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The vast majority of faculty members—87 percent—say it’s difficult to have open and honest conversations about divisive political topics, including those related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, racial inequality and transgender rights, according to the 2024 faculty survey report “Silence in the Classroom,” published today by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
The group surveyed 6,269 faculty across 55 colleges and universities—including a mix of public and private institutions—on the state of free speech and self-censorship on their campuses.
“Academic freedom may technically exist, but many faculty appear to lack faith that it will be there to protect them—their work, their reputations, or their jobs—in times of need. For many, the risks today are just too high,” the report concluded. “A climate of this type is not sustainable for higher education, at least not if higher education desires to uphold its truth-seeking and knowledge-producing mission.”
The survey also found that 28 percent of faculty said they at least occasionally hide their political beliefs in order to keep their job, and 27 percent of faculty feel unable to speak freely for fear of how students, administrators or other faculty might respond.
While just 14 percent of faculty reported suffering disciplinary actions or threats for their teaching, research, academic talks or other off-campus speech, 40 percent expressed worry about damaging their reputations because someone misunderstands something they have said or done.
Responses to such questions varied depending on a professor’s political leanings.
While 55 percent of conservative faculty said they may hide their political beliefs, just 17 percent of liberal faculty said the same. Additionally, 71 percent said a liberal faculty member would fit in well in their department, whereas only 20 percent said a conservative would.
Those disparities, the FIRE report noted, can shape a student’s learning experience.
“If students, or even early career academics, lack role models or faculty they can trust—perhaps because certain faculty are too few in number, or perhaps because these faculty fear for their job and keep quiet—they may fail to receive sufficient mentoring, research opportunities, or other intangibles that are essential for success in college and advancement to graduate school, placing them at an immediate point of disadvantage,” the report said.
Tenure also influenced professors’ attitudes toward self-censorship, with 34 percent of nontenured professors reporting hiding their political beliefs in an attempt to keep their jobs, compared to 25 percent of tenured professors.
The report also suggests that despite conservative politicians’ recent crusade to cast universities as monolithic supporters of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, many professors disagree with certain DEI initiatives.
Half of faculty surveyed said, “It is rarely or never justified to require faculty job candidates to submit statements pledging commitment” to DEI. And 66 percent of faculty said colleges and universities should not take positions on any political and social issues.
