CMC's FIRE ranking dropped off a cliff a couple years ago — they were #1 not that long ago. [1]

This blog post claims the change was due to methodological changes that don't necessarily make sense. [2]

1: https://www.cmc.edu/newsfeed/cmc-ranks-best-free-speech

2: https://www.cmcforum.com/post/cmc-under-fire-behind-the-rank...

I think their arguments are pretty weak justifying why it fell off. It ignores the obvious change since 2020/2021. Covid was the primary issue (and classes may have been remote) and now issues around race/sex are more prominent.

> a negative reaction to white professors employing the n-word hardly persuades me that CMC has a free-speech problem.

"negative reaction" is a framing... Another would be that there were multiple incidents of students reporting professors to the administration for the content of their lectures (And they don't see how that would effect free expression on campus!)

> This is a very strange criterion for evaluating free speech on campus. Some degree of self-censorship is natural, healthy, and wise. What socially aware person expresses every thought that crosses their mind

If this really is a "bad criterion" (I don't think it is), then it'd be a systemic bias effecting every school & not uniquely CMC.

It could be worse, looks like Emory dropped from #4 to #202