Five Connecticut universities received an average failing grade for their campus speech climate in the 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
The advocacy group conducted the rankings at 257 colleges and universities surveying 68,510 undergraduate students.
Students, advocates for free speech and experts said that the ratings highlight a troubling trend for the state and nation amid heightened concern that freedom of expression is being curtailed, including through recent actions of the Trump administration to remove DEI programs and silence discussion of gender diversity, and recent efforts to suppress or punish speech following the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Opposition to campus visits by conservative speakers like Kirk is cited as a longer-running problem.
Several students at UConn said that First Amendment rights of students are limited concerning Israel’s war in Gaza, which many have referred to as genocide. Last spring 25 students were arrested at UConn who were part of the “Gaza solidarity encampment” on the Storrs campus.
“I hear a lot from students who are protesting that their rights are being violated,” said Haritha Subramanian, vice president of the undergraduate student government at UConn.
Subramanian said her biggest concern is students being able to protest “against the genocide in Gaza.”
The FIRE survey was conducted at Yale University, UConn, Connecticut College, Trinity College and Wesleyan University, which included surveying a total of 1,024 students.
“Anytime one of our universities gets an F on a free speech ranking, that is a good reminder for us to reevaluate our policies and to question whether they are doing everything possible to foster a campus environment in which students are comfortable speaking their minds about political issues,” said Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition and an adjunct professor at UConn.
Sean Stevens, chief research advisor for FIRE, said that while he doesn’t doubt that there are campuses that do promote free expression and create an open environment on the whole, what he wound up seeing nationally is tolerance declining and he learned in faculty surveys that a portion of faculty are willing to demand that speech they don’t like be censored.
The aftermath of the Kirk assassination has heightened threats to free speech, Stevens noted.
“There are now some very serious top-down threats from the government targeting college campuses,” he said. “I think there is certainly an inflection point on the issue in the country. We put out some data about faculty being targeted at very high rates following the Charlie Kirk assassination.”
Stevens said in the last three weeks since the assassination, FIRE recorded 76 incidents that involve faculty comments about the assassination. Of those incidents, 12 faculty members have been fired, he said.
“From 2000 to 2024 we recorded 102 scholar sanction attempts involving politicians or government actors,” he said.
By comparison, already this year there are 273 such attempts, he added, including the removal of 400 books from the U.S. Naval Academy library.
“It is very clear that the political assassination of Kirk is sending a chilling message and that plays out and impacts how students feel,” Stevens said.
Jeffrey Dudas, professor of political science and president of the UConn chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said “I think for faculty and staff and students across the campus the far bigger threat for free speech and free expression are these coordinated right wing attacks – those are the things that have people scared. They are scared to post on social media, scared to use particular words in their course syllabi, scared that they might accidentally say something in class that is regarded as woke or consistent with DEI, which has become a dirty word. These are the things that our members are concerned about.”
State and federal lawmakers share concerns about attacks on the First Amendment at the five Connecticut universities.
“Universities ought to be bastions of free speech and expression because the lifeblood of schools is the free expression of ideas, publicly and openly and First Amendment rights have particular relevance in higher education,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
State Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, said the findings were deeply concerning.
“These institutions should be places where ideas are freely exchanged, debated and challenged with mutual respect,” Anwar said. “University leadership and boards must take this finding seriously and hold internal conversations about how to foster a stronger culture of free expression.”
He said what is happening nationally in regard to free speech is heartbreaking.
“Free speech should not be seen as a threat but as a pathway to understanding and problem solving,” he said.
Concerns at UConn
UConn ranked 215 out of 257 schools in the rankings, FIRE reported. The public four-year university placed in the bottom 25 for both “comfort” and “self-censorship,” the report found. The university also was ranked in the bottom 50 for “openness,” according to the report.
Stephanie Reitz, spokesman for UConn, said in an email statement the university “encourages and upholds free speech on all of its campuses as a bedrock principle of our university and society.
“We would not typically comment on a poll for which we are not privy to the data and methodology, beyond noting that it appears to reflect less than 1% (329 responses) of our approximately 34,400-student population,” Reitz said. “Also, UConn adopted the findings of a task force on this topic under President Susan Herbst, and it has since been reaffirmed by the subsequent administrations.”
Muhammad Elsabbal, a former student at UConn, was one of the student protestors arrested last spring who took part in the “Gaza solidarity encampment” on the Storrs campus.
“We were peaceful,” he said of protests, adding that he did not understand the need for the arrests. He said his case was settled this past February.
“I think it was a shame and honestly a huge stain on the university,” he said. “I am not surprised by FIRE’s score for UConn.”
Yazeed Hasan, president of UConn’s Students for Justice in Palestine, agreed.
“Any attempt to have any form of free speech on campus about Palestine or any human rights issues — it is very clear that UConn is very aggressive in shutting these things down,” he said. “Anyone who feels very sympathetic to a bunch of children and these people overseas who are being slaughtered, it is almost like we have to explain why we feel bad for people dying while people who are in support of Israel and their actions can get away saying you are being antisemitic.”
FIRE found overall in its report that “over half of students, 53%, say that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a difficult topic to have an open and honest conversation about on campus.”
Subramanian said the undergraduate student government is working with the university to protect students from attacks by the Trump administration.
“With all the attacks from the Trump Administration, marginalized students are at risk and individuals in the LGBT community can be harmed by certain political views, especially those by the Trump administration,” she said.
Barriers to free speech
Overall, the rankings found that 166 out of 257 schools evaluated received an overall score below 60, earning a failing grade for its speech climate, the FIRE report found.
“This group includes some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions: Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and both the University of California at Berkeley and in Los Angeles,” the report stated.
In Connecticut, Yale University was the top-ranked school in the state, ranking 58 overall, with students giving the university relatively “high marks for comfort expressing ideas, openness and self censorship, suggesting they feel able to express views and discuss controversial topics,” the report stated.
Even so, Yale university received a D for their campus speech climate. The remaining universities received a failing grade.
In all five schools, FIRE found 41% of students said they have “self-censored on campus at least once or twice a month; 74% of students said “shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable, at least in rare cases”; and 31% of students said “using violence to stop someone from speaking on campus is acceptable, at least in rare cases.”
The report further found that Wesleyan University, Trinity College, UConn and Connecticut College all ranked outside the top 100.
Connecticut College received a “red light” rating, which means there is at least one policy that is in violation of the First Amendment, according to FIRE.
Christina Flowers, director of media relations for Connecticut College, said in an email that while the college acknowledges the FIRE rankings, it “reflects the views of just 135 students – less than 7% of our student body.
“It is important to note that FIRE’s “red light” rating is based on the claim that our speech policies are not publicly available,” she said. “In fact, our Freedom of Expression and Assembly Policy is posted on our website. The policy affirms that speech and expressive activity are protected regardless of viewpoint, with clear time, place and manner guidelines, while prohibiting threats, harassment and discrimination.”
The other four schools in the state received a yellow light rating, which means that potentially it “could restrict a more limited amount of protected expression,” according to FIRE.
Wesleyan and Yale University did not respond to repeated requests for comment concerning the report.
Silverman said overall when it comes to freedom of speech “we all need to feel comfortable expressing our opinion about political issues and we need to return that respect to others even if we disagree with what they say or find what they say to be extremely offensive to us.”
https://www.courant.com/2025/10/05/free-speech-org-gives-ct-colleges-and-universities-failing-grade/