School Spotlight

University of Mississippi

Location: Oxford, Mississippi
Type: Public
Thank University of Mississippi for its commitment to free speech.

Speech Code Rating

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

Campus Climate

Overall Ranking

out of 154 colleges surveyed Read more
11

  • Policy: Free Inquiry, Expression, and Assembly

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2021

    This policy is intended to promote and facilitate free speech across the University’s community of scholars, without interfering with the University’s educational, research and service missions or infringing upon the rights of others. Nothing in this policy authorizes the University to regulate the content or vie... Read More

  • Policy: IT Appropriate Use

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2021

    You must not upload, post, or transmit content that is threatening, harassing, defamatory, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy. Read More

  • Bias Education and Response Team

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
    Last updated: September 9, 2021

    While freedom of expression and the open exchange of ideas are important to the University  of Mississippi, actions and behaviors that are bias-motivated, prejudiced, or otherwise disrespectful can negatively impact individuals or groups. Bias-related incidents are defined as alleged threats or acts of harassment or... Read More

  • Interpersonal Violence and Sexual Misconduct Policy

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2021

    Under this Policy, sexual harassment means either: (i) unwelcome sexual conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to an educational program or activity of the University; or (ii) sexual assault, dating violence, do... Read More

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 11
Ideological Diversity 8

Overall / out of a top score of 100
Overall Score 65.87
Openness 9.56
Tolerance (Liberals) 9.63
Tolerance (Conservatives) 8.31
Administrative Support 6.09
Comfort 16.12
Disruptive Conduct 10.16
Speech Code GREEN

  • FIRE, PEN America, condemn new rule forcing some Mississippi universities to consider ‘collegiality’ in tenure review

    April 27, 2022

    FIRE and PEN America wrote the board of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning today to object to a new rule that forces presidents at eight of the state’s public universities to consider vague standards like “collegiality” when granting faculty tenure. The rule, quietly adopted last Thursday, says college presidents at IHL universities “shall take… Read more

  • How adjunctification undermines academic freedom, and what FIRE is doing to help

    December 6, 2021

    One of the enduring myths of higher education is that the vast majority of professors are protected by tenure and have jobs for life, and so they are therefore free to research, teach, or speak openly about controversial ideas without fear of professional retaliation. This may have been the case 50 years ago — maybe… Read more

  • FIRE objects after Ole Miss dismisses professor who complained about department chair

    December 18, 2020

    FIRE sent a letter to the University of Mississippi today calling for “a full and transparent account” of why the university decided not to renew the contract of assistant history professor Garrett Felber and asking the institution to reconsider its decision. Felber, a public critic of Ole Miss’ record on racial equity issues, has taught… Read more

  • Court: Exclusion of evidence, biased training, lack of cross-examination, low evidentiary standard may have violated student’s due process rights

    January 17, 2019

    While the Department of Education considers new regulations on how colleges and universities adjudicate claims of sexual misconduct on campus, the wave of litigation stemming from how they currently handle those claims continues unabated. Yesterday, a federal court in Mississippi denied the University of Mississippi’s motion to dismiss a student’s claim that the university violated… Read more

  • At Ole Miss, Free Speech Helps Heal Wounds of Segregationist Past

    July 27, 2016

    At one time, the University of Mississippi was the setting for one of the most infamous efforts to keep public schools racially segregated. Today, with more than 50 years separating it from that grim past, Ole Miss is gaining notoriety for its sweeping efforts to foster diversity and inclusion on campus. And administrators say it’s… Read more

  • This Time, We’re Failing to Talk About ‘American Sniper’

    April 20, 2015

    Every so often, a cultural touchstone descends on college campuses, with the effect of putting campus discourse under the microscope for all to see. The results, frequently, are discouraging. Clint Eastwood’s blockbuster film American Sniper, adapted from deceased Navy sniper Chris Kyle’s memoir, is the latest exhibit. That American Sniper is a controversial movie is… Read more

  • Harvey Silverglate: ‘Ole Miss Seeks to Put First Amendment in a Noose’

    March 3, 2014

    FIRE Chairman and co-founder Harvey Silverglate reminds readers in an article for Minding the Campus today that “in the eyes of the First Amendment, speech that promotes hate is as protected as speech that promotes love.”

  • Ole Miss Students Respond to Racially Charged Speech with More Speech

    November 13, 2012

    In the wake of a racially charged protest last week, students at the University of Mississippi have responded by demonstrating exactly why the best way to counter speech one finds offensive is with more speech. On election night, some students at Ole Miss gathered to protest the re-election of President Obama. What originally began as… Read more

  • ‘The College Fix’ Covers New “Green Light” Schools

    September 28, 2012

    This year FIRE was proud to add two new schools to our list of institutions that have “green light” policies for free speech: Mississippi State and the University of Mississippi. We also were happy to add both of those schools to our Seven Best Schools for Free Speech list published in The Huffington Post last month…. Read more

  • Mississippians Celebrate Free Speech on State Campuses

    September 12, 2012

    Mississippi news outlets continue to celebrate the state’s good record for freedom of speech on its flagship campuses, with both Ole Miss and Mississippi State listed among the top seven colleges for free speech on campus by FIRE. The Dispatch is the latest to remark upon the Magnolia State’s high ranking for freedom of speech,… Read more

  • ‘Virginia Advocate’ Praises UVA’s Green Light Rating

    March 16, 2012

    In The Virginia Advocate, an independent student newspaper at the University of Virginia, Wendy Morrison writes a brief column noting with pleasure the university’s rank as a "green light" school after having seen FIRE’s latest national survey of campus speech codes,  "This ranking was no faint praise," Morrison writes, "when you compare UVA to other… Read more

  • In Mississippi, ‘The Clarion-Ledger’ Reports on Dangers of State Colleges’ Speech Codes

    August 16, 2010

    In today’s edition of The Clarion-Ledger, the Jackson, Mississippi newspaper reports on speech codes maintained at public colleges statewide. Spurred by FIRE’s recent victory at nearby Hinds Community College, reporter Elizabeth Crisp writes: Students at Mississippi universities may have to watch what they say more than those in other states because of policies that free-speech… Read more

  • The Acton Institute on FIRE, Speech Codes, and Reading Solzhenitsyn at Ole Miss

    December 3, 2008

    Ray Nothstine, Associate Editor at the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Acton Institute, has authored a thoughtful and illuminating article on the prevalence of speech codes and their chilling effects on campus freedom, as well as FIRE’s efforts to expose them and rid them from America’s colleges and universities. Echoing FIRE co-founders Alan Charles Kors and Harvey… Read more

  • ‘Speech Code of the Month’ in ‘The FIRE Quarterly’

    May 25, 2007

    As Torch readers know, each month, FIRE features a college or university with a particularly egregious speech code as its Speech Code of the Month. We use Speech Code of the Month to educate the public about the ever-present problem of speech codes on campus, but the feature also helps put public pressure on these… Read more

  • New Speech Code of the Month Website Feature

    April 13, 2007

    FIRE’s Speech Code of the Month program has been an important vehicle for change. Since June 2005, five universities—Albertson College of Idaho, the University of Nevada at Reno, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Jacksonville State University, and the University of Mississippi—have changed their policies after being named Speech Code of the Month. In addition, the… Read more

  • Speech Code of the Month: University of Mississippi

    October 3, 2006

    FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for October 2006: University of Mississippi. The University of Mississippi’s General Telephone Policy provides that, on calls made to and from campus telephones, “offensive language is not to be used. All reported incidents of anyone using offensive language is referred to the Campus Police for further action.”… Read more