Cornell Drops in 2025 FIRE Free Speech Rankings

This year, of the 257 colleges surveyed by FIRE, Cornell stood at 215th place. Cornell ranked 212nd last year and 154th the year before that.

By way of comparison, Cornell was second best in the Ivy League:

In general, the Ivy League performed in the bottom half of the colleges covered by the rankings, with Penn, Columbia, and Harvard at the bottom.

The rankings were based upon a survey of 58,807 college students conducted by FIRE and College Pulse. The survey was fielded from January 25 through June 17, 2024. In comparison to other institutions, Cornell performed reasonably well on “Tolerance for Liberal Speakers” (76th), “Mean Tolerance” (65th), “Tolerance for Conservative Speakers” (88th), and “Openness” (67th).

However, Cornell performed poorly on “Disruptive Conduct” (114th), and “Tolerance Difference” (137th).

Self-censorship is a particularly troubling aspect of Cornell’s campus climate. Based on the survey questions, Cornell ranked 195th out of the 251 colleges on “Self-Censorship” and 238th on “Comfort Expressing Ideas”. Cornell also ranked very low on the survey questions asking students whether they felt that the Administration supported free speech on campus (“Administrative Support”) at 210th out of 251.

Alex Morey, FIRE Director of Campus Advocacy, said, “The idea that students and faculty get a ‘fair shake’ when they are accused of misconduct is super important.”

Morey also noted the importance of campus conduct officials quickly dismissing baseless accusations of conduct violations based upon speech without informing the accused of the allegation. “Don’t tell students if they are accused of just protected speech, because that would have a chilling effect.”
FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens told the Review:

“Cornell does reasonably well on most of the tolerance components and on openness, but poorly on self-censorship, comfort expressing ideas, and administrative support. Cornell’s speech policies have a “yellow light” rating reducing their overall score, and they were penalized further for a shutdown of Ann Coulter, the suspension of professor Russell Rickford for saying he was “exhilarated” by the October 7 attack, and the investigation of a student for a social media post critical of Zionism. It appears the administration has lost the trust of the students when it comes to defending free speech on campus, and this may take some time to earn back. But, revising “yellow light” policies to earn a “green light” rating will help. But that’s just a first step, those policies need to be clearly explained and enforced consistently in a content-neutral way if Cornell wants to earn back its students’ trust.”

FIRE modifies the raw score that is based only upon the student survey by penalizing Cornell for three controversies, including a heckler’s veto disruption at a speech by Ann Coulter ‘84 and two situations where commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drew scrutiny, leading to Prof. Russell Rickford taking a leave of absence and a student facing suspension for a “Zionists must die” internet posting.

In addition, FIRE conducted a detailed review of Cornell’s speech policies that earned it a “yellow light” rating from FIRE. If Cornell had revised these policies and earned a “green light” rating, it would have moved up from 215th to 74th place. Princeton has a “red light” on speech policies while all of the other Ivy League schools have a “yellow light” rating.

RELATED: Cornell Earns an “A” in FIRE’s Due Process Ratings

This survey was taken halfway through Cornell’s theme year on free expression. Perhaps the full benefit of that year-long effort will show up in the 2026 FIRE rankings.

Nation-wide 

In addition to the Cornell-specific findings, the FIRE report, as well as a Sept. 26 webinar, looked at national trends in campus speech.

There seems to be a trend of growing acceptance of actions to prevent speakers:

There are also divergent views among conservative and liberal students regarding what topics are difficult to discuss. Liberals tend to have more difficulty with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and conservatives have more difficulty with abortion and transgender rights:

Nadine Strossen, FIRE Senior Fellow, “hopes that FIRE Free Speech Rankings will be treated with greater seriousness than the US News rankings” in influencing families selected a college to attend.”

Of the 257 colleges surveyed by FIRE, six colleges issued a warning to students that their free speech rights will not be protected by the school if inconsistent with other school values (e.g., religious values.). FIRE rates these six on a separate scale than the 251 colleges addressed above.  In general, the 251 schools are either covered by the First Amendment because they are public universities, or are covered by a comparable state law, or promise to protect students’ free speech rights, with such promises being used as an enforceable contract in courts.

Gaza Encampments Impact on Campus Free Speech

Because the survey data collection spanned the Gaza encampments, FIRE issued a supplemental report. FIRE collected additional surveys at Columbia and 29 other colleges from May 17, 2024, and June 25, 2024. With 3,803 responses, this survey has a margin of error of +/- 2%.

Among FIRE’s key findings were:

“1. Almost three-quarters of college students (72%) said that it is at least “rarely” acceptable for college students to establish an encampment as part of a protest on campus, and 59% of students said the same about occupying buildings.

‘2. Roughly 1 in 3 students (30%) have been disciplined, threatened with discipline, or know someone who has either been disciplined or threatened with discipline for expression on campus.  

“3. About two-thirds of students (65%) who have been disciplined, threatened with discipline, or know someone who has either been disciplined or threatened with discipline for expression on campus experienced this during a protest on campus in a public space such as the green or the quad.

“4. “Administrative Support” — a measure of how strongly students think their administration supports free speech on campus — is significantly lower among students on campuses where encampment protesters were arrested than among students on campuses with an encampment but no arrests and among students on campuses without an encampment.

“5. More than half of students (53%) said they feel “very” or “somewhat” uncomfortable discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with their peers. Students on campuses where encampment protesters were arrested are significantly more uncomfortable discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than students on campuses without an encampment.”