Oklahoma’s two largest universities—the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University—both fared poorly in a national report on campus free speech yet still landed in the top half of universities in the nation.

The sixth annual College Free Speech Rankings, released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and survey partner College Pulse, ranked 257 schools based on 68,510 student responses to a wide array of free-speech-related questions.

The report gave OU an F, a decline from the D the school received in 2024’s edition of the report. OU ranked 93rd out of 257 schools.

Student perceptions put OU in the bottom 25 nationally for both “self-censorship” and “openness.” Forty-eight percent of students surveyed said they had self-censored on OU’s campus at least once or twice a month.

Fewer OU students surveyed said they were comfortable expressing ideas on the campus than in 2024, and the share saying they had to self-censor speech increased compared to the prior year. OU’s score for political tolerance also declined.

There are roughly 1.84 liberal students for every one conservative student at OU, according to FIRE.

The report included anonymous comments from some OU students who participated in the survey.

“In a class, I censor my opinion some of the time because I know my professor does not think the same and I do not want to lower my grade,” said one student from the Class of 2026.

“Why would I disagree with my professor’s strong and open political opinions when he is the one grading everything?” wrote a student from the Class of 2025. “Nothing I say would change his mind and I really would rather not rock the boat since he’s the one grading all my assignments. I know when to hold my tongue and that's fine.”

A separate report previously indicated that OU faculty are overwhelmingly registered Democrats.

A review of the partisan registration of college faculty, conducted by The College Fix, found there were 33 Democrats hired as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty compared to 12 Republicans at the University of Oklahoma.

In a separate 2024 analysis, The College Fix identified the affiliations of 134 of 209 OU professors across 13 humanities departments. Only nine were registered Republicans. Six of 13 humanities departments at OU had no Republican professors on staff, including the anthropology, English, psychology, philosophy, religion, and African American Studies departments.

FIRE’s report gave Oklahoma State University a D- grade, unchanged from 2024.  Oklahoma State University ranked 90th out of 257 schools in the 2026 College Free Speech Rankings.

The report did say that OSU “received a small bonus” after administrators publicly defended a student group’s right to post “DEI — Deport Every Illegal” flyers.

At OSU, 53 percent of surveyed students said they have self-censored on campus at least once or twice a month. Fewer OSU students expressed comfort expressing ideas on campus compared to 2024, and more students reported self-censoring.

There are roughly 1.04 liberal students for every one conservative student at OSU.

At Oklahoma State University, The College Fix identified 21 STEM faculty as registered Democrats, compared to only six Republicans. The remaining staff were either registered as independents or registration information could not be obtained.

Of 222 OSU professors, officials with the Fix were able to identify the political affiliations of 128. Only nine were registered Republicans.

Among nine OSU humanities departments researched, the Fix could not identify a single Republican professor within four: economics, geography, political science, and sociology.

One state school fared well in FIRE’s report. The University of Tulsa, a private school, was given a C- by FIRE and ranked 12th in the nation in the group’s free-speech evaluation.