Columbia is worst ranked university for free speech as southern colleges top the list

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has released its 2026 College Free Speech ratings and 41 of the top 100 schools ranked for free speech quality were Southern. 

Over the past six years that FIRE has been conducting the Free Speech Rankings, none of the schools that consistently rank highest have been from the Northeast. This year, Northeastern universities made up only 10 of the top 100 schools. 

Editor-in-Chief of Campus Reform Zachary Marschall has previously argued that Southern universities are quickly becoming models for America to look to as it revises its education system. Marschall’s perspective speaks to the increasing natural demand for a Southern University education, which has led acceptance rates to drop, and the artificial demand Northern colleges rely upon from international students. 

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”Students have said to me, ‘I don’t want to go to a college where everybody’s angry at each other, and everybody’s fighting over everything’” Maria Laskaris, a counselor at Top Tier Admissions, a college admissions consulting firm, said about some of her clients. “It’s not that they don’t want to be challenged. They’re looking for a good education, an active and generally happy student body.”

A campus that encourages respectful civil discourse and intellectual diversity contributes to that happier overall campus culture because students feel comfortable with speaking their minds, even on controversial topics.

”Students who were looking at colleges saw more freedom and fun in the South than they saw up North,” Jeff Selingo, a longtime reporter on higher education, said. Selingo also explained that many politically moderate students feel they’d be more comfortable and fit into campus culture at universities located in republican-leaning states.

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Over the past twenty years, enrollment by students from the Northeast at Southern public universities has nearly doubled, and between 2018 and 2022 alone the flow surged by close to one-third.

Campus Reform has previously reported on the disconnect between the ideal of collegiate education as a rigorous intellectual challenge, and the far too often reality of the modern college degree as mere credentialing certification. We have also reported on the increasing self-censorship students report in college campuses across America, with 80% of students saying they “self-censor their viewpoints” and an even greater 90% of students saying they fake liberal views to appease their professors. 

FIRE and College Pulse surveyed over 68,000 students from over 250 colleges and universities across the United States in June, 2025. For the first time in the survey’s history, students demonstrate little to no tolerance for controversial opinions on either side of the political spectrum. The results prove college campuses continue to grow more hostile to diversity of thought. 

The majority of students didn’t support allowing any one of the six “controversial speakers,” who represented an equal split between conservative and liberal views, visit campus. The share of students who see it as acceptable to shout down, block, or even use violence to stop a campus speech has risen since last year, reaching a record high.

The percentage of students, nationally, who expressed difficulty in discussing the 2024 presidential election was 42%, an issue surpassed only by the topics of abortion and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

A major change in how this year’s free speech ratings were determined lies in FIRE’s decision to grant bonuses to schools that endorsed the “Chicago Principles” or “institutional neutrality.” The Chicago Principles refers to the Chicago Statement which outlines a set of guidelines for the maintenance of freedom of expression. 

Columbia University adopted the Chicago Principles on academic freedom and free expression in 2016. Barnard, an affiliate of Columbia University, has replaced Harvard University as the college with the worst tolerance for freedom of speech in America. Coming in last place, it’s preceded by Columbia University itself, which placed second to last.

Yale and Harvard moved up in the rankings from the previous year, where they sat at the bottom of the list at 155 and dead last.

For the first time in the school’s history, incoming freshmen at Yale were required to partake in an online training program that would help them engage ideological and political “disagreements” such as “abortion and immigration policy.”

“The percentage of Yale students saying they feel ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ comfortable expressing their views on a controversial political topic increased in every campus setting this year,” FIRE reports. 

These initiatives come just months after pro-Palestine protestors blocked off parts of Yale’s campus, denying entry to anyone who didn’t join the encampment. At the time in May 2024,  Yale dean Pericles Lewis said the encampment demanded “the exclusion of students from using parts of Cross Campus, a public space, unless they declare political agreement with the protesters.” 

At Harvard University, only half of students felt comfortable expressing their views on a controversial political topic to other students during a discussion in a common campus space like over lunch at the dining hall or football in the quad. Just 41% of Harvard students had faith in the administration, saying it is ‘not at all’ or ‘not very’ clear that they defend free speech. Still, Harvard climbed the rankings after placing dead last in the 2025 FIRE rankings. 

This year, the university was offered a “bonus” due to what FIRE describes as a “positive example” of free speech protection during Interim President Alan Garber’s Alumni Day speech. After an animal rights protestor dumped glitter over Garber’s head, he returned to complete his speech after a brief pause to reiterate the importance of free expression.“It’s fine, I could use a little glitter,” Garber told people who came to escort him offstage. FIRE says this was “positive” because the disruption was “unsuccessful” and Garber “modeled a constructive response.” 

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The report underscores how despite these improvements for Yale and Harvard, students at the schools considerably struggle with accepting conservative exercises of free speech on campus; they’re much more tolerant to liberal demonstrations of free speech. 

”If Harvard’s modest gains are worth noting, they also underscore just how low the national baseline remains,” the report says. 

Campus Reform has reached out to Harvard University and Yale University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.