PHILADELPHIA — Virginia colleges and universities fare better in free speech on campus, even as threats to free speech continue to grow nationally, according to a new study.
The report, by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, examined 257 schools nationwide, with 166 receiving a failing grade for their speech climate.
Support for free speech on campus continued to decline, led by drops among conservatives. For the first time, a majority of students would prevent speakers from both the left and the right who express controversial views from coming to campus.
Sean Stevens, chief research advisor at the foundation, said Virginia had some of the highest ranked schools, including the University of Virginia at 21 and George Mason University at 26.
“Virginia on a whole, I’d say, does well compared to other states,” said Stevens. “There’s certainly still room for improvement. But as a whole, one of the lowest ranked schools in terms of what we have here for Virginia is James Madison, and it’s 103rd. So they’re all in the top half.”
The foundation surveyed more than 68,000 students. Of those surveyed, more than a third of students said the use of violence to stop someone from speaking was acceptable, at least in rarer cases, up ten points from four years ago.
Stevens said the more a campus is clearly in one ideological camp, the likelier students with opposing views feel less comfortable expressing their opinions.
That even extends to the smaller number of schools with a clear, conservative student body.
“So the majority of campuses ranked the student bodies as liberal,” said Stevens. “Some of them can be very, very liberal in terms of the student body, so the conservatives at those schools report less comfortable, more self-censorship. But the opposite’s also true at the handful of schools where the student body is actually more conservative.”
Only 36% of students said it was extremely or very clear that their university administration protects free speech.
