New FIRE Survey Shows High Level of Punishment For Protected Speech
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released a new survey of campus free speech trends that shows a high level of students reported being punished for speech as well as a high level of self-censorship.
On many campuses, this is a result of overreaching bias incident response teams or the misapplication of rules designed to prevent harassment.
FIRE and Campus Pulse surveyed 2,007 undergraduates nationwide during the period between Sept. 5 and Oct. 20, 2023, and the margin of error is +/- 2%. (So, this survey included periods both before and after the Oct 7 Hamas/Gaza crisis.)
- 38% of students say speech they’ve heard on campus constitutes “an act of violence.”
- 1 in 10 college students report that they were disciplined or threatened with discipline for their expression.
- That expression occurred most often in their dorm room (26%), in a meeting with an administrator (22%), during in-class discussion (21%), in a conversation with another student or students in a campus common space (14%), and in written assignments (13%).
RELATED: Cornell drops in FIRE free speech rankings
On the question, “How worried, if at all, are you about your reputation being damaged because someone on campus misunderstands something you expressed?”
| Response | Frequency | Percent |
| Not at all worried | 341.78 | 17.09 |
| Not too worried | 647.34 | 32.37 |
| Slightly worried | 558.05 | 27.90 |
| Somewhat worried | 335.51 | 16.78 |
| Very worried | 117.38 | 5.87 |
“When you are on campus, how often, if at all, would you say that you feel stressed, frustrated, or overwhelmed because of something someone has expressed?”
| Response | Frequency | Percent |
| Never | 712.13 | 35.61 |
| Less than half the time | 916.50 | 45.82 |
| About half the time | 261.49 | 13.07 |
| Most of the time, nearly every day | 81.63 | 4.08 |
| Always | 28.31 | 1.42 |
“Using the following scale, how would you describe your political beliefs?”
| Response | Frequency | Percent |
| Far left | 175.25 | 8.78 |
| Somewhat liberal | 462.45 | 23.12 |
| Slightly liberal | 319.61 | 15.98 |
| Moderate, middle-of-the-road | 289.72 | 14.49 |
| Slightly conservative | 185.60 | 9.28 |
| Somewhat conservative | 159.71 | 7.99 |
| Far right | 25.48 | 1.27 |
| I do not identify as a liberal or conservative | 148.10 | 7.40 |
| I haven’t thought much about this | 234.14 | 11.71 |
Nationwide, it appears that contrary to their portrayal in the mainstream media, most college students are not far left or liberal. However, the survey did not report separate results for Cornell or the Ivy League. Even if 8% of Cornell students self-identified as “far left,” that would not pose as much of a problem as the much higher percentage of faculty or alumni who chose to remain in Ithaca holding those views.
Connor Murnane, Director of Engagement and Mobilization for FIRE told the Cornell Review:
“Students being disciplined or threatened with punishment for protected speech will only have a trickle down chilling effect as other students silence themselves to avoid similar persecution. This should be a wake up call to Cornell leadership and the rest of the Ivy League. If these institutions wish to remain bastions of academic excellence then they must ensure students are capable of thinking and speaking freely.”
Since the survey, the Presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn were called before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to testify about steps to take regarding antisemitism. All three recognized tension between free speech rights on the one hand and protecting students from harassment on the other. However, their answers met with unprecedented public scrutiny and criticism. Since the December 6 hearing, the Presidents of Harvard and Penn have resigned.
Meanwhile, President Pollack has issued a stand-alone statement declaring that explicitly advocating genocide is against Cornell policy. The new policy fails to distinguish between verbal threats or abstract debate. Cornell also continues to deploy bias response teams with a poorly defined scope and unfair procedures. So, consistent with the survey, and notwithstanding its theme year on free expression, Cornell actively targets protected speech.
