Georgia Tech Gets 3rd Place for Free Speech

Georgia Tech’s main campus placed third for free speech in a recent ranking released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Out of the 261 schools surveyed, Georgia Tech’s main campus placed only behind the University of Chicago, which ranked first, and Claremont McKenna College, which ranked second.

The report comes one year after Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Kirk was known for advocating for free speech on campus and for famously saying, “When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence.”

Why Georgia Tech Placed High

Georgia Tech’s website details the value of the First Amendment and freedom of speech. It says, “We [the university] hold the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the right to assemble peaceably as an essential cornerstone to the advancement of knowledge and the foundation of a lively, healthy democracy.”

The website continues by saying that through the “free exchange of ideas, Georgia Tech students learn to see the world from different perspectives, question their own beliefs, hone their critical thinking skills, and develop their own unique viewpoints.”

Blair Meeks, assistant vice president of external communications for Georgia Tech, told the Daily Signal, “This [free speech] has been and continues to be a very important topic at Georgia Tech.”

Historically, the campus has hosted speakers such as Candace Owens, Matt Walsh, and more, Meeks said, with this year’s ranking being the school’s “highest ever [score] recorded in seven years.”

Ryne Weiss, director of research at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told the Daily Signal that Georgia Tech ranked high on the list “by having no policies that substantially restrict free speech, and having both adopted institutional neutrality and the Chicago Statement.”

Richard Vedder, senior fellow at the Independent Institute, said one factor potentially driving Georgia Tech’s high ranking is that it’s an engineering and technology school.

Vedder said that “tech schools sort of take the view [to] let people say whatever they want—[saying] ‘We’re interested in the truth.’ That’s what science is about … and engineering schools … have that kind of mentality about them.”

Interestingly enough, Vedder said that the school that ranked directly below Georgia Tech is Michigan Technological University, asserting that the school is also an engineering school and ranked high for free speech.

Georgia Tech’s ranking could also be due, in part, to “GT [Georgia Tech] students” themselves who are “much less supportive of disruptive tactics in response to campus speakers,” Weiss said. He added that another major Peach State school, “UGA [the University of Georgia], was penalized for a 2024 shout-down of a speaker invited to campus by Turning Point USA.”

Ultimately, compared to other states across the nation, “the fact that all of Georgia’s schools are in the top 100 indicates that the state is certainly above average,” Weiss added.

On Free Speech Today in Universities

Darpana Sheth, general counsel at the Center for Individual Rights, told the Daily Signal in an email that the tried-and-true test to determine whether a university promotes free speech is particularly from a legal perspective.

“The test is not what a university’s speech policy says on paper,” Sheth said. “A genuinely strong environment has rules that are neutral on their face and, more importantly, neutral in application—narrow, clearly written, and enforced the same way whether the speaker is popular or not.”

The Role of DEI

Diversity, equity, and inclusion also has a role to play in free speech, Jonathan Butcher, the acting director at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy and Will Skillman senior research fellow in education policy, said.

“That DEI question … is the free-speech issue of the 21st century … It’s wrapped into antisemitism; it’s wrapped into the Students for Fair Admissions decision.”

The Future of Free Speech

When it comes to “tolerance,” a subject that is so often preached by the Left, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression stresses that safeguards must be in place to prevent students on both sides of a debate from feeling threatened and to allow them to speak freely without limitations. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s website, it is essential to “reform restrictive policies, protect national rights on campus, and bring national attention to threats against free expression and academic freedom.”

Similarly, when restrictions are enforced, good results follow.

Ultimately, Butcher said, “Free speech is a bipartisan issue. It’s … a nonpartisan issue.”

More from this network:
Domains for Sale · GOTPeople.org · TheDSAPlatform · The Truth About Socialism

Donate to GOTPeople.org