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Claremont McKenna Rises to 6th Place in Free Speech Rankings
- Jacob Smagula
- Sep 5, 2024
- 1 min read
Claremont McKenna College.
On Wednesday, Claremont McKenna College leapt from 73rd to sixth place in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s newest College Free Speech Rankings. CMC had previously placed sixth in 2022, and first in 2021.
According to data collected by FIRE and College Pulse, 54% of the 103 CMC students surveyed said they self-censor on campus at least once or twice a month, and 12% said they never self-censor in conversations with other students. 72% reported that shouting down a campus speaker is at least rarely acceptable. The survey also found that for each conservative student, there are roughly five liberal students.
Beyond the overall ranking, of the 257 colleges and universities included in the rankings, CMC placed 1st in comfort expressing ideas, 44th in openness to difficult conversations, 9th in student perception of administrative support for free expression, and 3rd in tolerance for campus speakers.
CMC holds FIRE’s highest “green light” rating for campus policies governing free speech, but continues to be penalized for three entries in FIRE’s Scholars Under Fire database, which tracks infringements on academic freedom by college administrations.
As for the other Claremont Colleges, Scripps College ranked 123rd, Harvey Mudd College ranked 153rd, Pitzer College ranked 180th, and Pomona College ranked 242nd. Every Claremont College except CMC holds “yellow light” ratings for campus speech policies.
After reading about CMC's rise to 6th place in the free speech rankings via codex pets, I found the survey results quite revealing. For example, the fact that 54% of students self-censor at least monthly shows there's still work to be done. It's also surprising that 72% think shouting down speakers is acceptable, which contradicts the overall ranking improvement.
I was surprised to learn about CMC's huge jump to 6th place in the rankings, which I read about at PixCraft. The fact that 54% of students still reported self-censoring at least monthly seems to complicate that high ranking a bit. It will be interesting to see if this reflects a genuine shift in campus culture.
It's interesting that Claremont McKenna ranked 1st for comfort expressing ideas but only 44th for openness to difficult conversations. The fact that 54% of students still self-censor at least monthly is a striking detail, even with the high overall ranking. For more context on these kinds of campus metrics, you can check out SubtitleOps.
I found the leap from 73rd to 6th place in the free speech rankings really interesting, especially with data like the 54% self-censoring rate at ZEnhancer. It’s striking how that top overall score contrasts with the finding that a large majority still thinks shouting down a speaker is acceptable at least sometimes. The survey details paint a pretty complex picture of campus culture.
It's interesting that Claremont McKenna jumped so high in the FIRE rankings, landing 1st in comfort expressing ideas. The fact that 54% of students still self-censor on campus at least monthly is a striking detail that shows there's still work to be done. The article provides a good overview of the data, and for anyone interested in the broader context of campus speech, this grid maker might be a useful related tool.