CAIR National: CAIR Report on Islamophobia and Free Speech Rates Columbia U., CUNY as Most Hostile Campuses

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today released “Designated: CAIR’s 2025 Hostile Campus Ratings Report,” evaluating 51 campuses that have engaged in the suppression and targeting of Muslim, Palestinian, Arab, and allied students speaking out against genocide from October 2023 to December 2025. 

SEE: Designated: CAIR’s 2025 Hostile Campus Ratings Report 

[NOTE: DOWNLOADABLE PDF VERSION HERE] 

KEY FINDINGS:

Columbia University and CUNY received the lowest scores at 2%, with the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and Case Western Reserve University also ranking among the most hostile campuses.

No campus of the 51 investigated and reported to CAIR by students and faculty earned an “Unhostile” rating. Six campuses were placed “Under Watch,” led by the University of Alabama at 87%. The average score was 37.92%, and nearly 75% of campuses scored below 50%. More than half failed to explicitly identify Islamophobia or anti-Muslim bias in their discrimination policies.

Twelve campuses adopted the controversial IHRA antisemitism definition, which critics say chills legitimate criticism of Israel’s genocide. About half of the campuses faced Title VI complaints. More than 75% called the police on Gaza protesters after October 2023. Ninety percent implemented major policy changes without input from students or faculty. 

“University administrators failed to uphold their stated commitments to free speech and academic freedoms at many of the campuses we investigated,” said CAIR Research and Advocacy Specialist Dr. Maryam Hasan. “Our hope is that this report inspires reform. If not, then those who value critical thought and free expression are informed by this report of the campuses they should avoid.” 

“Many of the institutions our team reviewed self-selected to be instruments of repression when it came to Muslims and others who held anti-genocide viewpoints,” said CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor. “This report is a warning to potential students and staff that these places will take your money and then punish your viewpoints.”   

A project of CAIR’s Unhostile Campus Campaign, the report evaluates Islamophobia on campus and administrations’ responses to activism, particularly anti-genocide speech. 

CAIR has newly designated each of the following schools as a “Hostile Campus” for targeting anti-genocide voices. For the full list of designated ‘Hostile Campuses,’ see the report or visit: https://islamophobia.org/hostile-campuses/

• University of Missouri 

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

• University of Oregon 

• University of Texas at Dallas 

• University of Washington 

• University of Wisconsin 

• Virginia Commonwealth University 

• Yale University 

• Georgetown University 

• Montana State University 

• Ohio State University 

• School of the Art Institute of Chicago 

• University of California, San Diego 

• University of California, San Francisco 

• University of Kentucky 

• University of Minnesota 

CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.