A study by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression reveals that over half of US college students believe controversial speakers should be banned from their campuses, with a record 34% now saying violence is acceptable to stop such speakers. This trend shows a decline in tolerance for conservative views between 2024 and 2025, as fewer students support allowing discussions on topics like abortion legality or transgender mental health issues. The survey also found that Massachusetts has the highest concentration of intolerant campuses, with Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and Wellesley College topping the list for their restrictive attitudes towards conservative speech.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-22,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
More than half of US college students now believe controversial speakers should be banned from their campuses, according to a new study by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. A record-high number of these students also think that violence can be justified to prevent such speeches. The survey covered almost 300,000 undergraduate students nationwide over six years.
The study found that in Massachusetts, Wheaton College and Clark University rank among the top 10 most intolerant campuses nationally. Other institutions in this list include Oberlin College in Ohio and two California colleges: Pitzer and Scripps. The least restrictive campus was Michigan Tech, where only 26.2% of students supported banning all three conservative topics surveyed.
The study highlights a growing trend towards censorship on college campuses, with many students showing low tolerance for controversial speech. Notably, just 25% of respondents last year said they would allow speakers to discuss the idea that transgender people have mental disorders, down from about 33% in 2024.
Written for “College Students Intolerant Of Speech” on 2026-10-05,
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More than half of US college students say controversial speakers should be banned from their campuses, with a record-high number adding that violence is acceptable to stop them, a disturbing study shows.
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study → say → them
The results provide a dangerous and “sobering picture” of cancel culture on US campuses, according to the expansive six-year study of almost 300,000 college undergraduates nationwide by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
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results → provide → Rights
“The atmosphere isn’t just cautious — it’s hostile,” the study’s authors wrote.
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authors → ’ → ?
“Students continue to show low tolerance for controversial speakers, and troublingly, more believe it’s acceptable to shout down a speaker, block access to events, or even resort to violence to silence campus speech than ever before.”
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it → continue → speech
The surveyed students were given six controversial topics — three conservative and three liberal — and asked if someone should be allowed to speak on campus about those subjects,
Only a quarter of the students last year said they would allow speakers to say transgender people have a mental disorder, which was down from roughly a third in 2024.
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which → survey → 2024
The percentage of students who would “permit” speakers to say, “Black Lives Matter is a hate group” also fell from roughly one third to one quarter between 2024 and 2025, the data shows.
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data → permit → 2024
Around 40% of students said speakers should be allowed to say, “Abortion should be completely illegal,” down from around 45% in the study.
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Abortion → say → study
Controversial left-wing talking points, including calling the Catholic Church “a pedophilic institution,” describing the police as “just as racist” as the KKK and saying children “should be able to transition” without parental consent also saw decreasing tolerance among students between 2024 and 2025.
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children → include → 2024
The percentage of students who supported disruptive or even violent tactics to suppress controversial speakers meanwhile went up between 2021 and 2025.
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who → support → 2021
An astonishing 34% of students nationally believe violence is acceptable to stop a campus speech, up from 20% in 2022.
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violence → believe → 2022
More than half of students, or 54%, support blocking others from attending a campus speech, while almost three-quarters, 71%, call for shouting down a speaker they don’t like.
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they → support → speaker
The top 10 most intolerant campuses were predominantly in one state: Massachusetts, the survey added.
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survey → add → state
The three most intolerant undergraduate bodies to conservative views were all at liberal arts colleges in Massachusetts, with Mount Holyoke College seeing 80.5% who supported barring all three controversial topics from campus.
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who → see → campus
Smith College was second, followed by Wellesley College, with 79.6 and 75.5% of undergraduates, respectively, supporting the barring of the three opinions.
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% → follow → opinions
Occidental College, a California liberal arts college, was fourth at 73.6%, followed by the University of Rochester in New York with 73.3%.
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College → follow → %
The rest of the top 10 most intolerant campuses included two more in Massachusetts, with Wheaton College and Clark University taking sixth and seventh place respectively, followed by two more California Institutions, Pitzer College and Scripps College.
Oberlin College in Ohio also made the top 10 list.
Michigan Tech was the most tolerant campus, with just 26.2% of its undergrads supporting banning all three conservative topics, followed closely by Kansas State at 29.5% and Montana State with 29.6%.
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% → include → %
Ivy League institutions were also well represented in terms of tolerance, with Princeton, Stanford and Harvard all featuring in the top 10.
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Princeton → represent → 10
The University of Wyoming, Iowa State, Washington and Lee in Virginia and Utah State made up the rest of the top 10 most tolerant campuses.
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University → make → campuses
Unsurprisingly, the study found that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the most controversial topic in 2025, with 53% of students nationally admitting to expressing difficulty discussing it.
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% → find → it
Abortion was the second most controversial, with 46% expressing difficulty, followed by the 2024 presidential election at 42%, transgender rights with 41% and racial inequality coming in at 34%
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inequality → express → %
Students are reluctant to speak their minds, especially on controversial political issues,” the study said.
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study → speak → issues
“Many report that they self-censor regularly, avoid certain topics entirely, and doubt their administrators would defend free expression if controversy struck.”
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controversy → report → expression
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