[TrumpCard]

It's possible I'm being overly technical here, but the term "free speech" seems like an implicit reference to the First Amendment.  People intuitively think that they have a *right* to free speech, which is the reason I am cautious about using that terminology.  

"Free speech" on campus may be a relevant term at public schools because such schools are arms of government.  Even then, the term "free speech" seems like it should be limited to school imposed rules, and not extend to the culture of the student body.  

I am not sure that "free speech" has any relevance whatsoever on the campus of a private school like Stanford, unless the police are involved.  Ivory tower or not, the campus of a private university is "the real world."  My understanding is that students don't have a right to speak their mind unencumbered by school rules or school culture.  Students at private schools stand in the same position I do as an employee at a private company.  If I say something offensive to people, I can face consequences.  I have to think about whether the thing I want to say is going to offend people in the room.  I think it's good preparation for life after college for students to see that their speech has consequences.  For that reason, I don't think being #1 on this list would be a good thing.

With that said, I do understand that the mission of a university aligns with openness towards different viewpoints because such openness gives students an opportunity to learn.  For that reason, being last on the list probably wouldn't be ideal either.  I just think it's a mistake to look at this list and say that #1 is better than #2 is better than #3 and so on (assuming for the sake of argument that the rankings accurately reflect the true openness towards different viewpoints at each school).

P.S. Look at me trying to have this conversation without mentioning the major current event that is banned from discussion here, but that everyone is talking about when it comes to "free speech" on college campuses.

[TrumpCard]

It's possible I'm being overly technical here, but the term "free speech" seems like an implicit reference to the First Amendment.  People intuitively think that they have a *right* to free speech, which is the reason I am cautious about using that terminology.  

"Free speech" on campus may be a relevant term at public schools because such schools are arms of government.  Even then, the term "free speech" seems like it should be limited to school imposed rules, and not extend to the culture of the student body.  

I am not sure that "free speech" has any relevance whatsoever on the campus of a private school like Stanford, unless the police are involved.  Ivory tower or not, the campus of a private university is "the real world."  My understanding is that students don't have a right to speak their mind unencumbered by school rules or school culture.  Students at private schools stand in the same position I do as an employee at a private company.  If I say something offensive to people, I can face consequences.  I have to think about whether the thing I want to say is going to offend people in the room.  I think it's good preparation for life after college for students to see that their speech has consequences.  For that reason, I don't think being #1 on this list would be a good thing.

With that said, I do understand that the mission of a university aligns with openness towards different viewpoints because such openness gives students an opportunity to learn.  For that reason, being last on the list probably wouldn't be ideal either.  I just think it's a mistake to look at this list and say that #1 is better than #2 is better than #3 and so on (assuming for the sake of argument that the rankings accurately reflect the true openness towards different viewpoints at each school).

P.S. Look at me trying to have this conversation without mentioning the major current event that is banned from discussion here, but that everyone is talking about when it comes to "free speech" on college campuses.