In defense of the University of Pennsylvania’s free speech ranking
Christopher Tremoglie
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The University of Pennsylvania has been in the news recently for various reasons. One of those was the school’s ranking as the second-worst college in the country for free speech.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression ranked Penn 247th (out of 248) in its 2024 College Free Speech Rankings. But as a 2020 graduate from the Ivy League university, unless things have changed drastically in the last 2.5 years, which I suppose is a distinct possibility, I’m afraid I have to disagree with the assessment as that was not my experience when I attended there.
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This article comes on the heels of billionaire CEO of Apollo Global Management Marc Rowan’s criticism of the university over the Israel-Hamas conflict. I will not be discussing that since it is out of the scope of what I wanted to talk about. Rowan’s claims are a separate topic for another time. I am merely mentioning it because it would be obtuse and disingenuous not to acknowledge recent events.
And, as I have written numerous articles that were highly critical of Penn, especially the school’s actions (or inactions) in the Lia Thomas controversy, I wanted to defend the school on these free-speech accusations. While it is undoubtedly a bastion of left-wing, and even radical left-wing political ideology, I never felt my speech was restricted. I also never felt ashamed, reluctant, or embarrassed to admit my conservative Republican political viewpoints, ideas, and perspectives.
There were plenty of things I disagreed with while attending there. Still, I never felt I couldn’t speak my opinion. And this comes from someone who was a student in a class taught by Ed Rendell, the Democratic former mayor of Philadelphia, governor of Pennsylvania, and chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Sure, it was concerning that the school prominently (and consistently) taught things from a solid left-wing perspective. And it could absolutely use more ideological diversity, if diversity truly matters to the institution. But to say that the school limited free speech, I have to disagree with that.
Consider my own experiences while at the school. I was an editor of a school newspaper there, albeit a very small one, that presented unique content and conservative Republican opinions and editorials. I was chairman of the Conservative Caucus for the Penn Political Union, where we hosted former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for an event about illegal immigration. On another occasion, we hosted former Republican Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge.
I was also part of an organization that hosted prominent conservative Republican speakers Heather Mac Donald and Candace Owens. Interestingly, the people who objected most to these speakers’ presence were the school’s left-wing students. They were the ones who acted the most entitled and were the most disruptive and out of control, not the faculty. I doubt many of them were pleased Mac Donald or Owens spoke on campus. But aside from some minor brief concerns with security and venue, they did nothing to knowingly sabotage or stop the events from happening.
During my time there, the only controversial event, insofar as it was not allowed to occur, was when the school was hosting former ICE Director Tom Homan. However, that was because of unruly students who threw the equivalent of a college-aged temper tantrum, not the faculty or school administration. I can wholeheartedly attest that, as mentioned above, while the school teaches many of its courses from a strong, biased, left-wing perspective, the students were the problem most of the time, not the administration.
It’s also not as if the school prevented conservative Republican students from engaging in activism or protests. Students on the Right frequently identified things that upset them. However, none of them wanted to do anything about it. They didn’t want to engage in activism and outright rejected any idea of protest. So, again, during my time there, I didn’t witness any experience in which the administration was suppressing right-wing, conservative, or Republican speech. Any lack of activism was because of the students themselves.
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Granted, this was before the COVID-19 pandemic and Lia Thomas fiasco. Unquestionably, the administration’s actions – especially what they forced the school’s female athletes on the swimming team to endure – were appalling. Without any doubt, the school deserved every single bit of criticism for the disturbing, radical, and totalitarian-like tactics it used to force its ideological morality on the female swimming team at the time. Penn prioritized rabid, fanatical, toxic LGBT ideology over the safety concerns of students who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition and whose parents entrusted the university with protecting their children. Nearly everything the school did about Lia Thomas on the swim team was morally wrong. And, if that is the impetus for FIRE’s classification, then I retract my entire article.
However, I have a solid track record of criticizing the school when I felt it was warranted. While a student, I slammed many of the school’s decisions in op-eds for the Philadelphia Inquirer. I do not think Penn is the second worst school nationwide for free speech. It would be hard to legitimately rationalize a school that hosted Heather Mac Donald or Candace Owens on campus as one of the worst colleges for free speech.