Columbia Ranked as Worst University for Free Speech

Columbia Ranked as Worst University for Free Speech

One of the most fascinating aspects of this ranking from FIRE is that the top schools for free speech are all in the south.

Campus Reform reports:

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.

”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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