Out of over 200 top colleges in the United States, NC State ranked ninth overall in a 2022-23 College Free Speech Rankings project conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). This ranking puts the University in the “green zone,” meaning free speech is a priority.
According to Sean Stevens, FIRE senior research fellow, this project started in 2020 with hopes of giving students information about which schools prioritize free speech and which ones do not. One motivation for the project was to collect data that FIRE previously did not have for researchers and the foundation itself.
“As someone who spends a lot of time on campuses, I think freedom of speech is essential to how we advance and produce knowledge,” Stevens said. “People need to be able to express ideas, even controversial ones, because no single person has all the answers.”
According to FIRE’s website, NC State ranked 18th for “comfort expressing ideas,” which measures how comfortable students are to express personal views, and 150th for tolerance for speakers, both liberal and conservative, on campus. Over 50% of NC State students say “shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is never acceptable.” 49% of students say that self-censorship is not common on campus.
SG Rogers, a fourth-year studying psychology, said she thinks campus has no limitations on free speech in and out of the classroom.
“I’ve never felt like free speech is being shut down,” Rogers said. “Even with speakers on campus, you can talk back to them and engage, so there’s free speech there.”
Rogers also said her professors have always been supportive of all opinions and have not shown negativity towards students with different opinions.
“Being a humanities student, many professors are left-leaning, but I have never seen a professor be unaccepting or rude towards students that have right-leaning opinions,” Rogers said. “There’s also a lot of student discussion, so professors might not always be the ones policing free speech as much as other students are.”
There are several factors that go into FIRE’s collegiate free speech rankings. Faculty, administration, tolerance for speakers and other elements take part.
“Faculty have a lot to do with freedom of speech in colleges, but there are factors that are outside of the control of the faculty,” Stevens said. “It is also, to a degree, what the students bring into class and how they interact with each other.”
Jacob Barnes, a third-year studying chemistry, said free speech in the classroom changes for each class.
“My chemistry classes have a different environment than my anthropology classes, for example,” Barnes said. “Sometimes I have to change my opinion depending on what the class is and what the professor wants.”
Stevens said many students have strong feelings about free speech on campus, and it is a factor when choosing colleges to attend. Because of this, the goal of the project is to give students and parents the information on free speech climate for different campuses around the country.
“It provides information about the climate on these campuses, and we hope that this gives them [students and parents] the information they need to make an informed decision,” Stevens said.
To look at the full statistics regarding NC State’s free speech ranking, click here.
