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The Heterdox Academy has evaluated the top 150 American colleges and universities on the U.S. News and World Report list and ranked them according to the level of freedom of expression and availability of heterodox thought on campus. The University of Chicago came in ranked at No. 1; Purdue University came in ranked at No. 2.
You can see the entire listing and review the methodology (along with interesting sidebar comments on conditions at many institutions) at the Heterodox Academy’s website, here.
The University of Chicago’s position atop the rankings is rightly expected because of its fierce and historic institutional commitment to academic freedom. Indeed, the Heterodox Academy uses the University of Chicago’s “Chicago Principles on Freedom of Expression” as foundational guidelines and it tests adherence to the Chicago Principles in its ranking methodology.
Purdue University’s position high in the rankings should not surprise anyone familiar with Purdue’s president, Mitch Daniels, who, had he lived in the 18th Century, surely would have been a delegate to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention.
Heterodox Academy is an association of university professors who are committed to the freedoms of speech and of expression in society and in the academy, and are resisting the censorship, “safe-space”, and “trigger-warning” madness that currently afflicts so many campuses.
Many of the members of Heterdox Academy are listed, along with links to selections among their pertinent writings, at the Heterodox Academy website. One is not surprised to find in the ranks of these brave souls such major academic figures as Robert George of Princeton University, Charles Lipson of The University of Chicago, Glen Loury of Brown University, John McGinnis of Northwestern University, and Joanna Williams of the University of Kent (in England). The list of members is hearteningly long and, although one finds an expected number of teachers of economics, political science, and law, a great many members teach in mathematics and the natural sciences, including climate science (talk about a breath of fresh air!).
