“To this day, academics and parents had no way of assessing the real pleasure of being a student on one campus versus another in freedom of expression, debate, and dissension,” said Robert Shibley, FIRE’s EXECUTIVE Director. “Finally, current and potential academics, their families and interested citizens can have an unbiased and brazen look at how the country’s individual campuses treat freedom of expression, and academics swimming against the tide. “
The 2020 grading of freedom of expression in schools takes into account the various dimensions of freedom of expression on campus, from the ability to talk about sensitive topics such as race, gender and geopolitical conflicts, to whether academics choose to brazenly share their views. Grades are designed to help students and parents make enrollment decisions based on a variety of factors, adding openness, tolerance, self-expression, and administration for freedom of expression. Ratings capture and rate the overall speech climate of a campus on a scale of 0 to 100, as well as reports from conservative scholars and liberals.