Colleges Make Students Check Free Speech Rights at the Door.

Millions of students nationwide check their free speech rights at the door when they arrive on campus, according to a report from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Philadelphia, Pa.

"Spotlight on Speech Codes 2020: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation's Campuses" analyzes the written policies at 471 of America's top colleges and universities for their protection of free speech. The report finds that 89% of American colleges maintain policies that restrict--or too easily could be applied to restrict--student expression.

All of the analyzed policies are accessible in FIRE's Spotlight Database. FIRE rates schools as red, yellow, or green light institutions based on how much, if any, speech their policies restrict.

"Many college administrators are scrubbing the most-egregious policies from the books, but they're increasingly crafting subtler policies that still limit student expression," says Laura Beltz, senior program officer at FIRE. "Yellow light policies aren't good enough: they still restrict protected speech. Colleges must go green or go back to the drawing board."

Almost one-quarter of institutions in the report received FIRE's poorest, red light rating for maintaining speech codes that both "clearly and substantially" restrict freedom of speech. Only 52 schools do not maintain any written policies that compromise student expression, earning FIRE's highest, green light rating. The percentage of green light schools is up from two percent in 2009.

Meanwhile, the number of institutions earning a yellow light rating has tripled in recent years: from 21% in 2009 to 64% today. While less restrictive than red light policies, yellow light policies still prohibit or have an impermissible chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech.

In rating schools, FIRE measures an institution's policies against First Amendment standards. The rating system examines universities' written policies and regulations and does not take into account specific cases or incidents.

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