The echoes of Sunday’s memorial service for slain conservative leader Charlie Kirk are still reverberating across the United States. While Kirk’s most effective method for convincing young people about the rightness of conservatism was through his “Prove Me Wrong” college campus tours—including stops originally scheduled at Virginia Tech and Liberty University this month—it seems increasing numbers of campuses no longer believe in the type of open dialogue he was promoting.
In that environment comes the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2026 annual College Free Speech Rankings.
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The good news, like football rankings, is that Virginia has one school in the Top 25—the University of Virginia at No. 21—and two more in the Top 50—George Mason at No. 26 and William & Mary at No. 33.
The bad news is the University of Virginia only scored a C-minus when it was once the top-ranked school in the foundation’s 2024 rankings. To be fair, the top college where students felt the most able to express themselves freely, Claremont McKenna College, only scraped together a B-minus with a score of 79.
How does the foundation come up with the numbers? It begins with a survey of students at the school, asking questions like, “If a controversy over offensive speech were to occur on your campus, how likely is it that your college’s administration would defend the speaker’s right to express their views?”
In its abstract on the University of Virginia, the report notes, “Student perceptions are poor with UVA failing to rank in the top 100 for any area. UVA ranks in the bottom 50 for both ‘Comfort Expressing Ideas’ and ‘Administrative Support,’ signaling relative unease and skepticism toward leadership, despite strong written policies.”
And this is the commonwealth’s top school in the rankings.
As I noted earlier, Kirk was scheduled to hold a “Prove Me Wrong” event at Virginia Tech. The Hokies are second from the bottom among Virginia colleges and universities at No. 92 in the nationwide rankings, ahead of only James Madison University at No. 102.
Virginia Tech’s score is out of 257 total schools nationwide, so it’s still in the top 50% and up 24 spots from its 2025 score. It scores 59.5/100 for an F, and the foundation’s researchers note: “Adoption of the ‘Chicago Statement’ remains a bright spot, yet Virginia Tech still earns a ‘yellow light’ Spotlight rating. Students report a mixed environment. The school ranks in the bottom 50 for ‘Administrative Support’ of free speech, indicating that students perceive limited administrative backing despite the formal commitment.”
According to the report, the Chicago Statement is a set of guiding principles intended to demonstrate a commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of expression on college campuses initially adopted by the University of Chicago.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s report on the Virginia universities gives the commonwealth an overall score of 64.1/100 for a D and suggests, “Clarifying written policies and strengthening institutional commitments would help improve free speech climates across Virginia campuses.”
The students may not wait for that to come to pass as they seem to be emboldened to speak up, whether the administration says that it has their back or not. Turning Point USA reports that in the two weeks since Kirk’s assassination, it has received over 54,400 new college chapter inquiries.
