Michigan Technological University ranked at the top of Michigan colleges and universities for free speech, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which also noted even the best schools still don’t do enough to support speech.
Michigan Tech, located in Houghton, Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula, scored 75.6 on a 100-point scale, ranking as the best in Michigan, and fourth out of 257 universities examined across the country, the national organization that ranks First Amendment rights said.
While Michigan Tech was near the top of the rankings, the school still received mostly average to below-average grades from student survey participants on individual aspects of free speech, the report noted, including an overall grade of “C.”
The school also received a B for disruptive conduct (whether it’s OK to disrupt speech), D for comfort expressing ideas, D- for self censorship, C- for openness, D for administrative support and F for political tolerance, the FIRE report said.
“Due to the makeup and beliefs of the other student staff workers, I found it would be more advantageous to not say anything to give another perspective to maintain civility, one Michigan Tech student wrote in the FIRE survey, conducted from January to June 2025.
This year’s survey included responses from 68,510 students nationwide.
The top school surveyed in 2025 was Claremont McKenna College in California, which received 79.9 points and a B- grade. McKenna received an F for political tolerance and D- for self censorship and a D+ for administrative support. It’s best grades were B- for both disruptive conduct and openness.
FIRE said even the best-rated schools in the survey still don’t provide completely free speech.
“(C)alling these results “good” is, at best, a relative judgment. Grades of C or C- reflect average or even lackluster performance by typical academic standards,” FIRE’s report said. “In truth, these schools stand out not because they’ve created truly robust speech climates, but because most of their peers are doing far worse. In other words, what passes for “strong” support for free expression in higher education today often reflects a low national bar rather than exemplary campus culture.
“Even the top-ranked school, CMC, barely obtained a B-, and did so by ranking in the top 10 on six of the nine survey components, and in the top 40 on all but one of them. The picture this paints of free expression on America’s college and university campuses is not a flattering one,” the report added.
What did the survey say about Michigan Tech?
Michigan Tech ranked the second-best university for free speech in 2024, but fell two spots.
The huskies this year ranked in the top 10 when graded on disruptive conduct, political tolerance and administrative support.
The school had no speech controversies this year in which a speaker, professor or student group faced efforts to silence them for expressing a controversial view, according to the survey.
What is the state of free speech at Michigan universities?
Michigan colleges earned a collective score of 60.57, with five speech controversies in 2024.
How other Michigan schools ranked in 2025
The ranking includes seven Michigan universities. Here’s how they ranked:
Best colleges and universities for free speech
The following universities and colleges ranked the highest on the survey:
Worst colleges, universities for free speech
The following schools ranked the lowest on the list:
Which schools received the best letter grades?
How Fire ranked the best colleges for free speech
Data comes from a sample of 68,510 undergraduates who were then enrolled full-time in four-year degree programs at one of 257 colleges and universities in the United States. The margin of error for the U.S. undergraduate population is +/- 0.4 of a percentage point, while the margin of errors for college student sub-demographics ranges from 2 to 5 percentage points.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Free speech organization ranks Michigan universities. See which school was best in state
Reporting by Jalen Williams, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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