Amid deep political divides and government scrutiny of college campuses that risks the throttling of free speech, one California college stands out by encouraging open dialogue and championing the flow and exchange of ideas.
For the second time, Claremont McKenna College, a small liberal arts institution in Southern California, was named the best college for free speech in the nation in the annual College Free Speech Rankings released this week by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and survey partner College Pulse.
Located 30 miles east of Los Angeles, Claremont McKenna College is one of five undergraduate Claremont Colleges (along with Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Scripps, and Pomona). It touts its commitment to freedom of speech and expression. In 2018, it was the first California college to earn FIRE’s highest rating for free speech.
The worst college in the nation for free speech, according to the 2026 rankings, was Barnard College, a small private college in New York. University of California, Davis, ranked in the bottom 10 in the nation in the survey, finished last in California.
UC, Davis’s low rating on free speech was lowered after the university dissolved the Law Student Association after it had passed a resolution resolving that it “will not approve funding requests for events with speakers who represent the Israeli government… or voluntarily represent Israeli academic institutions that are complicit in occupation and genocide.”
How were colleges ranked?
The FIRE survey, which looks at campus expression in the country, ranked 257 schools based on 68,510 student responses to a wide array of free speech-related questions.
Questions sought to determine how students felt about speech on campus, assessing, for example, how comfortable students were expressing their ideas, how accepting students were to disruptive behavior to counter speech they did not like, how often students self-censored, and how tolerant students were to controversial topics discussed amongst themselves and via an invited speaker.
The survey included large public universities and small private colleges, religiously-affiliated colleges, and Ivy League colleges.
To determine a ranking and overall grade (A-F), the study also took into consideration campus speech policies and how administrators, faculty, and students react during a speech controversy on campus.
The report revealed that students across the political spectrum showed a “deep reluctance to engage with controversial ideas” and a waning commitment to free speech, most notably among conservative-leaning students.
This comes amid heightened scrutiny of colleges and universities by the Trump administration, sparked in part by student-led pro-Palestinian protests on campuses in recent years.
FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff said in a statement that the current free speech trend on college campuses will “only harm students’ ability to think critically and create rifts between them. We must champion free speech on campus to remedy our culture’s deep polarization.”
How do California college students feel about speech on campus?
The 2026 survey highlighted some interesting findings when it came to how California college students perceive the speech climate on their campus.
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41% of students said they self-censored on campus at least once or twice a month.
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73% of students said shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable, at least in rare cases.
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35% of students said using violence to stop someone from speaking on campus is acceptable, at least in rare cases.
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Across California, there are roughly 4.93 liberal students for every one conservative student.
Where do California colleges rank?
Twenty-seven California schools were ranked and graded out of 247 colleges and universities nationwide. California’s average speech-climate grade was F, which matched the national average.
California colleges and how they ranked:
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#1: Claremont McKenna College
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#107: California State University, Long Beach
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#147: University of California, Merced
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#150: University of California, Riverside
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#154: California Polytechnic State University
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#155: California State University, Los Angeles
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#161: University of California, Santa Barbara
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#164: University of California, Irvine
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#165: San Diego State University
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#171: California Institute of Technology
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#176: University of California, Santa Cruz
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#183: University of California, San Diego
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#189: University of California, Los Angeles
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#190: San Jose State University
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#193: Harvey Mudd College
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#210: California State University, Fresno
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#216: University of Southern California
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#217: University of California, Berkeley
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#221: Santa Clara University
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#244: University of San Francisco
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#252: University of California, Davis
What were the worst-ranked universities for free speech in the nation?
The College Free Speech Rankings ranked these institutions as the worst in free speech environments in the nation:
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University of California, Davis
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Loyola University, Chicago
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: California college named best for free speech. How others stack up.
