The life and work of Christian political activist Charlie Kirk is cited as one of several topics college students are too afraid to discuss on campus, according to one civil liberties group that has long documented the “dismal climate” for free speech on U.S. college campuses.
In its 2027 College Free Speech Rankings, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) lists the co-founder of Turning Point USA among a handful of topics that nearly half of all college students nationwide identified as a “difficult” topic to discuss on campus.
In its rankings of 261 schools based on responses from nearly 63,000 students on a number of free speech-related questions, over half of students at 61 of the ranked schools said Kirk remains “difficult to discuss” among students on campus. Nine of those schools that punished faculty members for their views on Kirk’s assassination fell in the rankings, according to FIRE.
The survey also found several campus chapters of Turning Point USA, the organization founded by Kirk in 2012 with businessman and Tea Party activist Bill Montgomery, were “denied recognition or faced calls for their de-recognition as an official student organization” following Kirk’s assassination. Despite the highest recorded average overall score in seven years, representatives with FIRE say that still amounts to an “unacceptable” D-minus on the report’s grading scale.
“At a tumultuous time for higher education, we are seeing some progress in campus free speech policies and indications that students may be less willing to tolerate 'shout-downs' and violence on campus compared to recent years,” FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff said in a media statement. “But the overall state of free speech on campus is grim.
Too many college administrators wield their power to cancel controversial speakers, cave to government or student calls for censorship, and limit academic