Perspectives

Ten Most Totalitarian Campuses

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Our friends at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) have compiled a list of the ten campuses with the worst free speech policies.

Here they are:

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.)
• Drexel University (Philadelphia, Pa.)
• Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.)
• Los Angeles Community College District (Los Angeles, Calif.)
• Fordham University (New York, N.Y.)
• Evergreen State College (Olympia, Wash.)
• Albion College (Albion, Mich.)
• Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.)
• University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.)
• Texas State University (San Marcos, Texas)

And here is how they describe themselves:

• “With 7,500 students and nearly 100,000 living alumni, Rensselaer is addressing the global challenges facing the 21st century—to change lives, to advance society, and to change the world.”
• “Drexel is a comprehensive global research university ranked among the top 100 in the nation.”
• “Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders in many disciplines who make a difference globally.”
• “The mission of the Los Angeles Community College District is to provide our students with an excellent education that prepares them to transfer to four-year institutions, successfully complete workforce development programs designed to meet local and statewide needs, and pursue opportunities for
lifelong learning and civic engagement.”
• “[At Fordham] Our spirit comes from the nearly 500-year history of the Jesuits. It’s the spirit of full-hearted engagement—with profound ideas, with communities around the world, with injustice, with beauty, with the entirety of the human experience.”
• “Evergreen attracts students inspired by the complexity of the world. Our model of learning prepares students for the way the world happens now, layering academic disciplines so students can focus on how they want to uniquely impact our ever-changing world.”
• “With 49 majors, concentrations, and pre-professional programs, Albion gives students the flexibility to forge their own paths while gaining a true understanding of the world.”
• “Northwestern is committed to excellent teaching, innovative research and the personal and intellectual growth of its students in a diverse academic community.”
• “From a group of academic pioneers in 1868 to the Free Speech Movement in 1964, Berkeley is a place where the brightest minds from across the globe come together to explore, ask questions and improve the world.”
• “As an Emerging Research University, Texas State offers opportunities for discovery and innovation to faculty and students.”

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Malcolm A. Kline
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia. If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail contact@academia.org.

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