A year ago, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released its annual report, giving Davidson College a D- for campus freedom of speech. FIRE’s 2025 rankings included over 250 colleges and universities, building cases for each institution through student surveys, campus policies, and speech-related controversies.
While Davidson scored relatively well in preventing “disruptive conduct,” the school scored abysmally low in “comfort expressing ideas” – 198th out of 257. This was consistent with a campus-wide trend towards self-censorship: 41% of Davidson survey respondents said they had self-censored on campus at least once a month in the past year
FIRE is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights, though it has received criticism in recent years for taking partial and biased stances on hot-button issues. The organization rebuts this, emphasizing that defending the First Amendment means protecting speech consistently across the entire political spectrum, regardless of the shifting political landscape.
On Wednesday morning, FIRE released its report for the 2026 academic year, and out of the 261 colleges and universities reviewed, Davidson ranked 63 – a 15-spot jump in the national rankings, and a 3.3-point increase that raised the college from a D- to a D in free speech.
In the report last year, Davidson’s administration was criticized for encroaching on students’ First Amendment rights, after the school charged its Young America’s Foundation (YAF) chapter – which supports conservative students’ projects through external funding – with harassment for handing out pro-Israel pamphlets. FIRE cited the incident as an example of the college overstepping on campus speech, contributing to a polarized environment.
This year, Davidson College improved in nearly every category on the FIRE report. The 3.3-point increase, along with the jump from a D to a D+ in the “Comfort Expressing Ideas” sub-category, indicates major growth in how the college actively protects students’ First Amendment rights.
President Doug Hicks ‘90 credited part of this increase to the recent establishment of the D.G. and Harriet Wall Martin Institute for Public Good, announced in February 2026. “Last month, Davidson hosted representatives from 24 schools in the first cohort of the Deliberative Citizenship Network, a new national initiative led by Davidson,” wrote Hicks in his statement to The Davidson Lux.
Hicks also pointed to Davidson’s Commitment to Freedom of Expression as a driving force in the school’s improved FIRE score. In its reports, FIRE considers whether the academic institution under review has adopted The Chicago Statement for Free Speech, a document which guarantees “all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.” Davidson College’s own commitment, modeled after the University of Chicago’s, asserts that the school’s “fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate, discussion and deliberation may not be suppressed.” While the statement itself is not a recent implementation, the administration’s recent push to actively uphold the statement’s values – through endorsing dialogue initiatives across campus – likely helped drive the improvement in both the national ranking and the Administrative Support category.
Still, FIRE’s report suggests Davidson’s progress is ongoing: the college has made clear improvements in the past year, but continues to struggle to protect its students’ First Amendment rights when case-by-case situations arise. Along with adopting an official policy of Institutional Neutrality, FIRE advises that “Davidson should respond clearly and forcefully whenever censorship occurs or is demanded” to demonstrate its commitment to free speech.