‘Harvard needs to do better if it wants to continue getting taxpayer support.’
A recent study by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is shining new light on the free speech problems that continue to plague our elite colleges and universities. The Washington Times is reporting President-elect Donald Trump “plans to use federal funding as leverage to eliminate woke policies in education, including those in colleges and universities where academic freedom has been declining measurably.”
As an example, FIRE ranks Harvard University dead last when it comes to free speech, yet the university received $676 million from taxpayers last year, while sitting on an endowment of $53 billion, the largest of any university in the country.
The FIRE report highlighted recent examples of free speech discrimination, including a biology professor fired for saying X and Y chromosomes determine sex; a journalism professor’s tenure offer rescinded because of her views on DEI, and a lecturer subjected to retaliation and a year-long investigation for making a parody “land acknowledgement.”
The FIRE report found even professors at these elite universities may have had enough of these outrageous attacks on the First Amendment. The survey found half of faculty say mandatory DEI statement pledges in hiring are “rarely” or “never” acceptable, and two-thirds support institutional neutrality for colleges and universities.
“As a graduate of Harvard University, I think Harvard needs to do better if it wants to continue getting taxpayer support,” said Catherine Mortensen, Our America’s Communications Director. “Taxpayers are demanding accountability from these schools and will no longer tolerate viewpoint suppression and discrimination.
According to FIRE, student surveys from Harvard found just over a quarter of Harvard students are comfortable publicly disagreeing with their professor on a controversial political topic; only roughly a third think it is “very” or “extremely” clear the administration protects free speech on campus; and an alarming 30% think using violence to stop a campus speech is acceptable, though only “rarely.”
“As a graduate student at Harvard 17 years ago, I don’t remember the atmosphere on campus being that oppressive,” Mortensen added. “Certainly, I could tell my professors and classmates were overwhelmingly to the left on the political spectrum, but I was never afraid to share a different viewpoint. But, young people have become radicalized in recent years such that I don’t think I would feel safe at Harvard today expressing views outside of their group think.”
