Philly universities get poor marks for free speech on campus
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Philadelphia-area universities are largely failing to create a healthy free speech climate on campus, per a new national ranking.
Why it matters: Students are self-censoring at high rates amid intense political pressure from the Trump administration and efforts by some universities to change policies in response.
How it works: The nonpartisan nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) defined self-censorship as refraining from sharing views because of fear of social, professional, legal or violent consequences.
- The topic students identified as the most difficult to discuss was the Israeli-Palestine conflict, with 50% of students reluctant to broach it.
- Trump followed at 46%, and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated a year ago, at 44%.
- Abortion ranked fourth at 43%. Immigration and transgender rights tied at roughly 38%.
Zoom in: The University of Pennsylvania landed near the bottom of the nationwide rankings: 227th — up four spots from the previous year.
- The Ivy League received an overall F grade for free speech and got low scores on students' comfort with expressing ideas and self-censorship.
Here's how other Philly regional schools ranked:
- Drexel University: 249th with an overall F grade
- Villanova University: 247th, F
- Swarthmore College: 217th, F
- Temple University: 145th, F
Meanwhile, the 15 Pennsylvania universities analyzed in the report had averaged an F grade.
- Top-ranked Keystone State school: Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster (62nd overall), which received a D grade.
The fine print: The rankings involved surveying about 63,000 students at more than 260 universities across the country.
- Nationwide, the average overall grade was a D-, the highest recorded in seven years, according to FIRE.
Top-ranked schools: The University of Chicago, followed by Claremont McKenna College.
Lowest-ranked schools: Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Northeastern University.
Zoom out: 140 schools received passing grades, whereas 121 out of the 261 schools ranked in the report received an F for their free speech climate.
- Only 24 schools received a C or better.
What else: FIRE endorsed UChicago's Chicago Statement in 2015, a free speech policy produced by the university's Committee on Freedom of Expression.
- The statement was part of the committee's 2015 report outlining the school's approach to free speech and debate on campus.
- "In a word, the University's fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the University community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed," the report reads.
- FIRE's methodology for the annual rankings considers colleges' adherence to the Chicago Statement.
Worth noting: The share of students who considered it acceptable to shout down speakers, block entry to speeches or use violence declined slightly from last year's record highs.
Meanwhile, the rankings come as President Trump increasingly tries to control what schools can teach, what diversity programs they can offer and which international students can attend American universities.
- The administration has also pushed schools to restrict protests that it describes as antisemitic, including by withholding federal funding and pursuing lawsuits and investigations against universities.
Methodology: 62,997 undergraduates at 262 universities were surveyed from Jan. 2 to June 3, 2026. The poll has a margin of error of ±0.4 percentage points for U.S. undergraduates in four-year programs, and between 2 and 5 points for student subgroups.