The message was in response to two long-awaited reports from Harvard’s task forces on antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias and anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.
Most recently, Harvard has taken center stage, fighting back against the Trump administration’s attacks on international students and federal funding in the name of addressing campus antisemitism.
A federal judge recently ruled in the university’s favor, restoring nearly $3 billion to the institution.
What were the concerns of students at Harvard?
A majority of students at Harvard expressed that they were “very” or “somewhat” uncomfortable expressing views on controversial political topics both over social media and in person.
The students also expressed a lack of trust in the Harvard administration. In response to a question posed about whether Harvard protects free speech on campus, 42% of students at Harvard said “not at all” or “not very.”
Forty percent of students had the same response to a question about whether the administration would defend someone’s rights during a controversy over offensive speech.
Harvard also struggled in the rankings on tolerance difference — meaning that liberal speakers were more tolerated than conservative ones. This is similar to what was seen at Ivy League counterparts like Columbia University, Dartmouth University and Yale University.
The areas that students weren’t able to discuss as openly were on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (73%), affirmative action (39%), abortion (33%), transgender rights (32%) and the 2024 presidential election (32%).
However, the institution had an above-average score for “openness,” which involves how many controversial topics students feel they can openly discuss on campus.
A positive response students had was when Harvard President Alan Garber spoke at Alumni Day in 2024 and a protester came on stage to throw gold glitter on him and shouted “For the baby monkeys, for the animals in the labs, Harvard, shut down the baby monkey labs now!”
When Garber came back on the stage, he spoke about the importance of free expression, according to FIRE.
Other Mass. schools ranked
At the same time, Boston College and Northeastern University ranked worse than Harvard, taking 251st and 253rd. The worst two schools for free speech were Columbia University and Barnard College, according to the rankings.
Other Massachusetts colleges ranked higher, including:
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Amherst College (#70)
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (#82)
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Wheaton College (#110)
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Boston University (#111)
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute (#121)
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Brandeis University (#149)
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University of Massachusetts (#162)
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Williams College (#166)
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Clark University (#194)
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Wellesley College (#225)
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Tufts University (#239)
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Smith College (#241)
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Mount Holyoke College (#242)
“Massachusetts is home to some of the most speech-restrictive campuses in the country. Eliminating “red light” policies and expanding public commitments to expressive rights would help improve their free-speech climates,” FIRE said.
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