Protestors hold signs at The Oval in November 2025. Credit: Jayden Zhu | Lantern File Photo
Ohio State received an overall score of 58.18/100 on this year’s Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression college free speech rankings, placing it at an “F” score.
Out of 261 ranked schools, Ohio State was placed 174th, 50 spots lower than 2025, according to the ranking.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression – or FIRE – is an organization that aims to defend and sustain the rights of Americans to free speech and free thought since 1999, according to the organization’s website. The group conducts College Free Speech Rankings every year to reflect shifting free speech climates on campuses.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2026 methodology said the rankings were based on six student-survey components, university written policies, the Chicago Statement, institutional neutrality and campus speech controversies. The organization then combines these results to come up with an overall score.
Among the 333 Ohio State students surveyed, 44 percent of them said they have held back from expressing opinions on campus at least once or twice a month. Twenty-five percent of students said they would feel very uncomfortable publicly disagreeing with a professor about a controversial political topic and 22 percent would feel very uncomfortable voicing controversial opinions in an in-class discussion.
More than half of surveyed students said it is difficult to have an open and honest conversation about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, at 55 percent. In another survey question, 53 percent of students said it is difficult to have an open and honest conversation about President Donald Trump.
Chris Cade, a third-year in political science, public policy analysis and public policy and management and President of the Undergraduate Student Government, said he was not surprised when he saw the score.
“I did expect us to get an F with the downstream effects of [Senate Bill 1] and the whole chalking ban,” Cade said.
Ohio State banned chalking in August 2025, per prior Lantern reporting. Many students used chalking as away to advertise for events and clubs, spreading messages and voicing political opinions.
Senate Bill 1 was passed on March 25, 2025 and went into effect on June 27 of that year. The bill bans diversity, equity and inclusion programming, faculty striking, limits the teaching of controversial subjects and requires course syllabi to be public online, per prior Lantern reporting.
Cade said the chalking ban is one of the reasons the FIRE score was low this year.
Cade said he believes the political climate involving higher education in Ohio has contributed to students feeling pressured or unable to share controversial opinions.
“Many others of Ohio’s public universities dropped substantially and I think that’s because of [Senate Bill 1] and because of just the political pressure in Ohio right now,” Cade said. “This isn’t coming from the institution. It’s a lot of pressure from the state government and from the federal government.”
Ohio State spokesperson Chris Booker said in an email that the university remains committed to protecting free speech.
“Ohio State has an unwavering commitment to free speech and freedom of expression,” Booker said. “We respect the rights of our students, faculty and staff to express their views about issues that are important to them.”
Cade said he believes the university is able to take steps to improve its score.
“I think [repealing] the chalking ban, but I also think providing more institutional-level, sponsored events for students to have these debates,” Cade said. “There is nothing that is institutional-wide, like today is a day of free speech or something where there’s this list of activities going on.”
Cade said students should continue to use their voice even when it is uncomfortable.
“Even though everyone hates the chalking ban, continue voicing that concern because the only way that it’s going to change is if we speak up as students,” Cade said. “If we let these issues fizzle out and die, in two years nobody will even know what chalking was.”
