Indiana University is among the lowest-ranked universities for student free speech and open inquiry in the U.S., according to a new survey-based ranking by the free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
IU placed 243 of 250 colleges and universities across the U.S. in the FIRE ranking based on both student survey responses from more than 58,000 students across all campuses and an analysis of administrative actions. IU fell 18 spots from its ranking in FIRE’s 2024 report (in which it ranked 225 place) and is now the second-lowest scoring public university for free speech, above only University of Texas at Austin (244).
The 2025 report makes clear that administrative responses to pro-Palestinian student encampments last spring played a significant role in IU and UT Austin ranking in the bottom 10. Both IU and UT Austin’s responses to student protests, especially the deployment of state troopers, made national news earlier this year.
“At Indiana University, this [ranking] followed reports of snipers stationed on the roofs of campus buildings after the administration called the police to shut down an encampment protest,” the report reads. “At the University of Texas at Austin, it followed the university preemptively calling the police to campus, presumably to prevent students from establishing an encampment.”
Sean Stevens, chief research advisor at FIRE, said students at the public universities which scored the worst in the rankings, like IU and UT Austin, had particularly negative reactions to their administrations.
© 2024 HeraldTimesOnline, Bloomington, IN