The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression recently ranked the University No. 9 out of 261 colleges and universities in its 2027 College Free Speech Rankings. The University rose from No. 21 last year but failed to regain its No. 1 spot held in 2025.
The rankings, along with federal pressure on free speech in higher education from the U.S. Department of Justice, have contributed to continued discourse over the state of free speech in the years since the University made efforts to formally address free expression in 2021. This was when Jim Ryan, Law professor and former University president, and former University Provost Liz Magill announced the creation of the Committee on Free Expression and Free Inquiry.
The 12-member committee included professors, deans, Board members and University vice presidents, and was tasked with crafting a formal statement on the role of free speech and free inquiry in the University community, and the announcement of the Committee came shortly after several controversies concerning free expression on Grounds. In September 2020, a student faced backlash from some alumni and staff after posting a sign that read “F—k UVA” outside of their Lawn room. That same month, some resident advisors reported feeling restricted in their ability to speak to the press about the University’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in residence halls.
The creation of the Committee followed a growing trend of universities nationwide adopting official statements on free speech, expression and inquiry, with many inspired by the University of Chicago’s Chicago Principles, which were drafted in 2014 and adopted by the University of Chicago in 2015.
In June 2021, the University’s Committee presented the Statements on Free Expression and Free Inquiry — the University’s official document on free speech — to the Board of Visitors, which it unanimously adopted. The Faculty Senate also chose to later affirm the statements in 2022. The document remains the University’s official statement regarding free speech, according to University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover, and it is posted on the University’s free speech website.
Following the adoption of the Statements on Free Expression and Free Inquiry, several groups formed on Grounds by students and faculty with the goal of creating a space for open dialogue and free expression.
Many of these groups still exist today, including Think Again U.Va., Middle Grounds at U.Va. and the Civil Discourse Initiative. They, along with other civil discourse-adjacent organizations on Grounds, participate in the Civil Discourse Council, which meets twice each semester to offer discourse groups a space to share and collaborate, according to Manuela Kodwo, president of Think Again and third-year College student, and Henry Brown, fourth-year College student and president of the Civil Discourse Initiative.
Think Again was founded in 2022 by former Adjunct Politics Prof. Mary Kate Cary, who was also a member of the Committee on Free Expression and Free Inquiry. Think Again was created as an affiliate of the Karsh Institute of Democracy, and according to its website, hosts “student-facing” events to promote viewpoint diversity at the University.
Kodwo said she views the University’s adoption of the Statements on Free Expression and Free Inquiry in 2021 as a response to the changing political climate at the time.
“I think the idea of political polarization is something that we’re seeing a lot more in our political climate … in which things can get very heated and violent and which we’ve seen in the news,” Kodwo said. “I think during [the adoption of the Statements], it was very important for the University to go ahead of that curve and assert itself as a space where people are able to freely and safely disagree without the fear of violence.”
Kodwo said that Think Again often partners with other civil discourse organizations on Grounds, including the Blue Ridge Center and the Heterodox Academy. Although she said she believes that students are interested in practicing free speech on Grounds, she pointed to two main threats to free speech on college campuses — external and internal “opposition.”
“I feel like there’s a lot of external opposition … that you may be outcasted if you make your statements and beliefs be known,” Kodwo said. “There’s also an internal opposition … maybe students don’t feel like they know how to make their belief be known … and they don’t think that their viewpoint is important enough to say out loud or if nobody would agree with them.”
Kodwo said she believes that the creation of various student self-governed free expression-oriented organizations at the University shows that students are comfortable promoting free speech on Grounds, but she thinks students still want more action from the University community to encourage free speech.
“I think … students want more from U.Va. and their students and their University leaders in being able to promote free speech,” Kodwo said. “I think that’s what Think Again is trying to do to bridge the gap with professors and students … and just more events and platforms for students to actually practice what free speech and open inquiry look like.”
Third-year College student Augustus Bryan is the president of Middle Grounds, a non-partisan, student-run CIO that aims to facilitate discussions across ideological and partisan boundaries. The organization is a chapter of BridgeUSA, a national nonprofit organization that focuses on combatting political division on college campuses.
Bryan said he views the organization as having a distinctive approach that separates it from other free speech-oriented groups on Grounds. Bryan said that other debate groups on Grounds are “good at what they do,” but he said the founders of Middle Grounds — Class of 2025 alumni Alex Friedlander and Juliana Paine — saw “barriers” that prompted the need for a more inclusive space. He said the founders wanted to create a newer organization, as Bryan noted the other free speech organizations are much older than Middle Grounds.
“A lot of [traditional speech and debate groups are] very high-brow, serious. There [are] barriers to entry, there [are] certain standards,” Bryan said. “We were trying to be fresh and new, a little more Gen Z, you could say, unburdened by the tradition and the oldness.”
Bryan said he believes that although various student groups focused on free discourse and dialogue use slightly different approaches, they all ultimately want to create a comfortable space for open discussion.
“We all really want … to create these spaces and really cultivate and push people to have interesting, meaningful discussions and talk about things because people otherwise won’t really have the chance to do that,” Bryan said. “Free speech is becoming more important than ever. It’s becoming increasingly hard to ignore. … By having these clubs where nothing is recorded and nothing is on the record, so to speak, that’s also another reason why it’s good to have these.”
While student groups strive to foster open dialogue and expression, the University has still seen contention over free speech and free expression since the adoption of Statements on Free Expression and Free Inquiry five years ago.
In May 2024, 27 people were arrested, including 12 active University students, after a pro-Palestinian encampment on the Lawn was declared unlawful. The encampment was part of a broader movement that swept college campuses amid the war in Gaza, putting a spotlight on how colleges and universities handle controversial speech.
Organizations like FIRE attempt to quantify this climate by analyzing university policies, surveying students and tracking controversies. For Brown, rankings like FIRE’s are important but ultimately insufficient to fully encapsulate the state of free speech on Grounds.
“I find college rankings in general kind of misleading. I think it’s extraordinarily hard to categorize free speech in general,” Brown said. “I think [free speech is] a lot more nuanced than rankings often communicate, but I do think that they do serve some purpose in motivating universities to kind of rethink how they’re addressing free speech.”
Kodwo, similarly, said she agrees with FIRE’s mission but questions whether the University’s relatively high ranking is “truly felt by students.”
Overall, Brown said he believes that the University has a relatively healthy free speech environment due to the number of free speech organizations on Grounds.
“I think that having multiple organizations that can focus on different prongs of civil discourse with different connections to different places of the University allows those organizations to have more efficacy in general in their specific focus,” Brown said.
Nicolas Biernacki is a staff writer on the news desk. He is a fourth-year College student studying government from Ashburn, Va.
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