Backlash against student speech peaked in 2025 as college administrators and political officials grappled with dialogue and demonstrations, according to the latest report from FIRE, or the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
The free speech watchdog identified 273 attempts to investigate, censor or punish students based on their expression. It eclipsed the record set in 2020 (252), when FIRE began tracking publicly available information on student censorship attempts.
“These findings paint a campus culture in which student expression is increasingly policed and controversial ideas are not tolerated,” said Logan Dougherty, senior researcher at FIRE. “College is supposed to be a place where ideas are freely shared, not where students should be concerned about whether their comments will be subject to university scrutiny.”
An unprecedented rise in attempts by college administrators and government officials to censor student speech over the past two years is partly to blame for the new record, FIRE noted.
For example, Indiana University fired a staff member and attempted to stop printing the independent student newspaper after it refused to censor its news coverage during Homecoming week, IndyStar reports.
“Any type of attempt on my end to censor or manipulate any content from a student media outlet is literally against the law,” Jim Rodenbush, the director of student media at Indiana, who was fired, said in a meeting with administrators. “This is First Amendment stuff.”
Today’s cultural flashpoints caused disruptions across higher ed:
- LGBTQ+ identity: The Board of Regents at Texas’ two largest universities banned drag shows on campus, citing President Donald Trump’s executive order recognizing only two sexes and demands from a county judge.
- Pro-Palestine protests: The Department of Homeland Security arrested pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. Secondly, a U.S. House subcommittee has reached out to several colleges demanding documents relating to their relationship with Students for Justice in Palestine.
- DEI: The University of Alabama closed two student magazines to align with guidance from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. The two publications focused on women’s lifestyle and Black culture and arts, respectively.
- Charlie Kirk: Responses to Charlie Kirk’s assassination caused state officials to pressure colleges to expel students or eliminate student groups, sometimes at the risk of losing federal funding.
Right-leaning sources instigated nearly four times more instances of backlash against student speech in 2025, according to FIRE’s database.
“Aside from the harm on the individual students involved in these incidents, such actions could have the effect of chilling speech across an entire campus—and across an entire generation,” Dougherty said.
