Penn was again ranked as one of the worst universities in the United States for free speech, according to an annual report evaluating college campuses.<\/p>\n
The ranking, released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, placed<\/a> Penn at No. 227 out of 261 schools with an F grade and a score of 54.4 out of 100. Penn moved up four places and increased its score by 2.9 points from last year\u2019s ranking<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n A University spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n FIRE \u2014 a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that aims<\/a> \u201cto defend and sustain the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought\u201d \u2014 assessed <\/a>universities using \u201creal student experiences, university policies, and speech controversies.\u201d Scores were based on reports from 62,997 undergraduates surveyed by College Pulse, an independent survey research and analytics company.<\/p>\n Chapin Lenthall-Cleary, a data analyst at FIRE and 2024 College graduate, said in an interview that the survey measures student attitudes toward free speech, including whether students believe \u201ccontroversial speakers\u201d should be allowed on campus and how comfortable they feel expressing their views in different settings.<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n He added that FIRE considers university speech policies, including restrictions on student speech, protections for campus speakers, and institutional neutrality.<\/p>\n One standard is whether institutions have a Chicago Statement<\/a> in place, which he said affirms \u201cthat the goal of the university is to protect free and open inquiry and that it\u2019s not the university\u2019s job to shield people from ideas that they don\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n A total of 297 Penn students were surveyed. Penn placed in the bottom 25 schools for FIRE\u2019s \u201cComfort Expressing Ideas\u201d and \u201cSelf-Censorship\u201d categories, indicating a likelihood to stay silent or feel uncomfortable about controversial topics.<\/p>\n Penn also ranked among the bottom 50 for \u201cAdministrative Support,\u201d which FIRE described as \u201cshowing little student trust that officials will defend speech.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the survey, 53% of respondents reported self-censoring at least once or twice each month, and 78% thought it was acceptable to shout down a speaker to stop them from speaking on campus.<\/p>\n In terms of speech controversies, Penn\u2019s handling<\/a> of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission\u2019s antisemitism probe boosted its score by one point.<\/p>\n However, the University lost points for \u201cdeplatformings\u201d such as the Steven Crowder<\/a> and Ben Shapiro<\/a> speaker events from last spring. Organizers of both events alleged unnecessary hurdles in the planning process. The Crowder debate was ultimately canceled, while the Shapiro speech moved forward.<\/p>\n Penn has consistently ranked near the bottom over the past few years, though it has gradually improved its standing. In 2024<\/a>, Penn was fourth from the bottom, while in 2022<\/a> and 2023<\/a>, Penn was ranked second to last \u2014 followed only by Columbia University and Harvard University, respectively.<\/p>\n The recent rankings stand in stark contrast to 2012<\/a>, when FIRE ranked Penn in the <\/a>top seven colleges for free speech.<\/p>\n Institutions that score below 60 points automatically receive an F grade. Penn was one of 121 schools to receive<\/a> an F in the context of a national average score of 61.36.<\/p>\n Only 24 institutions received a C or higher, with the University of Chicago<\/a> topping the list. Still, despite \u201cstrong trust in officials to defend speech,\u201d it earned a B- grade.<\/p>\n \u201cThe component on which they\u2019re ranked the worst is disruptive conduct,\u201d Lenthall-Cleary said. \u201cThis is not something that the administration can easily change, but it\u2019s reflective of the student speech culture there.\u201d<\/p>\n For the Penn administration, Lenthall-Cleary recommended changing student expression policies to achieve a green \u201cSpotlight rating,\u201d which would significantly boost the free speech ranking. The University currently has a yellow<\/a> rating because of ambiguity in four policies.<\/p>\n Penn is in the process<\/a> of revising its open expression guidelines, which FIRE rates green under the 1993 version. The 2024 temporary standards<\/a> for protests, however, are rated as yellow.<\/p>\n Lenthall-Cleary said that students could \u201cencourage the administration\u201d to adopt improved policies and the Chicago Statement.<\/p>\n \u201cBeyond that, try to personally do debate right, engage in civil and respectful debate with others, encourage people to do the same, be willing to subject your and others\u2019 arguments to rational scrutiny, and be open to hearing from people you disagree with,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Senior reporter Amy Liao covers student life and can be reached at liao@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies philosophy, politics, and economics and cinema and media studies. Follow her on X @amyliiao<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn was again ranked as one of the worst universities in the United States for free speech, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-282764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}