Here in Charlottesville, it’s great news that UVA made it to #1 in the FIRE Free Speech
rankings of over 250 colleges nationwide. UVA’s winning score rose from last year’s 68
out of 100 to 73.41 last week. This was after last year’s #1 school, Michigan Technological University, dropped from a score of 78 to 73.15. We leaped ahead by 3/10 of a point!
Back when I attended UVA in the mid-1980s, a 73 was considered a “Gentleman’s C”
and a perfectly acceptable grade. These days … not so much.
The FIRE rankings are based on 12 metrics, half of which track annual student polling on
campus climate, and half of which track university administrative actions. Unless you’re
in university leadership, there’s not a lot that can be done by students and faculty about
the administrative metrics. It’s in changing the campus climate for students that the real
opportunity lies.
When it comes to some of the metrics based on student polling, here’s where we stood:
107th on whether students are comfortable expressing their ideas publicly; 112th for how
often students say they self-censor in conversations with professors and peers; and 200th
for how many students believe that disrupting a speaker on Grounds is acceptable —
including more than a third who condone using violence, a disturbing trend.
While it’s an honor to be #1 in the nation, it’s hard to believe this is what it takes to get to
the top. The word “pillowfight” comes to mind.
Our goal should be that all colleges raise their scores, so that a top ten ranking involves at
least a score equivalent to an A in most college classrooms. But how can we — and
students and faculty at other public and private universities — do that?
What we’re seeing here on UVA’s Grounds is a quickly changing dynamic among students, especially some student leaders. It started when a handful of Covid-era undergrads working in their apartments founded The Jefferson Independent , an alternative, independent student newspaper that is dedicated to viewpoint diversity — unlike its 130 year-old competitor, which has repeatedly called for the deplatforming of speakers. Students of all stripes are signing up to write for TJI on issues from all angles, and readership is growing fast.
Other students have launched multiple student organizations dedicated to civil discourse,
holding roundtable discussions and hosting speakers with opposing viewpoints. Those
student groups are in the midst of joining forces as a consortium and they sponsored UVA’s first “Braver Angels” town hall-style debate this fall, among other events.
Around the same time, a group of faculty founded the UVA chapter of Heterodox Academy , which has now grown to be the second largest HxA campus community in the nation. Members of our chapter have served on committees that are helping to create a culture of free speech. Just as importantly, our regular social events have created a community among faculty who support open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement. They no longer feel alone.
Think Again, the organization I head, has been hosting “Free Speech Fridays” since last
semester, featuring events like “Disagree With a Professor” — where students share free
pizza at tables with popular professors who bring controversial statements they’re willing
to defend. Statements ranged from ones about guns and abortion to film reviews of “Barbie.” Every seat was filled. We also host the annual UVA Student Oratory Competition, in which students write and deliver short speeches on our democracy before a panel of judges comprised of former White House speechwriters from both parties. It’s become a new tradition at UVA that is about to go statewide next year.
Recently, the Karsh Institute of Democracy asked for students to apply for several
dozen spots as Student Dialogue Fellows, in which they’d attend monthly dinners
featuring professors offering opposing viewpoints on current events followed by student
discussions at each table. A whopping 300 students applied for those few spots.
Best of all, our “Election 2024” class — in which a fellow professor and I co-teach from
opposing political viewpoints alongside bipartisan panels of guest experts — has gone
from 200 students on Zoom in 2020 to nearly 500 students in person this year. As the
word got out, the class has grown by over 100 students just since the first day of class.
That tells me that students are hungry to hear both sides, presented with respect and good
humor. That’s not something they’re getting from their social media feeds.
In a recent podcast, Raj Vinnakota, head of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, calls
this “social permission” — the idea that if you see even one other student acting the way
you want to act, that “breaks open the floodgates” for student participation.
Social permission is growing here at UVA, and the challenge is continuing to provide
opportunities for students to put down their phones, argue with evidence, treat each other
with respect, and — most importantly — learn that freedom of speech is an integral part
of a great college education. Let’s all strive to do better than a “Gentleman’s C” on our
FIRE scores in the years to come.
Mary Kate Cary is an adjunct professor in UVA’s Department of Politics, the director of
Think Again @ UVA, and a member of the Heterodox Academy.