Attempts to Sanction Scholars from 2000 to 2022

* Report: Scholars Under Fire: Attempts to Sanction Scholars from 2000 to 2022. FIRE, 2023.

URL = https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/scholars-under-fire-attempts-sanction-scholars-2000-2022 pdf

Summary

In this report, we explore the phenomenon of “cancel culture” as it applies to scholars in higher education institutions across the country. Specifically, we examine the nature of attempts to professionally sanction scholars, from 2000 to 2022, for speech that is — or would, in public settings, be — protected by the First Amendment. The Scholars Under Fire database is updated on a weekly basis, and the data in this report include all sanction attempts from 2000 to 2022 that we discovered before March 8, 2023. Any attempts discovered after that date, or that occurred in 2023, are viewable on the database but are not reflected in the findings of this report.

The key findings of this report include:

• 1,080 scholar sanction attempts occurred between 2000 and 2022.

• The annual number of attempts has increased dramatically over time, from four in 2000 to 145 in 2022.

• Almost two-thirds of attempts resulted in sanction, including 225 terminations (698 of 1,080, or 65%).

Nearly three-quarters of terminations involved untenured, rather than tenured, scholars (165 of 225, or 73%).

• More than one-third of attempts were initiated by undergraduates (402 of 1,080, or 37%).

• In 2021, 213 sanction attempts occurred, more than in any other year. This was partially due to Turning Point USA calling on parents and students to contact the institutions of 61 professors featured on their Professor Watchlist website.

• Individuals and groups from the political left of the scholar have initiated more sanction attempts than those from the political right of the scholar (560 of 1,080, or 52%; 442 of 1,080, or 41%).

• Sanction attempts initiated by groups on campus — namely, undergraduates and/or other scholars — tend to come from the left of the scholar (301 of 402, or 75%, attempts from the left by undergraduates; 146 of 177, or 82%, attempts from the left by other scholars).

• Sanction attempts initiated by off-campus groups — namely, by the members of the public and/or government officials — tend to come from the right of the scholar (60 of 77, or 78%, attempts from the right by the general public; 64 of 74, or 86%, attempts from the right by government officials).

• More than 4 in 10 sanction attempts were in response to a scholar’s teaching practices and/or scientific inquiry (467 of 1,080, or 43%, in total; 278 of 1,080, or 26%, in response to teaching practices; 238 of 1,080, or 22%, in response to scientific inquiry).

• Scholars most often came under fire for speech about race (426 of 1,080, or 39%). Other controversial topics include institutional policy (259 of 1,080, or 24%) and partisanship (235 of 1,080, or 22%).

• Fewer than 1 in 10 sanction attempts occurred because the scholar engaged in contemptuous or malicious speech (64 of 1,080, or 6%). Nearly three-quarters of these attempts came from the right of the scholar (47 of 64, or 73%).

• Sanction attempts occurred most often in the disciplines at the core of a liberal arts education: law (95), political science (79), and history (71).

• The schools with the highest number of sanction attempts were: Harvard (23), Stanford (22), UCLA (19), Georgetown (16), Columbia (14), and University of Pennsylvania (14).

• The schools with the highest number of successful sanctions were: Harvard (12), University of Central Florida (10), Columbia (9), UCLA (9), and University of Florida (9).

• 90 of the top 100 universities in the U.S. have had at least one sanction attempt since 2000.

• The top 10 universities have had 113 attempts, with nearly 3 in 4 coming from the left (83, or 73%)."

(pdf)

More information

• Scholars Under Fire Database: "This database documents scholars who have faced calls for sanction and how scholars and administrators have responded to different forms of targeting."

• The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of students and faculty members at America’s colleges and universities. These rights include freedom of speech, freedom of association, due process, legal equality, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience — the essential qualities of liberty. For more information, visit thefire.org or FIRE’s Twitter account, @thefireorg.