Campus protests against Israel’s military actions in Gaza have fueled record censorship attempts at the nation’s elite private universities as the fall semester begins, according to a report by a free speech advocacy group.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which tracks censorship efforts on both sides of the ideological divide, published a free speech ranking of 251 colleges and universities Thursday.
The report counted a record-high 156 censorship attempts at U.S. colleges in 2023, including 54 related to Israel and the Palestinians. So far this year, the Philadelphia advocacy group has recorded 110 attempts, including 75 related to that issue.
“Campus deplatforming attempts occurred at record levels, and protesters attempted to disrupt events with increasing frequency — and succeeded with increasing regularity,” the report said. “Students, student groups, and faculty who expressed pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian sentiment were targeted for sanction by their peers, administrators, and elected officials.”
Officials at FIRE said they based the annual ranking on a survey of more than 58,000 students that they commissioned academic researcher College Pulse to conduct in the spring, at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year.
In the survey, 54% of students said it was difficult to “have an open and honest conversation” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus. When asked about controversial statements on the issue, most called on administrators to censor only the pro-Israel side.
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Among those surveyed, 71% said a campus speaker should “probably” or “definitely” be allowed to say, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Jewish civil liberties groups have flagged this pro-Palestinian protest slogan for contributing to a rise in anti-semitic incidents on campuses.
On the other side, 59% of students said a campus speaker should “probably” or “definitely” not be allowed to voice the pro-Israel statement, “Collateral damage in Gaza is justified for the sake of Israeli security.”
The emphasis on Israel represents a shift from FIRE’s previous rankings, which highlighted campus clashes over racism and transgender rights.
The group noted that more than 100 colleges briefly allowed pro-Palestinian encampments to take over their public spaces after the Islamist militant group Hamas attacked Israel last Oct. 7 and killed more than 1,200 civilians. Gazan health officials estimate that the ongoing Israeli military response has killed more than 40,000 militants and civilians, a number that cannot be independently verified.
The bottom five schools in this year’s FIRE ranking are private schools that removed pro-Palestinian encampments in the spring after briefly tolerating them.
In descending order, Harvard University, Columbia and New York University ranked “abysmal” in the FIRE grading system. The fourth and fifth worst offenders were the University of Pennsylvania and Barnard College, an independent women’s school at Columbia. The group ranked them “very poor.”
Student opinions on the conflict in Gaza have run to the left of older adults and of the Biden-Harris administration, which has consistently supported Israel’s military actions while calling for a ceasefire.
At UPenn, where former President Liz Magill resigned after facing backlash for her testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism last year, FIRE reported that there are roughly four liberal students for every conservative student.
“When I am speaking about any Pro-Palestinian sentiments, I must be careful with who I speak with as many are quick to hail them as ‘anti-semitic,’” one anonymous UPenn student wrote in the survey.
Jonathan Zimmerman, a UPenn professor of education and free speech advocate, said left-leaning pro-Palestinian protesters have faced censorship or cancellation on campus in recent months.
“I hope that all of us can use this fraught moment to unite behind free expression,” Mr. Zimmerman wrote in an email. “If you’re not willing to grant it to your political foes, you don’t really believe in it.”
According to FIRE, more college students have turned against free speech as anti-Israel protests and counter-protests have intensified.
In this year’s survey, 52% of students said it was acceptable on at least rare occasions to block their peers from attending a campus speech, up from 45% in 2023 and 37% in 2022.
Another 32% said it was acceptable at times to use violence to stop a campus speech, up from 27% last year and 20% in 2022.
Most of the colleges that the report criticized did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Advocacy groups across the ideological spectrum have slammed them for handling the issue poorly.
“The bottom five [colleges] are conspicuous in their mishandling of anti-semitic attacks,” said Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars and a former associate provost at private Boston University. “Harvard is having a hard time figuring out how to tolerate legitimate dissent.”
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy national director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group, accused the nation’s top colleges of stifling peaceful protests.
“By slandering, censoring and even brutalizing students who launched overwhelmingly peaceful sit-ins to end their schools’ financial entanglement with the Israeli government and its genocide in Gaza, many colleges and universities jettisoned their commitment to free speech,” Mr. Mitchell said.
On the positive side, the FIRE report praised several public colleges for supporting free speech on a range of issues, without favoring one side or the other.
The top five schools in descending order were the University of Virginia, Michigan Technical University, Florida State University, Eastern Kentucky University and Georgia Tech.
Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston, said that reflects the reality that private schools have more legal freedom than public schools to restrict student expression.
“The most elite institutions often place other progressive values above freedom of expression,” Mr. Blackman said. “Private schools are entitled to structure their missions how they choose, and students can apply accordingly.”
In an emailed statement, Eastern Kentucky President David T. McFaddin credited his school’s “unabridged free speech and free inquiry” policies for helping it break into FIRE’s top 5 for the first time.
“As an educational institution, we encourage the expression of free speech and foster an environment where voices are heard and respected,” Mr. McFaddin said. “We will continue to encourage open dialogue and respect for differing experiences and opinions.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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