(The Center Square) – Two Virginia universities made the national top 10 and seven schools from the commonwealth were included in the 2027 College Free Speech Rankings released Wednesday.
The University of Virginia ranked ninth and George Mason University was 10th. Both received scores of 76 and letter grades of C.
William & Mary ranked 28th with a score of 72 and a C-minus. Virginia Commonwealth University was 43rd with a score of 68 and a D-plus.
Washington and Lee University ranked 60th with a score of 65 and a D, Virginia Tech was 89th with a score of 63 and a D, and James Madison University was 171st with a score of 58 and an F.
Virginia’s seven schools had an average score of 68.2, an average rank of 59 and a letter grade of D-plus. A year ago, the commonwealth received an average grade of D.
UVA also moved up from 21st in last year’s rankings.
The Virginia results showed 40% of students surveyed said they self-censor on campus at least once or twice a month.
Another 73% said shouting down a speaker to prevent the person from speaking is acceptable in at least rare cases. Thirty-one percent said using violence to stop someone from speaking is acceptable in at least rare cases.
FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff said the results show some improvement in campus speech policies, but said the overall climate remains poor.
“Too many college administrators wield their power to cancel controversial speakers, cave to government or student calls for censorship, and limit academic freedom,” Lukianoff said.
FIRE, the acronym for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, bases the annual rankings on student surveys, campus policies and recent speech-related controversies.
The organization used nearly 63,000 student responses. A total of 261 colleges and universities were ranked.
The University of Chicago was No. 1 nationally. FIRE said 121 of the schools received an F for their speech climate, while 24 received a C or higher.
