The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a report Wednesday detailing Islamophobia and free speech at 51 college campuses across the country as part of their Unhostile Campus Campaign. USC was not included in the report.
Making the top of the list are Columbia University and City University of New York (CUNY) at two out of 100 possible points, well below the marker for an unhostile campus at 90 points.
Researchers applied points to four indicators with 25 possible points for each: institutional policies, student experience and campus climate, civil rights and legal action and then free speech and political expression.
In addition to its own category, free speech was also part of student experience and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s–an organization that aims to protect fundamental rights on college campuses–rankings were included when applicable. Islamophobia was classified in the institutional policies to investigate administration bias against Muslim students and in the student experience.
After researchers calculated the points, universities were ranked based on categories defined by ranges. The study classified any university with 90 points and above as “unhostile,” universities with 70 to 89 points as “under watch” and those who scored below 70 as “hostile.”
Six universities were placed “under watch,” while other 45 were deemed a “hostile” campus.
No universities investigated were deemed to be “unhostile” to Muslim students.
Maryam Hasan, a CAIR research and advocacy specialist and author of the report, said the activities found on the two campuses were “very, very alarming.” She said students speaking out against what they and international bodies have called a genocide are “afraid.”
“Students are not being supported to express their viewpoints, their political free speech rights are being suppressed and repressed, and it’s a difficult time for students,” Hasan said.
At Columbia and CUNY, Hasan said she found “egregious activities” on both campuses, including arrests, suspensions, sanctions and civil rights complaints.
Following closely behind were the University of Michigan, Case Western University, Harvard, the University of Chicago and Northwestern. While USC was not reported, other California universities, such as UCLA and UC Irvine were given “hostile” ratings.
“I think that the general atmosphere on campuses right now is a somber atmosphere,” Hasan said.
USC, while not in the report, has a controversial history of repressing Muslim students and allies, particularly after October 7th.
In 2024, the university barred Muslim valedictorian Asna Tabassum from speaking at her commencement ceremony after receiving backlash over her pro-Palestinian beliefs. A university spokesperson at the time told Annenberg Media that this was done following safety concerns for attendees.
Idrees Malik, a sophomore studying business and a member of the Muslim Student Union (MSU) finds that USC has been “very supportive” and that it has given the club “time, energy, [and] money.”
Malik acknowledged the university’s response to the pro-Palestine encampments in 2024, saying that the University Religious Center began to close at night — something he feels was because the administration didn’t want students to gather as often.
“The university administration was pretty tight with how things were run,” he said.
Only five miles away from USC, the Islah LA & Academy mosque was set on fire,vandalized with eggs and spray paint by a woman Tuesday night.
Islamophobia is rising in the U.S., according to a 2024 report from CAIR that compiled 8,658 complaints regarding anti-Muslim and anti-Arab incidents that year. This was the highest number of reported incidents since the organization first began collecting data in 1996.
Hasan said the hostile campuses report was prompted by university responses to protesters in 2023, and remained an ongoing investigation until the end of 2025. The universities investigated were all reported to CAIR by students or faculty members of the respective campus.
“We’re hoping that administrators will open their eyes and look at ways that we can all work together to make students feel safer on campus,” Hasan said.