The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression released its 2026 college free speech rankings earlier this year, with The University receiving a score of 59.6 out of 100.
The University ranked 89 out of 257, falling 20 places since 2024. Claremont McKenna College led the rankings with the list’s highest score of 79.9.
FIRE’s rankings are determined using “student surveys, campus policies, and recent speech-related controversies,” according to its website. The organization cited two specific “speech controversies” that negatively impacted the University’s score, with one occurring in 2025.
In March, the UA chapter of Young Americans for Freedom applied to renew its organization with The Source was rejected. A UA employee told the organization its constitution needed a nondiscrimination statement that included the words “gender identity,” “gender expression,” and “sexual identity.” The chapter pushed back against the wording of the clause, which it said promoted “gender ideology.”
The University ultimately granted UA YAF an exception to the required clause’s wording following an email complaint from the organization and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.
“UAYAF still stands by our decision last semester to fight the university on the discrimination statement,” said Trenton Buffenbarger, president of UA YAF. “I will commend the University for giving a platform to both sides to make their voices heard during the controversy.”
Student organizations, including UA College Democrats, protested against the University’s decision to grant UA YAF an exception.
“I do believe it’s discriminatory, and so, in fact, it’s therefore actually stepping on others’ rights,” said Christian Martin, vice president of UACD.
Martin said that students were protesting the fact that the University “wasn’t standing up for queer students.” He said UA YAF was violating the Capstone Creed and that the University was “kowtowing to political pressure.”
The protest took place before the revision of the Capstone Creed in April removed mention of diversity and inclusion. The original phrase “promote equity and inclusion” was changed to “embrace and uphold the dignity of all.”
“I don’t think attempting to stop it was an infringement upon YAF’s freedom of speech, especially because the University ended up kowtowing to them anyways and going along with YAF’s full malarkey,” Martin said.
FIRE featured anonymous comments from university students, with an anonymous sophomore saying, “In most cases, I have to limit what I say, especially about controversial topics. It is too much of a risk to speak wrongly and destroy my public image.”
FIRE assigns individual letter grades to separate aspects of free speech. The University received an average of D-, with an F in political tolerance and a B- in disruptive conduct.
Despite the rankings, Samuel McKinney, president of UACD, said he believes free speech is “alive and well” at the University.
“Whenever we are looking to host a rally or do something, the administration works with us to make sure that we do it the safe way, in a manner that is going to let our voice be heard and in a way that’s equitable for all students,” he said.
Buffenbarger said the University has given voices to both sides, but that university affiliates and students have not.
“Like normal, our flyers are torn down constantly, even our 9/11 memorial ones, just for having our name,” he said. “Our chalk is poured over, and there is a staff member in Lloyd Hall who removes our flyers while leaving other political ones up.”
McKinney said UACD has also experienced interferences.
“We chalked about three or four weeks ago in response to an event that they [YAF] were having, and maybe three or four hours later, most of that chalking had been vandalized,” he said.
The second speech controversy that FIRE listed, which occurred in 2024, involved a professor who was fired shortly after posting a controversial comment regarding the attempted assasination of President Donald Trump.
Jennifer Collins, a former instructor at the University, posted to Facebook about the attempt’s authenticity, saying it was “weird there was no blood until he grabbed his face.” also included the phrase “he had it coming,” referencing song lyrics from the musical, “Chicago.”
FIRE “urged” the university to reinstate Collins.
“In response, the university stated that Collins was an adjunct instructor whose contract had expired before the Facebook post,” FIRE said on its website.
Martin compared the event to the recent firing of Candice Hale, who is suing University President Peter Mohler and University employees after claiming she was fired following controversial social media posts she made about the assasination of Charlie Kirk.
“I kind of consider them both in the similar vein, attacks on the ability of professors to speak within a private purview,” he said.
Buffenbarger said that the University has “no obligation to resign a contract with an adjunct professor” and that if Collins’s contract expired, she “just didn’t get rehired.” He also said that Collins openly said the president deserved to be shot and that she is “not the type of person anyone wants teaching students.”
“Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence,” he said.
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