School Spotlight
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location:
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Type:
Private
Speech Code Rating
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been given the speech code rating Yellow. Yellow light colleges and universities are those institutions with at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application.
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MITNet Rules of Use
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: September 8, 2021Any use that might contribute to the creation of a hostile academic or work environment is prohibited … Read MoreMIT Policies & Procedures: 9.4 Policy on Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 8, 2021Harassment is defined as unwelcome conduct of a verbal, nonverbal or physical nature that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a work or academic environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile or abusive and that adversely affects an individual’s educational, work, or living envir... Read MoreMind and Hand Book: Policies Regarding Student Behavior- II (24). Sexual Misconduct
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 8, 2021Sexual Harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, such as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature, when: … The conduct is sufficiently severe or pervasive that a reasonable person would consider it intimidating, hostile,... Read MoreMind and Hand Book: Policies Regarding Student Behavior- II (9) Freedom of Expression
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 8, 2021Freedom of expression is essential to the mission of a university. So is freedom from unreasonable and disruptive offense. Members of this educational community are encouraged to avoid putting these essential elements of our university to a balancing test. Read MoreMIT Policies & Procedures: 11.1 Protection of Personal Privacy
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 8, 2021MIT is committed to protecting the personal privacy of members of the MIT community. The mutual trust and freedom of thought and expression essential to a university rest on a confidence that privacy will be respected. Read MoreMIT Policies & Procedures: 1.1 Mission and Objectives
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 8, 2021The Institute seeks through research and reflection to extend the boundaries of knowledge and the horizons of the human intellect. In so doing, it aims to create an atmosphere of intellectual excitement, a climate of inquiry and innovation in which each student develops a consuming interest in understanding for its ... Read MoreMIT Policies & Procedures: 9.4 Policy on Harassment: Title IX Sexual Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 8, 2021Title IX Sexual Harassment means: Conduct on the basis of sex that satisfies one or more of the following: … Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to MIT’s education program or activity; … 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
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 / out of 154 colleges surveyed |
|
| Overall Ranking | 76 |
| Ideological Diversity | 102 |
Overall / out of a top score of 100 |
|
| Overall Score | 59.54 |
| Openness | 10.36 |
| Tolerance (Liberals) | 10.67 |
| Tolerance (Conservatives) | 8.03 |
| Administrative Support | 5.61 |
| Comfort | 14.95 |
| Disruptive Conduct | 9.92 |
| Speech Code | YELLOW |
Wilson Report: FIRE Writes to 15 Top Schools to Express Concern About Their Press Policies
November 12, 2020
On November 10, 2020, FIRE sent letters to 15 top colleges and universities across the country to express concern regarding their restrictive press policies. These letters followed a report published by John K. Wilson of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement (the “Wilson Report”), which gave each of these… 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
FIRE Chairman Calls Out Northeast Colleges in Annual ‘Muzzle Awards’
July 6, 2015
Each summer for the past eighteen years, FIRE Co-founder and Chairman Harvey Silverglate has announced the winners of his annual “Campus Muzzle Awards”: colleges and universities in the Northeast stifling campus discourse in particularly outrageous ways. Along with myself and fellow research assistant Timothy Moore, this year, Harvey has written about incidents at Brown University,… Read more
MIT Grad Student Raises Concerns About Broad New Hazing Policy
September 5, 2014
In a guest column published in today’s edition of The Tech, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) oldest student newspaper, graduate student Brian Spatocco opens with a startling admission: “Under MIT’s recently overhauled hazing policy in the Mind and Hand Book, I am guilty of hazing students.” Is Spatocco forcing his fellow students to sizzle… Read more
FIRE President: ‘When the Artist’s Brush Catches the Censor’s Eye’
November 26, 2013
In a column published today by The Tech, an independent student newspaper at MIT, FIRE President Greg Lukianoff explores how far colleges will go to censor controversial art on campus. Titled “When the Artist’s Brush Catches the Censor’s Eye,” Greg’s column cites numerous troubling examples, including the following from MIT: MIT students recently witnessed this type of suppression… Read more
The State of Free Speech on Campus: MIT
June 8, 2009
Throughout the spring semester and into the early summer, 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 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which FIRE has given a yellow-light rating for maintaining policies… Read more