Free speech under fire nearly 300 times in 2025 on campus

By Tate Miller
The Center Square

Two hundred seventy-four incidents involving interference to free speech have taken place so far on college campuses in 2025, according to FIRE data, an increase from 2020’s high of 252 – with a free speech advocate stating college presidents have the ability to better protect the First Amendment rights of students and faculty in higher education.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) director of research Ryne Weiss told The Center Square that “there is a lot that universities can do” to uphold constitutionally protected speech again.

FIRE is an organization dedicated to defending the right to free speech.

Weiss told The Center Square: “Our president Greg Lukianoff has a list of five ways college presidents can immediately improve their environments for free speech.”

“Ending restrictive speech codes and ceasing punishments of students for protected speech are the bare minimum,” Weiss said.

“Colleges should commit to the speech protective Chicago Statement and institutional neutrality before they’re in the midst of a free speech crisis — appealing to these principles only when under fire can seem disingenuous, but late is better than never,” Weiss said .

“Additionally, strong leadership is important,” Weiss stated. “When demands are made that students or faculty be punished for their speech, a leader making a wishy-washy statement trying to appease all sides is only going to invite more pressure to censor.”

“A strong restatement of commitment to free speech and non-punishment at the outset can defuse these situations,” Weiss said.

Weiss additionally said that “free speech orientation, and ongoing education can be critical.”

“Students often show up to campuses with no idea of what the First Amendment means in practice,” Weiss said.

“Their ignorance about their rights might mean that they don’t know that they can’t be punished for expressing an opinion, or it might mean that they wrongly think shouting down and shutting down an event that they disagree with is an exercise of their rights,” Weiss said.

“Finally, it’s important that universities make a real effort to understand whether their students feel free to express themselves on campus,” Weiss said.

“Our data shows that they often don’t,” Weiss said. “This data can provide actionable information, and an impetus to improve things.”

“You can’t solve a problem by ignoring it,” Weiss said.

According to FIRE data in the “Students Under Fire Database,” there have been 274 incidents in 2025 involving “attempts to investigate, censor, or otherwise punish students for protected expression,” as a FIRE media relations specialist put it.

One recent incident took place at Vanguard University of Southern California.

Citing a “newly adopted policy banning student organizations affiliated with political or ideological movements,” Vanguard denied a Students for Life chapter recognition as a registered student organization.

The students and an attorney sent a letter to a school official, met with administrators and eventually were approved to form an organization under the name Vanguard Lions Love Life, according to the database.

Another recent occasion collected by FIRE took place at private school California Lutheran University.

The Associated Students of California Lutheran University “voted down a proposal to re-establish a campus chapter of Turning Point USA” due to safety concerns, inclusivity conflicts, and a belief that the club’s alleged “rhetoric” could bring “controversy” to the campus, as stated by FIRE’s database.

In 2020 – amid COVID lockdowns and George Floyd chaos – there were 252 incidents attempting to interfere with free speech recorded by FIRE.

The Students Under Fire Database began in 2020, and has in total logged 1,327 incidents.

According to other FIRE data, half of the nation’s college students recently said they feel “less comfortable attending controversial public events on campus,” and nearly half “are less comfortable voicing opinions on controversial subjects in class,” The Center Square reported.

Recent violent incidents on college campuses include the Brown University shooting that killed 19-year-old Ella Cook – vice president of the Brown College Republicans club – and recent high school graduate Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov.