Who Is Right About Campus Speech?

The American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International U.S. (AIUS) this week released a damning report on First Amendment rights on college campuses in the two years since the 2024 pro-Palestine student protests. The report catalogues, among other things, the violence inflicted on student and faculty protesters at over 20 campuses and underscores how the events pushed the boundaries of campus free-speech protections. Now two years on, the encampments may be gone, but higher ed remains a free-speech battleground.

The ACLU/AIUS report recounts harrowing stories of students and faculty who sustained serious injuries from law enforcement called to disperse protests. A Columbia University student told Reuters, “While [sitting] on the ground, I was kicked in the head, unsure if it was purposeful or not. I watched another student be kicked in the head, intentionally.”

A UCLA Police Department officer shot a student in the chest with a rubber bullet, knocking them down and causing a contusion to their heart and a bruised lung. A student at Tulane suffered a concussion after law enforcement pushed them to the ground. A 65-year-old Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville professor sustained multiple broken ribs and a broken hand after he tried to intervene when police responded to a protest at Washington University in St. Louis.

The report also names hastily processed interim suspensions or bans from campus, overly restrictive time, manner and place policies, and bans on student organizations as part of the culture of censorship that still exists on campuses today.

Since the protests, dozens of faculty have been fired or otherwise punished over their comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder, the Israel-Palestine conflict and their own classroom content. Even against that backdrop, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) latest College Free Speech Rankings—based on a student survey, free expression policies and incidences of free-speech controversies—gave the sector its highest average score in seven years. Yet while the overall picture has improved, according to FIRE’s analysis, nearly half of the 261 ranked colleges received an “F” for campus climate. The organization also recorded spikes in controversies involving students and faculty from 2024 to 2025.

“We are seeing some progress in campus free speech policies and indications that students may be less willing to tolerate shoutdowns and violence on campus compared to recent years,” said FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff earlier this month. “But the overall state of free speech on campus is grim. Too many college administrators wield their power to cancel controversial speakers, cave to government or student calls for censorship, and limit academic freedom.”

Not everyone reads the situation the same way. Half of respondents in Inside Higher Ed’s annual provost survey, released this week, rated their institution as very or extremely effective at promoting free expression on campus. More than half (55 percent) said the same about free inquiry, though the share of provosts at private nonprofit institutions with that view was higher (61 percent versus 49 percent of public institution provosts). Our survey of college and university presidents earlier this year found that across the sector, 76 percent thought the speech climate at their own institution was good or excellent. Just 29 percent said the same of higher ed as a whole.

Leaders’ optimism about their own campuses might stem from new civic dialogue initiatives. Most presidents in our survey (75 percent) said their institution had taken steps in the previous 12 months to educate students, faculty and staff about the importance of free speech and to prepare them to engage with those with whom they disagree.

Though our survey respondents represent the sector, the topline findings hide two nuances: Public institutions carry more First Amendment obligations than private nonprofits, and most free-speech controversies occur at four-year institutions—few community colleges have been roiled by conflict.

Similarly, the 2024 protests erupted on a small number of rich, mostly private nonprofit colleges, but the entire sector was impacted by the aftermath. The protests gave the Trump administration an excuse to use the Office for Civil Rights to open costly investigations into alleged antisemitism at scores of wealthy colleges, deepening the sector’s concerns about attacks by the federal government. The Trump administration also has its own opinions about what free speech on college campuses should look like and is trying to force reform. The accreditation regulation overhaul, for example, would require accreditors to be more prescriptive about free speech protections and viewpoint diversity. Meanwhile, Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s call to action letter summoned all institutions to show how they will protect free expression and guarantee “unruly and violent protestors” don’t disrupt campus operations. The free speech crisis may not be playing out on most campuses, but the entire sector is now being held accountable for it on the government’s terms.

The administration’s focus on free speech reflects longstanding pressure from both sides of the political debate on colleges to protect First Amendment rights. Like every administration’s policies, the current Education Department’s free speech reforms aren’t set in stone—a new government will likely make changes to fit its own agenda. But how colleges foster a campus culture open to free inquiry and expression will have a lasting impact on their communities. The ACLU/ AIUS report shows how much colleges still have to overcome before they can be trusted, by both sides, to resolve the crisis.