School Spotlight

Emory University

Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Type: Private
Thank Emory University for its commitment to free speech.

Speech Code Rating

Emory University has been given the speech code rating Green. Green light institutions are those colleges and universities whose policies nominally protect free speech. Read more

Due Process Rating

Sexual Misconduct

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F

Non-Sexual Misconduct

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D

Title IX

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C

Campus Climate

Overall Ranking

out of 154 colleges surveyed Read more
4

  • Policy 1.3 Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment Policy

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
    Last updated: June 1, 2021

    Emory University is an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged, and diverse community dedicated to the ideals of free academic discourse in teaching, scholarship, and community service. Emory University abides by the values of academic freedom and is built on the assumption that contention among different views is positiv... Read More

  • Policy 8.14 Respect for Open Expression Policy

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
    Last updated: June 1, 2021

    [T]he foundations of this Policy are grounded in the principles of the entire campus being open and available to members to build community through Expression, Protest, and Dissent. As such, all spaces, both indoors and outdoors, are available to support both planned and impromptu Expression, Protest, and Dissent ex... Read More

  • Policy 8.2 Sex and Gender-Based Harassment and Discrimination Policy

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: June 1, 2021

    “Title IX Misconduct” is a subset of Prohibited Conduct that rises to a level of severity and pervasiveness such that it is prohibited expressly by Title IX. Prohibited Conduct meets the definition of Title IX Misconduct when: … A Student, Employee, or Third Party engages in unwelcome conduct on the basis of s... Read More

  • Policy 8.1: Undergraduate Code of Conduct

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: June 1, 2021

    Although it is neither possible nor necessary to specify every instance of misconduct that could result in disciplinary action against a student, the following are examples of the types of behavior that are considered violations of this Code. … Misuse of computer or network resources, including but not limited... Read More

  • Bias Support Services

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
    Last updated: October 28, 2021

    The goal of Bias Support Services (BSS) is to ensure that there is a clear process for reporting bias incidents and for providing support for community members impacted by bias. As a community of scholars, we are committed to an environment where open expression of ideas is valued, promoted, and encouraged. We recog... Read More

  • Policy 5.1 Information Technology Conditions of Use

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
    Last updated: June 1, 2021

    Users of Emory’s IT resources may not use those resources for any unethical or illegal purpose, including but not limited to the following: … Harassing other members of the Emory community; … Viewing or distributing content, to the extent that doing do violates any applicable Emory policy and/or state an... Read More

Policies are rated on their inclusion of 10 due process safeguards. Each policy may receive 2 points for fully including that safeguard, 1 point for partial inclusion, and 0 points for no meaningful inclusion. Most, but not all, institutions have separate policies for sexual misconduct and all other misconduct. See FIRE’s Spotlight on Due Process report for more information.

Grades

Sexual Misconduct

F
1/20
  • Meaningful presumption of innocence
  • Timely and adequate written notice
  • Time to prepare with evidence
  • Impartial fact-finders
  • Meaningful hearing process
  • Right to present to fact-finder
  • Right to meaningful cross-ex
  • Active participation of advisor
  • Meaningful right to appeal
  • Unanimity or clear and convincing evidence

Non-Sexual Misconduct

D
8/20
  • Meaningful presumption of innocence
  • Timely and adequate written notice
  • Time to prepare with evidence
  • Impartial fact-finders
  • Meaningful hearing process
  • Right to present to fact-finder
  • Right to meaningful cross-ex
  • Active participation of advisor
  • Meaningful right to appeal
  • Unanimity or clear and convincing evidence

Title IX

C
12/20
  • Meaningful presumption of innocence
  • Timely and adequate written notice
  • Time to prepare with evidence
  • Impartial fact-finders
  • Meaningful hearing process
  • Right to present to fact-finder
  • Right to meaningful cross-ex
  • Active participation of advisor
  • Meaningful right to appeal
  • Unanimity or clear and convincing evidence

FIRE surveyed roughly 37,000 students at 154 colleges and universities about the climate for free speech at their institutions. In 2021, FIRE released rankings of those schools, based on a number of factors, including openness, tolerance, self-expression, administrative support for free speech, and campus policies, scoring overall speech climate on a scale from 0-100. See the full report on FIRE’s 2021 College Free Speech Rankings for more information.

 

Rankings
Overall Ranking 4/154
Ideological Diversity 123/159

Overall / out of a top score of 100
Overall Score 67.14
Openness 10.27
Tolerance (Liberals) 10.99
Tolerance (Conservatives) 7.89
Administrative Support 6.17
Comfort 15.86
Disruptive Conduct 9.96
Speech Code GREEN

  • Pro-free speech graduate students at Emory Law prevail 

    May 3, 2022

    On April 5, the Emory Free Speech Forum hosted professor Nadine Strossen to talk to students at Emory University about the importance of free speech in a legal education. It was the group’s inaugural event, held about a week after they were approved as an official Emory University organization, which happened after months of advocacy… Read more

  • Victory! Emory Law recognizes free speech student group after seven months of viewpoint-based rejection 

    April 11, 2022

    After almost two full semesters of paternalistic, infantilizing rejections stretching back to October 2021, the student group Emory Free Speech Forum finally attained its temporary charter from the Emory University School of Law last month. This is a welcome development, but it should not have taken seven months for Emory to realize the irony of… Read more

  • Six degrees of offensive speech: At what cost will colleges avoid conflict?

    January 26, 2022

    Many institutions of higher education promote their campuses as spaces where open discussion, debate, and disagreement are not only tolerated, but encouraged, based on the idea that free expression is integral to the development of new knowledge. While colleges often fall short of embodying this promise, some fall very short, disciplining or discouraging even the… Read more

  • Emory refuses to recognize new student groups after rejecting discussion group 

    January 19, 2022

    After its student government denied a student group the benefits of university recognition, on the absurd and infantilizing basis that the group’s open discussion format might mean that “the conversation might very easily devolve” and cause “harm,” Emory University’s administration has now decided to refuse to recognize any new student group for the foreseeable future…. Read more

  • Citing the ‘harm’ of open discussion, Emory Law’s student government denies recognition to student free speech group

    January 10, 2022

    ATLANTA, Jan. 10, 2022 — Emory University’s laudable free speech promises mean nothing to the Emory Law Student Bar Association, which denied recognition to a free-speech-focused student group because open discussion could cause “harm.” Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education called on Emory Law to promptly process the Emory Free Speech Forum’s application… Read more

  • Is Emory going full Grinch? University tells students they can’t hang Christmas decorations.

    December 22, 2021

    While children and nostalgic adults across the nation enjoy the silly, whimsical story of Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” festive college students at Emory University found themselves in trouble for their Christmas decorations under a policy that would make the Grinch snarl with a sneer.  According to public reports, Emory charged the Alpha… Read more

  • FIRE urges 15 top colleges and universities to improve restrictive press policies

    November 12, 2020

    Over the summer, a report from the University of California’s National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement revealed that a majority of top colleges and universities maintain policies unfriendly to the press, including the student press. As FIRE reported at the time, UC Center fellow John K. Wilson found that these policies include requirements… Read more

  • Emory prof’s reinstatement a bittersweet victory after year-long ‘N-word’ investigation

    March 11, 2020

    Tenured law professor Paul Zwier’s return to teaching at Emory University — after more than a year facing termination for using the word “nigger” while discussing systemic racism with students — feels quite unlike an academic freedom victory, even though it is. Instead, Zwier’s reinstatement reads more like a cautionary tale about the eroding rights… Read more

  • FIRE’s speech code ratings are just that — speech code ratings

    September 13, 2019

    From time to time, FIRE gets questions about the manner in which we assign our speech code ratings to colleges and universities. These ratings, after all, are central to our Spotlight Database, which compiles information about student speech policies at more than 450 institutions, public and private, and is relied upon by many to gauge… Read more

  • Emory Law Professor faces termination hearing for using ‘n-word’ in discussion of civil rights case, discussion with student

    August 30, 2019

    Last September, we covered the suspension of Paul Zwier, a white professor at Emory University School of Law, after he used the word “nigger” while discussing the facts of a civil rights case. After Zwier subsequently told a student, who had come to his office to discuss the controversy, that Zwier had been called a… Read more

  • Compassion in the face of conflict: An open discussion at Emory University

    June 24, 2019

    In early April of this year, the Emory Students for Justice in Palestine held its Israeli Apartheid Week on Cox Bridge, the central thoroughfare of our campus. Tabling right across from them for Israel Week were the Emory Eagles for Israel. As I glanced over one poster condemning Israeli occupation of the West Bank and… Read more

  • Emory University’s resolution agreement with law professor threatens academic freedom

    September 20, 2018

    Earlier this year, Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy told me that about once a year, he finds himself “writing a letter to some place in defense of a teacher who has been dismissed for Xeroxing part of my book.” His book? “nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word.” The offending content? The word… Read more

  • Emory University earns FIRE’s highest rating for free speech

    December 5, 2017

    ATLANTA, Dec. 5, 2017 — Emory University has removed language from its policies that chilled free expression on campus, earning it the highest, “green light” rating for free speech on campus from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. After working to ensure that the policies across all of its departments reflect the university’s commitment… Read more

  • ‘So to Speak’ Podcast: Denying the Holocaust

    November 17, 2016

    In 1996, Emory University professor Deborah Lipstadt found herself in a peculiar situation: She and a team of lawyers would have to defend the truth about the Holocaust against British historian and famed Holocaust denier David Irving. It was a quirk of the English legal system that allowed the battle to play out in court…. Read more

  • Speech Code Countdown: Most of America’s ‘Best Colleges’ Restrict Speech

    October 5, 2016

    U.S. News & World Report recently released its annual rankings of the “Best Colleges” for 2017. The rankings are based on a multitude of “indicators of academic excellence” that prospective students use to narrow down their college application lists, including graduation and retention rate, financial resources, the institution’s reputation, and student selectivity. But U.S. News’… Read more

  • Emory Committee Releases Formal Statement on ‘Chalkening’ Controversy, Political Expression

    May 11, 2016

    The Emory University Senate’s Standing Committee for Open Expression has seen the writing on the wall. Or, more specifically, on the sidewalk. The university-affiliated committee tasked with interpreting Emory’s Open Expression Policy released a comprehensive 12-page statement this week urging increased free speech protections at Emory in the wake of this semester’s controversy over pro-Donald… Read more

  • Emory President Chalks Pro-Speech Message After Trump Controversy as Students, Alumni Urge More Action (VIDEO)

    March 30, 2016

    Emory University President James Wagner has expressed his support of free speech —in chalk— following the controversy over chalk messages written on campus last week in support of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. President Wagner’s supportive message comes after students from Emory’s Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter and a separate, non-partisan coalition of Emory… Read more

  • So About Free Speech at Emory…

    March 23, 2016

    Just yesterday, we reported that the Emory University Senate Standing Committee for Open Expression had issued a statement strongly supporting free speech on campus. But just over the past 24 hours comes news of Emory’s apparent implosion over the appearance of “Trump 2016” chalkings on campus. Most notable, from FIRE’s perspective, is this suggestion from… Read more

  • Good News for Free Speech at Emory University

    March 22, 2016

    Last week, The Volokh Conspiracy reported that the Emory University Senate Standing Committee for Open Expression released an opinion strongly supporting free speech on campus. The opinion responds to two separate acts of vandalism within 48 hours last February targeting a wall display posted by Emory Students for Justice in Palestine (ESJP). The vandals apparently… Read more

  • Emory Students Demand Course Evaluations Include Rating for Microaggressions

    December 11, 2015

    College course evaluations, while valuable, do not always give a precise measure of the competence of a professor. Students, who have been judged all semester by professors, have an opportunity to pass judgment themselves. Some of them take the task seriously and offer constructive comments. For others, it’s payback time. This is a process with… Read more

  • Not Everyone at Emory Got Salman Rushdie’s Important Message About Free Speech

    February 26, 2015

    Acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie spoke to students at Emory University last week about what it means to defend freedom of speech and why students must vigilantly do so. Though his plea was well-argued and powerful, it didn’t reach all Emory community members—particularly not whoever destroyed a display set up by student group Emory Students for… Read more

  • Is Emory’s Student Government Ready to Take a Stand for Free Speech?

    November 21, 2011

    There’s some good news on the free speech front at Emory University, where (as I wrote here last week) a proposed "free expression zone" policy had all appearances of being woefully misguided and actually quite bad for free speech at Emory. The Emory Wheel expressed worry about the implications of such a zone as well. Now,… Read more

  • Emory Students Speak out Against Proposed ‘Free Expression Zone’ Policy

    November 11, 2011

    On Wednesday I gave Emory University a shellacking over a proposed "free expression zone" policy, which was hailed in The Emory Wheel as a step forward by Emory’s student government president and a number of Emory administrators. As I wrote, the fact that such initiatives on supposedly free liberal arts campuses are so positively received does far… Read more

  • At Emory, Understanding of Free Speech so Bad it Makes a ‘Free Speech Zone’ Sound Good

    November 9, 2011

    You know standards for free speech on campus have fallen pretty far when a plan to establish a "free speech zone" policy seems like progress and not regression. Just such a move—a joint effort between students and administrators—is underway at Emory University, The Emory Wheel student newspaper reports. The Wheel‘s article merits quoting at length because… Read more

  • Emory professor allowed to say he’s an Emory professor on private blog

    July 14, 2009

    Steadily growing scrutiny from the higher education media and organizations including FIRE has caused Emory University to backtrack on its previous demand that Professor J. Douglas Bremner remove the name of the university—including the fact that he is an Emory professor—from his private blog. Bremner, a professor of psychiatry and radiology at Emory’s School of… Read more

  • The State of Free Speech on Campus: Emory University

    March 2, 2009

    Throughout the spring semester, FIRE is drawing special attention to the state of free speech at America’s top 25 national universities (as ranked by U.S. News & World Report). Today we review policies at Emory University, which FIRE has given a red-light rating for restricting free expression on campus. We start by examining whether Emory—a… Read more

  • Free Speech under Attack during Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week

    October 25, 2007

    This week, as the Terrorism Awareness Project provides speakers at college campuses in order to increase awareness about terrorism of the Muslim extremist variety, the predictable has come to pass: speakers have been prevented by protesters from enjoying their freedom of speech. At Emory University, David Horowitz’s lecture ended prematurely when audience members refused to… Read more