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Columbia University was ranked as the worst college in the nation for free speech, with other elite universities claiming the other bottom spots, according to a new annual ranking.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released its 2022-2023 College Free Speech Rankings, its third annual report, on Wednesday. The rankings surveyed nearly 45,000 students from more than 200 colleges and offers a "comprehensive comparison of the student experience of free speech on their campuses," according to the study. The study was conducted in collaboration with the College Pulse, an online survey research and analytics company studying colleges.
New York City’s Columbia University came in dead last on the rankings and was the only school to receive an "abysmal" rating. The school received a 9.1 score out of 100, and researchers determined that only 27% of students see shouting down a speaker to silence them as "never acceptable," and that there are roughly 6.8 liberal students for every conservative student.
Following Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania came in at the second-worst spot for free speech, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the third, followed by Georgetown, Skidmore and Yale.
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Dodge Miller Theatre and Lewisohn Hall, Columbia University, New York City, New York, USA. (Photo by: Photographer name/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Photo by: Photographer name/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The University of Chicago claimed the top spot for free speech, receiving a 77.92 score out of 100 and a "good" speech climate rating.
Following the University of Chicago for the top five free speech spots were all state schools, with Kansas State University coming in second, then Purdue University’s main campus, Mississippi State University, and Oklahoma State University.
FIRE Senior Research Fellow Sean Stevens told Fox News Digital on Thursday that "school's with administrations that strongly support free speech and make this stance clear to their students consistently do better in the rankings."
"These schools rarely, if ever, sanction scholars and most of them do not typically encounter disinvitation campaigns. All this being said, even the top performing schools have work to do. Many of them, compared to other institutions, are not that tolerant of controversial liberal speakers, and -- possibly because many of these campuses are more ideologically diverse -- students tend to report more topics as difficult to have an open and honest conversation about," Stevens added.
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Claremont McKenna College in California came in the top spot for free speech last year, but has since fallen to the sixth spot on this year’s rankings.
The vast majority of students, at 63%, surveyed for the study reported feeling worry over damaging their reputation based on someone else misunderstanding them, and 22% of the more than 44,500 students surveyed said they often self-censor.
Researchers additionally determined that about three-in-five students reported they would be uncomfortable "publicly disagreeing with a professor about a controversial topic or expressing an unpopular opinion to their peers on a social media account tied to their name."
Chicago, IL, USA - March 12, 2015: Sign for the University of Chicago in the Hyde Park area of Chicago, IL, USA on March 12, 2015. (Istock)
The report detailed some anonymous comments from students, with many detailing a feeling of hesitancy to speak out with an alternative opinion.
"One of my teachers called everyone who did not think differently than her as 'Bigots' and 'Deplorables.' I did not speak up after that," a student from Virginia Tech, which came in the 150th spot for free speech, said.
"The moment I was introduced to cancel culture particularly on campus freshman year, it became clear that individuals are forever associated with opinions, especially if they are unpopular. So the consequences don't seem worth that stigmatization, especially when just starting a college career," another student at Harvard, which ranked 170th on the list, said.
Another student at Columbia recounted feeling there is sometimes "no room for nuance in discussion."
Graduates from Columbia University's School of Journalism cheer during the university's commencement ceremony in New York, May 16, 2012. Over 12,000 students attended the annual graduation ceremony on the university's campus. REUTERS/Keith Bedford (REUTERS/Keith Bedford )
"I feel that even as a liberal student, sometime there is no room for nuance in discussion. I think it is productive to understand why people believe what they believe and go argue that the other side is racist and dumb feels like an unintellectual exercise and this often occurs in my classes," one Columbia student reported.
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Representatives of Columbia University did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the school’s dead last ranking for free speech.
The study noted that Hillsdale College, Pepperdine University, Brigham Young University, Baylor University, Saint Louis University were not included in the ratings as they have "policies that clearly and consistently state that it prioritizes other values over a commitment to freedom of speech."
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