Harvard is named worst school for free speech — scoring zero out of possible 100

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Harvard University is officially 2023’s worst school for free speech.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) released their annual college free speech rankings on Wednesday, which dubbed the state of free speech at the Ivy League school “abysmal.”

“I’m not totally surprised,” Sean Stevens, director of polling and analytics at FIRE, told The Post. “We’ve done these rankings for years now, and Harvard is consistently near the bottom.”

Despite being the most acclaimed academic institution in the country, Harvard received a 0.00 point free speech ranking on a 100 point scale — a full 11 points behind the next worst school.

FIRE says the dismal score was “generous,” considering Harvard’s actual score was a -10.69, according to their calculations.

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“I thought it would be pretty much impossible for a school to fall below zero, but they’ve had so many scholar sanctions,” Stevens said.

The score is calculated based on factors including how strong the school’s policies in favor of free speech are and how many professors, students, and campus speakers have been targeted by authorities for their speech.

Bonuses are applied if the school’s administrators stood up for the rights of those whose free speech was threatened.

The rankings also take into account student sentiment about free speech based on polling FIRE conducted in partnership with research firm College Pulse.

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FIRE’s survey of 55,000 current students from 254 universities also yielded some staggering results.

56% of students worry about getting cancelled for something they said, and 27% said it’s acceptable to use violence to stop campus speech in some circumstances.

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