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College faculty are more likely to self-censor now than at the height of McCarthyism

New FIREsurvey finds censorship is endemic across higher education, and faculty aren鈥檛 speaking up for fear of their jobs.
A college professor in the foreground with horizontal red bar graphs in the background, except for one which covers the mouth of the professor, indicating censorship.

For a number of faculty members, the threat of censorship is so pervasive on campuses across America that not even the cloak of anonymity is enough to make them feel safe expressing their ideas.

This year, 果冻传媒app官方 surveyed 6,269 faculty members at 55 major colleges and universities for 鈥Silence in the Classroom: The 2024 FIREFaculty Survey Report,鈥 the largest faculty free speech survey ever performed.

What we found shocked even us here at 果冻传媒app官方. A deeply entrenched atmosphere of silence and fear is endemic across higher education. 

We found that self-censorship on US campuses is currently four times worse than it was at the height of the McCarthy era. Today, 35% of faculty say they have toned down their written work for fear of causing controversy. In a major survey conducted in 1954, the height of McCarthyism, by the sociologists Paul Lazarsfeld and Wagner Thielens, only 9% of social scientists said the same. 

Headline in The Michigan Daily newspaper about University of Michigan President Harlan Hatcher suspending faculty for not answer questions from McCarthy Committee
Front page of The Michigan Daily newspaper on May 13, 1954.

In fact, the problem is so bad that some academics were afraid even to respond to our already anonymous survey for fear of retaliation. Some asked us by email, or in their free response replies, to keep certain details they shared private. Some asked us to direct all correspondence to a private personal email. Others reached out beforehand just to confirm the results would truly be anonymous. Still others simply refused to speak at all.

For some, the danger is clear and concrete. As one professor wrote, 鈥淚 am not at liberty to even share anonymously for fear of retribution.鈥

For others, it鈥檚 more nebulous, but the fear is no less real. 

鈥淚 almost avoided filling out the survey for fear of losing my job somehow鈥氣 one professor told us, adding that they 鈥渨aited about two weeks before getting the courage to take the risk.鈥

It is totally unacceptable that this is a reality on today鈥檚 campuses.

For what I鈥檓 paid to teach the courses that I do, it鈥檚 just not enough to outweigh the risk of potential public excoriation for wrong-think and its personal and professional impact on myself, my family, and my business.

We at FIREeven had to devise additional ways of disguising academics and their schools so others could not 鈥渙ut鈥 them using their responses, including by describing certain schools in general terms such as 鈥渁 flagship state university in the south.鈥 As one professor remarked, 鈥淭he fact that I鈥檓 worried about even filling out polls where my opinions are anonymous is an indication that we, as institutions and as society, have lost the thread concerning ideas.鈥 This person isn鈥檛 wrong.

So the next time you鈥檙e talking politics with friends or having dinner conversation, remember this fact 鈥 four times as many faculty are scared to speak candidly than at the height  of McCarthyism!

A person in red feeling isolated and singled-out by people in blue

FIRE SURVEY: Only 20% of university faculty say a conservative would fit in well in their department

Press Release

A third of faculty say they self-censor their written work, nearly four times the number of social scientists who said the same in 1954 at the height of McCarthyism.

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Few other university issues 鈥 arguably, few other issues in America, period 鈥 matter more. The exchange of ideas and information is the entire reason universities exist. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, 鈥淥ur lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.鈥 For more than a third of faculty, that ending has already begun. 

Consider this final heartbreaking message from an educator who told us they felt the urge to self-censor on the survey even though it was anonymous. 

鈥淚 had already decided that this year will be the last one I teach at the university,鈥 they reflected. 鈥淔or what I鈥檓 paid to teach the courses that I do, it鈥檚 just not enough to outweigh the risk of potential public excoriation for wrong-think and its personal and professional impact on myself, my family, and my business.鈥

Read the full report and learn more about the full extent of what the climate of higher ed is doing to faculty鈥檚 search for truth in higher education today.

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