Michigan Technological University has landed in the top five nationally in the FIRE 2026 College Free Speech Rankings (grade: C). It’s the only Michigan school to earn a spot near the top, coming in at #4.

The 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, compiled by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and College Pulse, surveyed nearly 69,000 students at 257 schools to measure the state of free expression on campus. Schools were graded on metrics like comfort expressing ideas, self-censorship, tolerance for controversial speakers, openness, and administrative support, with bonuses for things like declaring institutional neutrality.

The results are sobering: the average national score was a failing grade, 166 schools got an F, and only 11 managed a C or better. Even #1 on the list, Claremont McKenna College, only got a B-.

In short, the rankings don’t just expose isolated flare-ups of censorship – they show a systemic failure across American higher education.

Free speech turned deadly on campus.
This news comes at a time when tensions concerning free speech are at an all-time high following the assassination of conservative commentator and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk while he was speaking at a college campus in Utah. A life was lost because someone decided a bullet would make a better point than debating. Whether you agreed with Kirk or can’t stand him, his death is a gut-punch reminder that free expression is no longer just chilled on many campuses – it’s endangered.

Michigan has a bad trail of schools shutting the door on free expression.
In the 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, the University of Michigan totally flunked the test with an F coming in at #105 in the rankings, lumped in with other prestigious names like Brown and Princeton. Eastern Michigan University also got an F. So did Central Michigan University. And Western Michigan University.

Michigan State University (MSU) didn’t fare a whole lot better with a D-, ranking #60 on the list. As previously reported by Michigan News Source, a recent FIRE survey showed that 38% of MSU students think violence is justified to stop speech they dislike – more than double from just a few years ago.

National climate: shouting down, shutting out.
And the trends continue to be ugly with a record number of students nationwide saying it’s acceptable to shout down speakers, block entry to events, or even use violence to silence speech. According to the FIRE report, 34% of students say it’s rarely, sometimes or always acceptable to use violence to stop a campus speech, a slightly lower percentage than at MSU but not by much. Only 66% said it was never acceptable.

Free speech isn’t free anymore.

Michigan’s results mirror the national crisis of the deterioration of free speech across college campuses. Universities love to market themselves as places of “open inquiry” and “diverse thought,” but the rankings – and the violence spilling beyond them – suggest otherwise.

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