2025 FIRE Free Speech Ranking
2025 FIRE Davidson Student Survey
The highlights of the 2025 Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) Survey of Davidson Students, shown in the following charts, reveal that while some measures of freedom of expression at Davidson College have improved since 2024, other indicators show little or no improvement. This underscores that more work is needed to ensure a campus environment where open discourse and respect for differing viewpoints can truly thrive. Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse (DFTD), an independent nonprofit alumni organization, is proud to support these ongoing efforts.
The annual FIRE surveys of Davidson students are an important means of tracking progress in ensuring a healthy freedom of expression environment at Davidson, and the findings in this report are well worth exploring. The data on which the report is based can be explored in detail at TheFIRE.org/college-free-speech-rankings.
Survey Results Summary Findings
- The 2025 FIRE Survey of Davidson College students shows some signs of improvement in the campus speech culture, but major problems remain. 60% of Davidson students continue to be uncomfortable disagreeing with a professor on controversial political topics in class.
- A quarter of surveyed students self-censor during conversations with professors.
- The percent of students uncomfortable expressing disagreement with a professor about a controversial political topic in a written assignment continues to be high, at 58% in 2025.
- Almost half (48%) of Davidson students are uncomfortable expressing their views on controversial political topics during in-class discussions—the same being true for expressing views in common campus spaces.
- More than two-thirds of Davidson students (70%) continue to be uncomfortable expressing unpopular political opinions on social media.
- In a year of campus unrest and protest, the share of Davidson students comfortable with some form of disorderly behavior threatening free speech remained worrisome in 2025.
- 37% believe it acceptable to prevent speakers from speaking by shouting them down—not much different from the 41% so identified in the 2024 survey.
- Those believing it acceptable to block other students from attending a campus speech improved this year—dropping from 29% in 2024 to 19% in 2025, but remained at a surprising level for a school noted for its civility.
- Those believing it acceptable for students to use violence to stop a campus speech remained high—at 15% in 2025, compared to 19% in 2024.
- An area in which improvement has taken place is the extent to which students believe that the College Administration protects free speech on campus. The share of surveyed students who doubt that the College will protect them from speech suppression has fallen from 37% in 2022 to 17% in 2025. And the share that doubt the College would defend them in a controversial speech situation has fallen from 45% in 2022 to 23% in 2025.
- Even so, 34% of respondents say it likely that a student would be reported to the administration by another student for saying something controversial.
- And 37% say it is likely that a professor would be reported to the administration for saying something controversial.
These findings indicate that—despite some proactive steps in recent years to strengthen the freedom of expression and viewpoint diversity environment at Davidson—much remains to be done, especially respecting the professor-student dynamic in the classroom.
DFTD Urges the College to take proactive steps
DFTD urges the College to take these steps to further improve the free speech and viewpoint diversity tolerance on the Davidson campus.
- Adopt a Policy of Institutional Neutrality, whereby the College and Academic departments take no positions on ideological and political issues.
- Proactively take measures to diversify ideologically the faculty, staff and Board of Trustees.
- Make the College’s Commitment to Freedom of Expression Statement a centerpiece of New Student Orientation.
- Undertake a comprehensive review of all policies and procedures regarding speech.