The University is one of 10 institutions across the country included in the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s 2016 list of the worst colleges for free speech.

The list, which was announced Wednesday, cites universities for various violations of the First Amendment including firing faculty for criticism of a university president and suspending a student for a joke made on social media.

FIRE is an organization dedicated to preserving First Amendment rights on college campuses.

The organization is sponsoring former professor Teresa Buchanan’s lawsuit against LSU President F. King Alexander, kinesiology professor Damon Andrew, Human Resource Management Associate Vice President A.G. Monaco and HRM Director Gaston Reinoso. The lawsuit, which alleges the administrators violated Buchanan’s free speech and due process rights when they fired her in June 2015, was filed Jan. 20.

According to a HuffPost College blog post by FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff detailing the offenses the organization cites against each university, administrators fired Buchanan despite unanimous opposition from a faculty panel because her use of profanity in the classroom violated the University’s sexual harassment policy, though her students never accused her of sexual harassment.

“We are confident that our action regarding Ms. Buchanan was appropriate. We take our responsibility to protect students from abusive behavior very seriously, and we will vigorously defend our students’ rights to a harassment-free educational environment,” Alexander said in a January statement regarding the lawsuit.
In October 2015, the LSU Faculty Senate voted to censure Alexander, Andrew and former Executive Vice President and Provost Stuart Bell for alleged administrative violations in the handling of Buchanan’s firing.