UC Davis Recognized for Improvements in College Free Speech Rankings

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has recognized the University of California, Davis, as the U.S. university with the largest year-over-year improvement in its annual College Free Speech Rankings. FIRE boosted UC Davis to 24^th place out of 261 universities ranked, compared with 252^nd place last year. Earlier this year, FIRE gave UC Davis its highest rating of “green” for protecting free expression. 

This was the seventh year that FIRE and College Pulse have surveyed college undergraduates about their perceptions and experiences regarding free speech on their campuses. This year, the organizations surveyed 62,997 students from 262 colleges and universities about topics such as how comfortable they feel expressing controversial opinions and whether their campuses welcome speakers with provocative viewpoints.

FIRE said it scores universities based on student perceptions, its assessment of campus speech policies, and its evaluation of how schools respond to speech controversies.

FIRE said it elevated UC Davis’ ranking “primarily because of its adoption of the Chicago Statement, a commitment to institutional neutrality, obtaining a ‘green light’ rating for its speech policies, and the decay of penalties imposed for older speech controversies.”

“As a public university, UC Davis is firmly committed to the First Amendment and to the free and open discourse that is essential to our educational mission and our role in a democratic society,” Chancellor Gary S. May said. “We recognize that free speech can be uncomfortable and even at times hurtful to members of our community, and we reiterate our Principles of Community to guide our culture and climate of mutual respect and caring. We appreciate FIRE’s recognition of the progress we’ve made and the difficult work we continue to do.”

FIRE gave UC Davis an overall score of 73 out of 100, corresponding to a “C” grade. No university scored higher than 81, or a “B-”. FIRE said this year’s average overall score of 61.36 is the highest recorded in seven years, though it still corresponds to a D- on the report’s grading scale.

Chancellor May thanked faculty, students, staff and campus leaders for improving the university’s efforts to engage on the topic of First Amendment rights. “This ranking and the ‘green’ rating we received in July are testaments to our focus on promoting free and open dialogue in our campus community,” he said.