How Good is Discourse at Hillsdale College?

Possibly the best in the country

Let’s look at data from FIRE’s College Free Speech Ranking, but rather than look at viewpoint-ratio like we did last time, let’s look at results from other parts of FIRE’s free-speech survey. This survey contains 39 questions given to a representative sample of students at 250+ universities.¹

My motivation for looking at this data is Hillsdale College. A while back I noticed how well Hillsdale did on FIRE’s survey. I’m also curious about Hillsdale because people I trust have recommended it to me over the years as a good school. I’ve been somewhat skeptical of Hillsdale because I’m not a believer in supernatural forces, but I’m beginning to warm up to the idea that Hillsdale might be a great school. For example, I like their statement of conduct regarding respectful discourse.

You may assert and defend any argument you conceive, as long as you do so in a way that is civil, academic, and conducive to thought and deliberation.

This reminds me of the statement of conduct at Challenger School where my children attended for a number of years.

I’m here to learn. I respect myself and my rights. I respect others and their rights.

Challenger School and Hillsdale College are similar in that they do not accept any government funding, subsidies or state-funded scholarships. I like that.

At least twice over the years I’ve spoken with Hillsdale’s staff and alumni in order to get a feel for what it might be like to attend there. It’s a faith-based school, so a high percentage of the student body are theists; Christian, Catholic, etc. I’m curious how an atheist or agnostic would feel at Hillsdale. If you know someone who attended there, or attended there yourself, and can tell us about your experience please let us know.

I’m especially curious about discourse at Hillsdale. FIRE gives Hillsdale a “Warning” rating, but contradicting this, are students’ answers to FIRE’s survey. FIRE’s methodology article states

[a] “Warning,” is assigned to a private college or university when its policies clearly and consistently state that it prioritizes other values over a commitment to free speech. “Warning” schools, therefore, were not ranked, and their overall scores are presented separately in this report.

FIRE’s list of “Warning” Colleges.

I’m not sure that Hillsdale deserves the “Warning” rating. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. I don’t see anything inherently wrong with prioritizing respectful discourse over free speech…..Okay, for government-run colleges, or those tightly-coupled to government funding, whether in the form of subsidies, tax breaks, accreditation, federal student loans, yes, free speech is probably the most important commitment.

Wait, I’m not sure if you know this, but this includes most colleges. Almost all colleges are public, even the so called “private” ones. It seems that there are almost no truly private colleges. I should write more about this.

It seems that Hillsdale College is truly a private college. There are others, but Hillsdale has the highest average SAT score of the bunch. Notice that Hillsdale’s website says, “Due to our independence from government assistance, federal loans are not made available to Hillsdale College students.”

When FIRE gives a “Warning” to a college because that a college “prioritizes other values over a commitment to free speech,” what do they mean? Surely, in some cases they might point to religious dogma, like, “The Church is true.” But, I don’t know why FIRE would create a separate “Warning” category for this type of dogma versus say DEI dogma. The fact that one dogma is secular and the other supernatural shouldn’t matter right? Dogma is dogma. How is a DEI cult different than a Jesus cult?

If forced to choose, I would choose a Jesus cult over a DEI cult since I prefer the Golden and Silver Rules over racism and sexism. In my home, we elevate rules of respect over free speech. In private schools that my children attend and many other private settings, norms of respect are prioritized above free speech.

So, when is the Golden Rule not the best general rule to follow?

Visiting Hillsdale and talking with students might be the best way to get my questions answered, but looking over the results of FIRE’s questionnaire might be just as helpful.

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Let’s now look at how students at Hillsdale and other colleges answered FIRE’s survey questions. I won’t go through all of the survey questions here. Let’s just look at the first seven.

It’s probably best to look at those survey results a bit so you can understand the data in this post. If you don’t go to that link, at least look at the screen capture below showing how the data are organized for a particular question.

Question 1 asks “How clear is it to you that your college administration protects free speech on campus? Notice that 59% of students at Hillsdale respond with “Extreme clear.” This is much higher than any other college surveyed.

The survey results are similarly organized for the first seven questions.

I’ve created a few categories to help organize the results of these questions. I’m not looking at all 250+ universities here, but just schools in four categories that I’ve created. Here are those categories.

1. Top-Five-Schools-for-this-Question

2. Cumulative-Top-Five-Schools

3. Ivy-Plus-Schools

4. North-Carolina-Schools

5. Others-Schools

Top-Five-Schools-for-this-Question is a list of the top five schools for any one of the seven survey questions I look at. There’s one of these for each of the seven questions.

The Cumulative-Top-Five-Schools (i.e. Category 2) is where I keep track of any school that makes it into any of the Top-Five (i.e. Category 1).

The Ivy-Plus-Schools is self-explanatory. Not looking at all of them. Just a few that came to mind.

The North-Carolina-Schools category looks at a few colleges in North Carolina. Why? Because North Carolina schools do well on rankings of speech codes.

The Other-Schools category includes two of my three alma mater, plus BYU. I like to talk about how libertarian the Saints are and why that might be. You might consider analyzing the results for your alma mater as a reference point.

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Let’s dive into the questions, and then we’ll analyze the data if we have room.

Question 1 - How clear is it to you that your college administration protects free speech on campus?

The percentage of students that answered Extremely Clear.

• Top-Five-Schools-for-this-Question²

  • Hillsdale College - 59%

  • Liberty University - 25%

  • Kent State University at Kent - 23%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 19%

  • University of Chicago - 19%

• Cumulative-Top-Five-Schools

  • Hillsdale College - 59%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 19%

  • Liberty University - 25%

  • Pitzer College - 25%

  • Washington and Lee - 11%

  • Bard College - 10%

  • Northeastern University - 18%

  • Towson University - 17%

  • University of Wyoming - 8%

  • BYU - 12%

  • Kent State University at Kent - 23%

  • Macalester College - 5%

  • University of Chicago - 19%

  • Wake Forest University - 5%

  • Trinity College - 3%

  • University of Alabama - 3%

  • Michigan Technological University - 11%

• Ivy-Plus-Schools

  • MIT - 4%

  • Stanford - 5%

  • Harvard - Less than 1%

  • Princeton - 12%

  • Yale - 4%

  • UC Berkeley - 11%

  • Duke - 3%

  • CalTech - 4%

• North-Carolina-Schools

  • UNC at Chapel Hill - 8%

  • UNC at Charlotte - 8%

  • UNC at Greensboro - 8%

  • NC State at Raleigh - 8%

• Others-Schools

  • UC Santa Cruz - 6%

  • University of Arizona - 8%

  • BYU - 12%

Question 2 - If a controversy over offensive speech were to occur on your campus, how likely is it that your college's administration would defend the speaker's right to express their views?

The percentage of students that answered Extremely Likely.

• Top-Five-Schools-for-this-Question

  • Hillsdale College - 42%

  • Washington and Lee - 20% (first time in Top-Five)

  • Michigan Technological University - 14% (first time in Top-Five)

  • University of Alabama - 14% (first time in Top-Five)

  • Liberty University - 13%

• Cumulative-Top-Five-Schools

  • Hillsdale College - 42%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 11%

  • Liberty University - 13%

  • Pitzer College - 4%

  • Washington and Lee - 20%

  • Bard College - 13%

  • Northeastern University - 4%

  • Towson University - 7%

  • University of Wyoming - 7%

  • BYU - 2%

  • Kent State University at Kent - 13%

  • Macalester College - 9%

  • University of Chicago - 13%

  • Wake Forest University - 4%

  • Trinity College - 3%

  • University of Alabama - 14%

  • Michigan Technological University - 14%

• Ivy-Plus-Schools

  • MIT - 3%

  • Stanford - 6%

  • Harvard - 1%

  • Princeton - 9%

  • Yale - 6%

  • UC Berkeley - 5%

  • Duke - 4%

  • CalTech - 3%

• North-Carolina-Schools

  • UNC at Chapel Hill - 5%

  • UNC at Charlotte - 4%

  • UNC at Greensboro - 3%

  • NC State at Raleigh - 3%

• Others-Schools

  • UC Santa Cruz - 3%

  • University of Arizona - 8%

  • BYU - 7%

Question 3 - How comfortable would you feel doing the following on your campus? Publicly disagreeing with a professor about a controversial political topic.

The percentage of students that answered Very Comfortable.

• Top-Five-Schools-for-this-Question

  • Hillsdale College - 35%

  • Pitzer College - 32% (first time in Top-Five)

  • Claremont McKenna College - 29%

  • Bard College - 24% (first time in Top-Five)

  • Liberty University - 24%

• Cumulative-Top-Five-Schools

  • Hillsdale College - 35%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 29%

  • Liberty University - 24%

  • Pitzer College - 32%

  • Washington and Lee - 19%

  • Bard College - 24%

  • Northeastern University - 10%

  • Towson University - 13%

  • University of Wyoming - 20%

  • BYU - 13%

  • Kent State University at Kent - 17%

  • Macalester College - 17%

  • University of Chicago - 12%

  • Wake Forest University - 20%

  • Trinity College - 10%

  • University of Alabama - 13%

  • Michigan Technological University - 9%

• Ivy-Plus-Schools

  • MIT - 6%

  • Stanford - 9%

  • Harvard - 6%

  • Princeton - 10%

  • Yale - 10%

  • UC Berkeley - 9%

  • Duke - 8%

  • CalTech - 14%

• North-Carolina-Schools

  • UNC at Chapel Hill - 10%

  • UNC at Charlotte - 12%

  • UNC at Greensboro - 13%

  • NC State at Raleigh - 10%

• Others-Schools

  • UC Santa Cruz - 11%

  • University of Arizona - 9%

  • BYU - 13%

Question 4 - How comfortable would you feel doing the following on your campus? Expressing disagreement with one of your professors about a controversial political topic in a written assignment.

The percentage of students that answered Very Comfortable.

• Top-Five-Schools-for-this-Question

  • Hillsdale College - 47%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 37%

  • Northeastern University - 31% (first time in Top-Five)

  • Liberty University - 29%

  • BYU - 29% (first time in Top-Five)

• Cumulative-Top-Five-Schools

  • Hillsdale College - 47%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 37%

  • Liberty University - 29%

  • Pitzer College - 27%

  • Washington and Lee - 28%

  • Bard College - 27%

  • Northeastern University - 31%

  • Towson University - 21%

  • University of Wyoming - 21%

  • BYU - 29%

  • Kent State University at Kent - 12%

  • Macalester College - 24%

  • University of Chicago - 17%

  • Wake Forest University - 21%

  • Trinity College - 18%

  • University of Alabama - 25%

  • Michigan Technological University - 9%

• Ivy-Plus-Schools

  • MIT - 11%

  • Stanford - 16%

  • Harvard - 4%

  • Princeton - 11%

  • Yale - 15%

  • UC Berkeley - 12%

  • Duke - 10%

  • CalTech - 19%

• North-Carolina-Schools

  • UNC at Chapel Hill - 12%

  • UNC at Charlotte - 16%

  • UNC at Greensboro - 13%

  • NC State at Raleigh - 14%

• Others-Schools

  • UC Santa Cruz - 14%

  • University of Arizona - 15%

  • BYU - 29%

Question 5 - How comfortable would you feel doing the following on your campus? Expressing your views on a controversial political topic during an in-class discussion.

The percentage of students that answered Very Comfortable.

• Top-Five-Schools-for-this-Question

  • Hillsdale College - 54%

  • Pitzer College - 34%

  • Northeastern University - 31%

  • Liberty University - 30%

  • Towson University - 28% (first time in Top-Five)

• Cumulative-Top-Five-Schools

  • Hillsdale College - 54%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 26%

  • Liberty University - 30%

  • Pitzer College - 34%

  • Washington and Lee - 9%

  • Bard College - 22%

  • Northeastern University - 31%

  • Towson University - 28%

  • University of Wyoming - 23%

  • BYU - 19%

  • Kent State University at Kent - 21%

  • Macalester College - 20%

  • University of Chicago - 17%

  • Wake Forest University - 17%

  • Trinity College - 19%

  • University of Alabama - 12%

  • Michigan Technological University - 13%

• Ivy-Plus-Schools

  • MIT - 7%

  • Stanford - 16%

  • Harvard - 6%

  • Princeton - 13%

  • Yale - 12%

  • UC Berkeley - 12%

  • Duke - 13%

  • CalTech - 13%

• North-Carolina-Schools

  • UNC at Chapel Hill - 8%

  • UNC at Charlotte - 13%

  • UNC at Greensboro - 10%

  • NC State at Raleigh - 12%

• Others-Schools

  • UC Santa Cruz - 13%

  • University of Arizona - 11%

  • BYU - 19%

Question 6 - How comfortable would you feel doing the following on your campus? Expressing your views on a controversial political topic to other students during a discussion in a common campus space such as a quad, dining hall, or lounge.

The percentage of students that answered Very Comfortable.

• Top-Five-Schools-for-this-Question

  • Hillsdale College - 65%

  • Washington and Lee - 41%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 39%

  • Trinity College - 32% (first time in Top-Five)

  • Macalester College - 29% (first time in Top-Five)

• Cumulative-Top-Five-Schools

  • Hillsdale College - 65%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 39%

  • Liberty University - 23%

  • Pitzer College - 24%

  • Washington and Lee - 41%

  • Bard College - 20%

  • Northeastern University - 9%

  • Towson University - 20%

  • University of Wyoming - 22%

  • BYU - 27%

  • Kent State University at Kent - 17%

  • Macalester College - 29%

  • University of Chicago - 21%

  • Wake Forest University - 19%

  • Trinity College - 32%

  • University of Alabama - 19%

  • Michigan Technological University - 26%

• Ivy-Plus-Schools

  • MIT - 16 %

  • Stanford - 11%

  • Harvard - 9%

  • Princeton - 15%

  • Yale - 20%

  • UC Berkeley - 11%

  • Duke - 12%

  • CalTech - 12%

• North-Carolina-Schools

  • UNC at Chapel Hill - 15%

  • UNC at Charlotte - 12%

  • UNC at Greensboro - 19%

  • NC State at Raleigh - 13%

• Others-Schools

  • UC Santa Cruz - 15%

  • University of Arizona - 12%

  • BYU - 27%

Question 7 - How comfortable would you feel doing the following on your campus? Expressing an unpopular political opinion to your fellow students on a social media account tied to your name.

The percentage of students that answered Very Comfortable.

• Top-Five-Schools-for-this-Question

  • Hillsdale College - 28%

  • Northeastern University - 22%

  • Liberty University - 21%

  • Towson University - 19%

  • University of Wyoming - 19% (first time in Top-Five)

  • Wake Forest University - 19% (first time in Top-Five)

• Cumulative-Top-Five-Schools

  • Hillsdale College - 28%

  • Claremont McKenna College - 13%

  • Liberty University - 21%

  • Pitzer College - 18%

  • Washington and Lee - 14%

  • Bard College - 18%

  • Northeastern University - 22%

  • Towson University - 19%

  • University of Wyoming - 19%

  • BYU - 13%

  • Kent State University at Kent - 12%

  • Macalester College - 11%

  • University of Chicago - 12%

  • Wake Forest University - 19%

  • Trinity College - 14%

  • University of Alabama - 13%

  • Michigan Technological University - 10%

• Ivy-Plus-Schools

  • MIT - 6%

  • Stanford - 9%

  • Harvard - Less than 1%

  • Princeton - 5%

  • Yale - 6%

  • UC Berkeley - 8%

  • Duke - 5%

  • CalTech - 10%

• North-Carolina-Schools

  • UNC at Chapel Hill - 9%

  • UNC at Charlotte - 11%

  • UNC at Greensboro - 10%

  • NC State at Raleigh - 9%

• Others-Schools

  • UC Santa Cruz - 10%

  • University of Arizona - 5%

  • BYU - 13%

Observations

1. Hillsdale tops the chart for each question.

2. Claremont McKenna College and Liberty University are regularly in the top five, outperforming other schools by a significant margin, but lag far behind Hillsdale.

Analysis

For each school, I calculate its average response for the seven questions, and then plot that average in the horizontal bar chart below.

Something is clearly better about Hillsdale. What’s going on? Please leave a comment below with your guesses.

1. All of this is produced by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) of course.

If you don’t know, FIRE is the organization headed by Greg Lukianoff, co-author of two wonderful books:

1. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.

2. The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All - But There Is a Solution.

2. In the results below I’ve inserted links for those colleges that are smaller or possibly less well known. Just my opinion of course.