Texas universities tumble in free speech ranking
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The Texas A&M campus in College Station. Photo: Mark Felix for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Texas A&M University plummeted in a new campus free speech ranking.
State of play: Texas colleges overall lost ground in the latest national ranking from the civil liberties group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), though results varied widely by campus.
How it works: FIRE and College Pulse, a digital survey research and analytics company, surveyed nearly 63,000 students and incorporated campus speech policies and recent free speech incidents.
By the numbers: Texas A&M dropped 145 spots to No. 192, out of 261 schools this year.
- Texas State fell from No. 112 last year to No. 259 this year, the largest year-over-year decline in FIRE's ranking.
- University of Houston improved its overall score and moved up 20 spots in the ranking to 183, though FIRE still gave its campus speech climate an F.
- The University of Texas at Austin moved up 43 spots to 124, but its campus speech climate earned a D-.
Zoom in: FIRE attributed A&M's decline in part to worsening student perceptions of "administrative support" and the firing of lecturer Melissa McCoul after a student secretly recorded a class discussion involving gender identity.
- Meanwhile, Texas State's sharp decline was attributed to several incidents over the last year, including the firing of a tenured professor over an off-campus political talk and the expulsion of a student who mocked Charlie Kirk's assassination.
The latest: Texas A&M professors are asking a federal judge to temporarily block a university system policy restricting how faculty teach certain topics involving race, gender and sexual orientation while their lawsuit is pending.
- The ACLU, ACLU of Texas and other attorneys sued the A&M System in August on behalf of the American Association of University Professors and four professors, arguing the policy violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
- Earlier this month, the professors detailed instances in which courses were canceled or instructors were told to remove material, including the Academy Award-winning film "Moonlight," writings by Plato and lessons about the 14th Amendment.