CMC is one of the least-left-leaning schools, among elite colleges.
Berkeley has had the left leaning historical reputation from the days of the free speech movement and Vietnam protests. But these days (it-least from an outsiders view) it actually seems more grounded since it's a public school & doesn't do race based admissions (Berkeley is 35% asian & 20% white vs CMC is 16% asian and 35% white)[1][2]
[1] https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/colleges/university-of-ca... [2] https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/colleges/claremont-mckenn...
My guess is that this is at least in part due to the different racial makeup of their respective applicant pools. Going to Cal is a dream of many Asian high schoolers; CMC is not revered in the same way.
Berkeley vs U Chicago or Berkeley vs U Virginia would have clicked.
[1] https://rankings.thefire.org/rank
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson%27s_Bakery_v._Oberlin_C...
This blog post claims the change was due to methodological changes that don't necessarily make sense. [2]
1: https://www.cmc.edu/newsfeed/cmc-ranks-best-free-speech
2: https://www.cmcforum.com/post/cmc-under-fire-behind-the-rank...
> a negative reaction to white professors employing the n-word hardly persuades me that CMC has a free-speech problem.
"negative reaction" is a framing... Another would be that there were multiple incidents of students reporting professors to the administration for the content of their lectures (And they don't see how that would effect free expression on campus!)
> This is a very strange criterion for evaluating free speech on campus. Some degree of self-censorship is natural, healthy, and wise. What socially aware person expresses every thought that crosses their mind
If this really is a "bad criterion" (I don't think it is), then it'd be a systemic bias effecting every school & not uniquely CMC.
It could be worse, looks like Emory dropped from #4 to #202