On Sept. 9, the University of Connecticut received a failing grade from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, according to The Daily Campus. This list, which surveyed and compared 257 universities across the United States on their speech climate, placed UConn at 215 with an F. The criteria this ranking is based on includes a survey of 329 UConn students, an overview of certain speech-related campus policies and whether there have been any “speech-related controversies” in the past year, according to FIRE. Given how this survey has drummed up significant discussion surrounding the topic of free speech on campus, even from within these opinion pages, it seems a worthwhile topic to address. So, The Daily Campus Editorial Board will now make its case for what these results really mean and what is to be learned from them.
It is important to affirm that there is a significant free speech problem at UConn. Ever since the arrest of 24 student protesters at the spring 2024 pro-Palestine encampment, this university has gone to lengths to prevent any form of disruption to the status quo from student speech. This has included the changing of policies related to amplified sound, posting flyers and outdoor activities, all to grow the list of reasons that the university can regulate and criminalize student behavior. Also, it has expanded its definition of “disruptive behavior” and the conditions under which it may punish students who it deems “disruptive.” According to the Hartford Courant, the university may now take administrative action before any official student conduct violation process is concluded. This means the university can place someone on interim probation, suspension, removal from housing or other restrictions without effective due process. All these changes were made without student consultation and, considering their arrival in the summer after the encampment, can only be construed as a direct effort to prevent or chill further speech on campus.
FIRE appears to contain some of these concerns in their methodology, giving the university a vague “yellow light” ranking on its speech policies, but otherwise fails to grasp the nature of free speech issues on campus. For example, it cites exactly one free speech “controversy” from 2024 and 2025, the denial of a performance venue by the university for the campus chapter of Turning Point USA which was attempting to host a conservative comedian. The fact that this is the only incident they mention from that year is odd, especially given the much larger and publicized encampment arrests which happened only a month after the TPUSA event.
The rest of the ranking appears to focus mainly on speech that is allegedly chilled by cultural or student effects. Namely, it repeatedly mentions things like students feeling the need to self-censor ideologically or the shouting down of speakers as signs of a bad free speech environment. It places these next to measurements of the student body being significantly liberal leaning. Now, given historical precedent for left-leaning college students to interrupt and challenge far-right speakers or organizations like TPUSA, usually on the grounds of rejecting hate-speech, it appears that this tendency is what FIRE seems to most be concerned about with its rankings. As well, it advocates for the adoption of “Institutional Neutrality” policies to solve these campus cultural problems, a suggestion the Editorial Board disagrees with out of the interest of the university’s accountability to its students.
Regarding free speech, the Editorial Board recognizes that UConn deserves its F ranking, but not for the same reasons as FIRE does. As far as the significant interest among the student body that came from it, the Editorial Board supports this. Students should be aware and passionate about free speech on campus, so long as they understand where the real threats to it are coming from.