Ohio colleges rank low in national free-speech study

Farah Siddiqi

A new study found college students across Ohio and the nation feel increasingly uneasy about expressing their views on campus.

The nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression surveyed 58,000 students and found rising concerns about self-censorship, ideological bias and administrative crackdowns. The report ranked more than 200 universities on factors such as openness to discussion, tolerance for opposing speakers and willingness to allow protests.

Sean Stevens, chief research adviser for the foundation, said today's threats to campus speech are coming from all sides, not just one end of the political spectrum.

"It's not just left-leaning faculty or students going after more conservative faculty and students," Stevens observed. "It's now with the federal government and whatever right-wing faculty there might be left, and the students going after left-leaning speech."

Among Ohio schools in the survey, Ohio State ranked in the bottom third with a score of 42, while Miami University scored slightly higher at 53. No Ohio college ranked among the top 25 for campus free speech.

Stevens pointed out speech tensions worsened in 2024 amid protests over the Israel-Gaza war, abortion access and transgender rights. He added recent federal scrutiny of university speech, especially involving antisemitism and Islamophobia, has had a chilling effect on both students and faculty.

"There's a much bigger cause for concern, because now it's also coming from the government," Stevens cautioned. "Faculty really need to step up, because students are rightfully concerned that if they say the wrong thing, that the hammer might come down on them."

The foundation's data show a sharp increase since 2020 in campus punishments tied to speech on race, gender and political identity. With national attention on student protests and state-level bills targeting academic content, free expression remains a live issue at Ohio campuses heading into the fall semester.