An overwhelming majority of college students believe that “words can be violence,” according to a new poll that found undergraduates are more reluctant to express their views on campus following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression released a new report Tuesday examining students’ views on free speech following the assassination of the TPUSA founder during a speech at Utah Valley University in September. The survey was conducted from Oct. 3-31, sampling 2,028 undergraduates nationwide and 204 students at Utah Valley University.
The survey asked students whether they felt more or less comfortable engaging in a variety of activities following Kirk’s Sept. 10 assassination. A majority of Utah Valley University students felt a “great deal” or “slightly” less comfortable expressing their views on “a controversial political topic during an in class discussion” (68%), expressing their views on “a controversial political topic to other students during a discussion in a campus common space” (64%), and expressing controversial political opinions to classmates on social media (65%).
Similarly, a majority of Utah Valley University students described themselves as a “great deal” or “slightly” less comfortable attending public events on campus (65%), attending controversial public events on campus (72%), “hosting events on campus that some people may consider controversial” (72%), and attending class on campus (54%).
While students who do not attend Utah Valley University were less concerned about engaging in these activities, 47% of respondents reported being a “great deal” or “slightly” less comfortable attending controversial public events on campus since the Kirk shooting. Similar levels of concern were reported about expressing controversial political opinions to classmates on social media (46%), and “hosting events on campus that some people may consider controversial” (45%).
Smaller shares of undergraduates nationwide expressed concern about sharing their “views on a controversial political topic during an in class discussion” (41%), expressing their “views on a controversial political topic to other students during a discussion in a common campus space” (39%), attending public events on campus (31%) and going to class on campus (16%).
Twenty-two percent of respondents maintained that a statement declaring that “words can be violence” describes their thoughts “completely,” while 25% stated that it “mostly” reflects their views, 28% insisted that it “somewhat” describes their thoughts, and 15% told pollsters that it “slightly” reflects their views. The remaining 9% completely disagreed with the notion that “words can be violence,” meaning that 91% of those surveyed expressed some degree of agreement with the statement.
“When people start thinking that words can be violence, violence becomes an acceptable response to words,” said FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens in a statement reacting to the report. “Even after the murder of Charlie Kirk at a speaking event, college students think that someone’s words can be a threat. This is antithetical to a free and open society, where words are the best alternative to political violence.”
Seventy-one percent of students indicated that they opposed allowing a speaker who believes “transgender people have a mental disorder” on campus. This marks a slight decline from the 74% of students who said the same in the spring of 2025. Similarly, the share of students opposed to allowing a speaker who believes “abortion should be completely illegal” on campus dropped from 60% to 58%.
The percentage of students opposed to letting a speaker who believes “Black Lives Matter is a hate group” on campus decreased from 76% to 73%. In both the spring of 2025 and the fall of 2025, 62% of students opposed allowing a speaker who thinks that “the Catholic Church is a pedophilic institution” on campus.
Conversely, the percentage of students opposed to allowing a speaker who thinks “the police are just as racist as the Ku Klux Klan” on campus rose from 62% in the spring of 2025 to 65% in the fall of 2025. The share of students opposed to letting a speaker who believes “children should be able to transition without parental consent” increased from 51% in the spring of 2025 to 56% in the fall of 2025.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
