STHE codirector Jennifer Lundquist (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and Robert M. Dowling (Central Connecticut State University) make the case in the Fall 2026 issue of Academe, the magazine of the American Association of University Professors, that college rankings should account for academic freedom.
U.S. News & World Report rankings shape how colleges behave, yet they treat educational quality as if it could be separated from the political conditions under which teaching and research happen. Pointing to political interference in states such as Florida, Texas, and Indiana, Lundquist and Dowling propose adding an academic freedom component to the rankings. It would be built on publicly reviewable indicators such as AAUP censure status, due-process protections, faculty authority over curriculum, and state-level censorship pressures.
