The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression gave six Ohio universities a failing grade on their 2026 College Free Speech rankings.
The survey ranked 257 colleges and universities after receiving responses from more than 68,000 students who were surveyed via College Pulse from Jan. 3 through June 5. 13 Ohio colleges and universities were ranked between No. 49 and 224, and the state’s average speech climate grade is an F, which matches the national average.
This is the sixth consecutive year FIRE has done this survey, which now gives universities letter grades. A majority of universities surveyed — 166 out of 257 — received a failing grade for their campus speech climate.
To come up with an overall score for each college, FIRE summed 12 components: comfort expressing ideas, self-censorship, disruptive conduct, administrative support, openness, political tolerance, the Chicago statement, institutional neutrality, FIRE’s spotlight rating and various speech controversies on campus.
Claremont McKenna College in California received the highest ranking with an overall score of 79.86 and B- grade. Barnard College in New York City was the lowest ranked with an overall score of 40.74 and an F grade.
Here’s where Ohio colleges and universities ranked on FIRE’s list:
49. Wright State University — 63.32 overall score, D climate grade and 275 students surveyed.
64. Ohio University — 61.47 overall score, D- climate grade and 371 students surveyed.
66. Bowling Green State University — 61.36 overall score, D- climate grade and 288 students surveyed.
69. Miami University — 61.07 overall score, D- climate grade and 294 students surveyed.
73. University of Cincinnati — 60.80 overall score, D- climate grade and 304 students surveyed.
81. Denison University — 59.92 overall score, D- climate grade and 211 students surveyed.
85. Kenyon College — 59.70 overall score, D- climate grade and 157 students surveyed.
96. University of Toledo — 59.26 overall score, F climate grade and 144 students surveyed.
124. Ohio State University — 57.70 overall score, F climate grade and 329 students surveyed.
163. Case Western Reserve University — 56.16 climate score, F overall grade and 326 students surveyed.
196. Kent State University — 54.46 overall score, F climate grade and 577 students surveyed.
205. Oberlin College — 53.88 overall score, F climate grade and 127 students surveyed.
224. University of Dayton — 51.86 overall score, F climate grade and 226 students surveyed.
Kent State had the biggest negative change and was ranked No. 113 on last year’s survey.
“Kent State’s decline is the result of students reporting a considerably higher amount of self-censorship and comfort expressing political views,” said Sean Stevens, FIRE’s Chief Research Advisor.
Statewide, Ohio received failing marks on censorship, administrative support and political tolerance, according to the survey. Ohio earned a C+ on disruptive conduct, a C- on openness and a D on comfort expressing ideas, according to the survey.
A third of Ohio students said using violence to prevent someone from speaking on campus is acceptable in some rare cases, according to the survey.
Nearly three-fourths of Ohio students said shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking is acceptable in some rare cases and 44% of Ohio said they have self-censored on campus at least once or twice a month, according to the survey.
Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.
