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Eighty-five percent of 489 colleges and universities surveyed have at least one policy that could be improperly used to limit free speech on campus, according to an annual report on campus speech rules released Wednesday.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2024 “Spotlight on Speech Codes” report rated the free speech policies of 376 four-year public colleges and 113 private institutions. The advocacy organization, which is focused on protecting free speech on college campuses, found some of the most common types of restrictive speech codes include policies on harassment and bullying, civility, bias reporting, protests and demonstrations, technology usage, and posting and distribution of materials.
The organization gave each of the institutions it surveyed an overall rating.
It gave 20 percent of the institutions a “red light” rating, which means they maintain policies that “clearly and substantially” restrict free speech; 65.4 percent received a “yellow light” rating, which means they maintain policies that “impose vague regulations on expression”; 12.9 percent earned a “green light,” meaning they maintain policies that do not “seriously imperil free expression”; and 1.6 percent received a “warning” rating because they do not promise students free speech rights at all.
The report said the number of colleges earning a green light has steadily increased over the past decade. The number of yellow-light colleges also increased from 2012 to 2022, although there were small declines in 2023 and 2024. And while the percentage of red-light colleges had been on the decline since 2012, this is the second year in a row that there’s been a slight uptick, rising from 19.3 percent in 2023 to 20 percent in 2024. Private colleges were more likely to receive red lights (36.3 percent) compared to public institutions (15.2 percent).
“This continued backslide is due, in large part, to schools’ continued maintenance of overbroad policies on harassment that can too easily be applied against protected speech,” the report said.
