A Polite Golf Clap, Please, for Virginia Free Speech Rankings

by James A. Bacon

Virginia colleges and universities fare well in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) survey of free speech on college campuses this year. The University of Virginia moved to the No. 1 spot, making it the university most hospitable to free speech among the 257 U.S. institutions polled.

Among other Virginia universities included in the ranking, the College of William & Mary and George Mason University ranked “above average”: 12th and 16th place respectively.

Virginia Commonwealth University, Washington & Lee University, and James Madison University were classified as “slightly above average,” in 32nd, 33rd and 37th places respectively.

Virginia Tech was a Virginia laggard in 116th place, but even that qualified as “average.”

(Liberty University was excluded from the survey because its policies “clearly and consistently state” that it prioritizes values other than free speech.)

As in past years, elite private universities in the Northeast were among the most hostile to free speech. FIRE ranked Harvard and Columbia as the two very worst — “abysmal” — in the entire country.

The high scores for Virginia institutions are no great honors. The bar is set exceedingly low. Snagging the No. 1 spot is like being awarded “cutest pooch” in an ugly dog contest.

But I suppose it’s of source of solace to observe that UVA, William & Mary, GMU and its Virginia brethren are less oppressive places to learn, teach and conduct research than their peers nationally.

Virginia universities have fared well in previous FIRE surveys, so this year’s rankings don’t represent a dramatic departure from the past — although UVA’s jump from No. 6 to No. 1 was notable. The FIRE ranking gives big points for “administrative” support for free speech. The organization doesn’t provide much detail about the Virginia institutions, but it is reasonable to assume that resolutions adopted by Boards of Visitors at the behest of the Youngkin administration in formal support of free speech and viewpoint diversity were counted as positives.

There can be a big difference between publishing a formal policy and executing upon that policy, and FIRE does maintain a database of free speech incidents — speakers being disinvited, professors silenced, that sort of thing. Despite a wave of emotional pro-Palestinian protests from October through May, there have been no major disruptions or de-platformings at the University of Virginia this year, and none at other Virginia universities, to my knowledge.

(Campus lefties contend that university actions to shut down the pro-Palestinian “encampments” were an assault on free speech, but that argument is bogus. The right to free speech does not constitute a right to disrupt the lives and routines of others, nor to violate universities’ time, manner, and place restrictions on when, where, and how protests can occur.)

In Virginia the threat to free speech is more subtle. It emanates mainly from faculty-student interactions and student culture itself. Many people are afraid to speak out about controversial issues, and many still censor themselves.

Here is what the FIRE data say about the University of Virginia.

How clear is it to you that your college administration protects free speech on campus?

Extremely clear: 6%
Very clear: 30%
Somewhat clear: 44%
Not very clear: 15%
Not at all clear: 4%

How comfortable would you feel expressing disagreement with one of your professors about a controversial political topic in a written assignment?

Very comfortable: 12%
Somewhat comfortable: 41%
Somewhat uncomfortable: 31%
Very uncomfortable: 15%

How comfortable would you feel expressing an unpopular political topic to other students in a common campus space such as a quad, dining hall or lounge?

Very comfortable: 12%
Somewhat comfortable: 41%
Somewhat uncomfortable: 24%
Very uncomfortable: 13%

How comfortable would you feel expressing an unpopular political opinion to your fellow students on a social media account tied to your name?

Very comfortable: 9%
Somewhat comfortable: 29%
Somewhat uncomfortable: 30%
Very uncomfortable: 32%

How often do you self-censor during conversations with other students on campus?

Very often, nearly every day: 5%
Fairly often, a couple of times a week: 19%
Occasionally, once or twice per month: 31%
Rarely: 38%
Never: 7%

How often would you say it is acceptable for students to shout down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus?

Never acceptable: 22%
Rarely acceptable: 39%
Sometimes acceptable: 32%
Always acceptable: 6%

How often would you say it is acceptable for students to block other students from attending a campus speech?

Never acceptable: 39%
Rarely acceptable: 33%
Sometimes acceptable: 24%
Always acceptable: 4%

How often would you say it is acceptable for students to use violence to stop a campus speech?

Never acceptable: 66%
Rarely acceptable: 18%
Sometimes acceptable: 11%
Always acceptable: 5%

There are many more questions. You can see the responses for UVA and other universities here.

Substantial minorities of students feel inhibited in expressing themselves at UVA, and substantial minorities believe it is acceptable to suppress the exercise of free speech when they don’t like the content of that speech. And this is the university rated most free in the country!

Break down UVA’s overall score into its components and you get a different picture. UVA doesn’t stand out as distinctive in any way. It gets middling rankings for most categories.

Comfort Expressing Ideas — 107th
Disruptive Conduct — 200th
Openness — 54th
Administrative Support — 97th
Tolerance For Speakers (Combined) — 67th
Tolerance For Liberal Speakers — 70th
Tolerance For Conservative Speakers — 95th
Self censorship — 112th

There’s not much to brag about in that data.

Virginians should be proud, I suppose, that our universities are less unfree than most others. We owe that distinction in part, I suspect, to Virginia’s heritage as an intellectual birthplace of individual liberties in America where universities draw inspiration from icons like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Mason. It helps that Governor Glenn Youngkin has consistently supported free speech, at least in the abstract, and has appointed majorities to university boards of visitors who share his priorities. It also helps that Virginia has three active alumni organizations — The Jefferson Council at UVA, the General’s Redoubt at W&L, and the Spirit of VMI at the Virginia Military Institute — fighting to expand those freedoms.

And at UVA, it helps that UVA has fearless faculty members such as Mary Kate Cary campaigning for free speech.

Formal administrative policies are not the barrier to free speech in Virginia today. The barriers stem from the leftist intellectual monoculture. The challenge is achieving a measure of intellectual diversity. I’m not looking for conformity with conservative values and views, as apparently is the case at Liberty University. I’d like to see faculties encourage open discussion and equip students to debate by exposing them to concepts from a wide range of intellectual traditions.

Achieving that vision will be a much harder battle to fight.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, Virginia was the crucible of intellectual ferment in the American colonies. As home to the least unfree universities in America today, the potential exists for Virginia universities to become the center of intellectual vitality in the 21st century. Few possess the prestige or massive endowments that the Ivy League institutions have, but over the long run top faculty and students will be drawn to the brightest centers of intellectual freedom and vitality.

James A. Bacon is contributing editor to The Jefferson Council.

Reprinted with permission from Bacon’s Rebellion.