FIRE Report: Public Universities Overwhelmingly Violate First Amendment
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)

Today the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has released its 2009 report on campus speech codes, revealing that American colleges and universities systematically violate students’ and faculty members’ right to freedom of expression.

Spotlight on Speech Codes 2009: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation’s Campuses reports on policies at 364 American colleges and universities. FIRE found that approximately 74 percent of schools surveyed maintain policies that clearly restrict speech that, outside the borders of campus, is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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FIRE’s report is the most comprehensive effort to date both to quantify the proportion of colleges and universities that restrict free speech and to assess the severity of those restrictions. The report surveyed publicly available policies at institutions ranked in the 100 “Best National Universities” and at the 50 “Best Liberal Arts Colleges,” as rated in the August 27, 2007, “America’s Best Colleges” issue of U.S. News & World Report, as well as at 207 major public universities. The research was conducted between September 2007 and September 2008.

All of the policies cited in the report are available online in FIRE’s searchable speech code database, Spotlight: The Campus Freedom Resource. People interested in drawing attention to their institution’s policies can easily do so by adding FIRE’s Speech Codes Widget to their blog or website. Easy instructions for adding the widget can be found here.

+ Full Report (PDF; 2.3 MB)

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