FIRE's 2027 College Free Speech Rankings: What Actually Moves a School's Score

Texas A&M holds a green light rating for its speech policies and still fell from 47th to 192nd in this year's College Free Speech Rankings. Harvard climbed from 245th to 71st without changing a single policy, a sign that how leadership responds to speech controversies matters more than what is written in the handbook.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Sean Stevens, Chief Research Advisor at FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. The conversation covers the seventh annual College Free Speech Rankings and why institutions with strong written policies can still see their free speech climate collapse.

Stevens, a social psychologist specializing in political psychology and survey methodology, directs the rankings, which this year surveyed students at 261 institutions across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. He explains how the rankings score student self-censorship, comfort expressing ideas, political tolerance, and trust in administration, and how deplatforming attempts and punishments of faculty and students can weigh on a school's score for up to five years.

This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, boards, provosts, and enrollment executives evaluating how their institution will respond to the next campus speech controversy or external pressure to censor.

Topics Covered Why a green light policy rating does not protect an institution's free speech ranking How the rankings separate trait-based self-censorship from campus climate How speech controversy penalties are graded by severity and decay over four to five years The corporate HR model of managing speech controversies and the mixed messages it sends Syllabi review, course cancellations, and preemptive compliance with the DEI executive order The impact of the Charlie Kirk assassination on student attitudes toward violence and self-censorship FIRE's upcoming surveys of faculty, international students, and college administrators Real-World Examples Discussed Texas A&M's drop to 192nd after the firing of a senior lecturer and demotion of a dean following a student complaint Texas State University's fall of 147 places to a bottom-three finish Harvard's rise from 245th to 71st with no policy reform, driven by gains in student trust in administration UC Davis posting the largest improvement through policy reform and the decay of past penalties Barnard College and Columbia University moving up from the bottom t