The University of Texas at Austin was ranked the eighth worst university for free speech in the United States, according to a recent report.
Earlier this month, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released its College Free Speech rankings based on the opinions of 58,000 students at 257 colleges and universities.
Last year, UT Austin ranked 10th worst, two spots better than its ranking this year.
To determine each college’s overall ranking, FIRE considered several aspects of free speech, including students’ comfort in expressing ideas, self-censorship, tolerance for both left-wing and right-wing viewpoints, disruptive conduct, administrative support, and openness. The rankings were also adjusted according to how the school treated those expressing controversial views.
The report cites UT Austin’s administrative response to the on-campus anti-Israel protests as a large factor for its low score. Hundreds of students were arrested after university officials called in state troopers and the Austin police to shut down protests across a multiple-week period.
The decision was widely criticized and prompted hundreds of UT Austin faculty members to sign a letter of no confidence in President Jay Hartzell’s ability to manage the school.
In the report, UT Austin ranked “poor” for “administrative support.”
Many of the top-ranking schools, including the University of Virginia and Michigan Technological University, also faced encampment protests this year. However, school officials did not enforce harsh punishments on students.
The University of Texas at Dallas ranked 166 on the list of 251 schools, scoring “slightly below average” in free speech on campus.
The schools that ranked worse than UT Austin are the University of Southern California, Syracuse University, Barnard College, the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Columbia University, and lastly, Harvard University.
Like UT Austin, other low-scoring schools saw violent protests on their campuses earlier this year. New York University, Columbia University, and Harvard University all saw mass chaos and destruction, resulting in classes going remote and some commencement ceremonies being canceled.
“If the past year is any indication, a lot of America’s colleges and universities are failing the test,” the survey noted, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
On the list of topics difficult to discuss on campus, 45% of students said abortion. This topic has consistently ranked near the top since 2020, having never ranked below 45%. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict surged in the rankings, with 55% of the student population saying it was difficult to discuss, making it No.1 this year. In previous years, the topic was cited by 26-31% of students.
Anti-gun laws, usually 41-43%, dropped to 36%; race and racial inequality, always 42-51%, dropped to 36%. Transgender issues stayed steady at 41%, previously ranking 40-44% each year.
