Scholars targeted or sanctioned over their speech suffer lasting consequences beyond the initial campus controversies, a new free speech report warns.
Faculty members, lecturers and postdoctoral researchers who have been called out often experience emotional distress, while about four in 10 are shunned at work and struggle to maintain professional relationships, according to the latest analysis by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy organization also known as FIRE.
Some scholars also sought counseling or lost their jobs, according to the “Sanctioned Scholars” report.
“Cancellation campaigns are often wrapped in the language of preventing ‘emotional harm,’” said Nathan Honeycutt, FIRE’s manager of polling and analytics. “But our survey shows that it’s the mobs themselves that inflict lasting mental anguish on academics, many of whom still suffer the consequences long after the controversy subsided.”
FIRE maintains a “Scholars Under Fire” database of more than 600 academics who were sanctioned or targeted between 2020 and 2024. About 200 answered surveys for “Sanctioned Scholars.”
Few of these scholars were supported publicly by colleagues, faculty unions or administrators when controversy erupted, the report notes.
Free speech rankings
Earlier this year, FIRE ranked colleges and universities on their free speech protections, giving the higher education system an “F,” overall.
FIRE’s survey of 68,000 students revealed “a deep unwillingness to encounter controversial ideas” across the political spectrum. The poll also found that one in three students now holds some level of acceptance—even if only “rarely”—for resorting to violence to stop a campus speech.
The top five schools were Claremont McKenna College, Purdue University, University of Chicago, Michigan Technological University and University of Colorado, Boulder.
Campus free speech controversies were rare at top-ranked schools, partly because administrators were more supportive of expression.
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