• Set up an open microphone or soapbox in a public place for people to use throughout the day. Have group members use it to read the Constitution and passages of “banned books” aloud. Sing “Happy Birthday” to the Constitution.
• Stage a debate about an issue that you think doesn’t get enough attention on campus. Or stage one between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, using arguments from period writings like the Federalist Papers. (This is a great excuse to wear a costume!)
• Build a temporary “free speech wall” out of cardboard or plywood covered in paper and provide markers for students to exercise their right to anonymous speech on campus.
• Host a trivia event to find out what students really know about the Constitution and the First Amendment. Extra points for naming all five rights in the First Amendment!
• Hand out pocket Constitutions, or candy with articles, sections, or amendments to the Constitution attached. Everybody likes free stuff, especially free food.

Have fun, be creative, and send in pictures and videos of your events to post on FIRE’s CFN Facebook page and the CFN website. CFN members can also earn points for the CFN Incentive Program, with prizes including a $2,500 scholarship and a prize pack with a new Apple laptop, Flip camera, iPod Touch, and a 42″ HDTV.

RSVP to the Facebook event and join in on the celebration!

To many people, “Berkeley” is synonymous with “protest.” Mentioning the University of California, Berkeley often conjures up images of bearded bohemians and flower children peacefully rallying for a “hippie” cause of the past, such as the famous Free Speech Movement of the mid-sixties. Indeed, Berkeley’s protest culture has given the university a reputation for being a bastion for freedom of expression, which can be quite attractive to prospective students looking for a unique college experience. I know because I was once one of them. At Berkeley, so I thought, I would be immersed in an Eden of free speech, a liberal’s utopia, where all opinions were tolerated.

Unfortunately, I have found this idealistic vision of my university to be more fiction than fact nowadays. While Berkeley’s tolerance for free speech (for the most part) lives up to its reputation, my school has also come to tolerate many illiberal and even unlawful actions that make a mockery of the marketplace of ideas.

As University of Wisconsin -Madison professor Donald Downs pointed out in a recent article (which was also highlighted in a July blog post by Adam), Berkeley has a long history of allowing “free expression” to go too far. Just last November, a group of demonstrators illegally occupied a landmark building on campus, Wheeler Hall, for an entire school day in protest of recent tuition hikes while hundreds of supporters outside cheered them on. Although the police easily gained access to the building briefly after the occupation began, the administration insisted on hearing out the protesters’ demands, thus leading to a twelve-hour standoff in which an estimated 3,800 students were not allowed to attend classes-including many of my close friends.

Of course, the demonstrators have every right to express their frustration in a peaceful manner following the university’s reasonable, First-Amendment-compliant rules. Indeed, there had been several rallies in the preceding days in which their grievances were aired in a lawful fashion. However, by occupying a university building, subsequently damaging property, and denying thousands of students access to their paid education, the protesters went too far.

Legitimate exercise of the freedom of expression, after all, does not include disrupting classes or events, physical violence, or property destruction. Perhaps Oliver Wendell Holmes explained the limit of free expression best when he said, “The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.” People are free to exhibit their anger in nonverbal ways up until the point where it interferes with the rights of others.

Therefore, although the intent of the Wheeler Hall occupants to end tuition hikes may have been noble, the vehicle through which they expressed their demands was not. In my experience, the failure of Berkeley’s administration and political activists is that they often confuse the two. As a result of this misunderstanding, any movement that claims to have good intentions (or is deemed as such by the administration) is essentially given a green light to violate campus rules and even state laws. Thus, civil libertarianism at Berkeley has often evolved into libertinism, as demonstrated through several events following the Wheeler Hall occupation.

For example, less than two weeks after the occupation, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s house was attacked when 40 to 75 protesters overturned plants, broke windows, and threw lit torches at police. “My wife and I genuinely feared for our lives,” recalled the Chancellor. Sadly, this is just one example of lawlessness. In February of this year, more than 200 rioters took to the streets of Berkeley, vandalizing private businesses, burning public property, and even hurling dumpsters at police. Berkeley’s student newspaper, The Daily Californian, captured the riot in this chilling video.

Unfortunately, Berkeley’s confusion about the limit of expression has morphed into some lawless protesters’ illiberal acceptance of violence as a means of activism. Such reckless actions do not promote freedom of speech but hinder it. How, after all, can two parties have a true exchange of ideas when one side is threatening violence? To be fair, the demonstrators who committed the illegal acts are a minority of the larger protest movement and are unrepresentative of the whole. However, this fact does not excuse the acceptance of lawlessness as a method of expression by many administrators, students, and protesters.

As a California Golden Bear, I am proud of my university’s history of open discourse. In practically everything, my college experience at Berkeley thus far has been everything I expected and more. I am unafraid to admit that I genuinely love my college. Yet, love is not equivalent to blind devotion. I recognize the faults in my school and urge it to change- partly because it is in my self-interest. The free exchange of ideas cannot survive where there is also a free exchange of fists. Until my university fully comprehends this principle, free speech will continue to be chilled by lawlessness at Berkeley.

Unfortunately, on the 28th of June, 2010 the Supreme Court announced a 5-4 ruling which undermines the freedom of association on campus.  FIRE’s announcement explains the impact this ruling has for student groups on college campuses:

“In a blow to freedom of association and religious liberty on campus, a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that a public university may require its student organizations to admit any student as a voting member or officer, regardless of whether that student openly disagrees with or is even hostile to the group’s fundamental beliefs.”

It is important to consider “the rights of expressive campus organizations to form around shared beliefs and for the principle that the College Democrats have the right to be Democrats, the College Atheists have the right to be atheists, and the College Christians have the right to be Christians,” as stated by FIRE President Greg Lukianoff.  As students of liberty, we know that ideas matter.  Especially on college campuses, supposedly an open forum of ideas, students should be able to organize themselves to advance whatever ideas they hold.

A university’s ‘accept all comers’ policy casts student groups like the Christian Legal Society off campus and diminishes the diversity of viewpoints that are supposed to be hallmarks of our public universities.  It is imperative that we stand up for the rights of all student groups, whether we agree with their ideas or not.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education runs a fantastic incentive program for students in their Campus Freedom Network.  Particpating students earn points for using FIRE’s resources and spreading the message of free speech on campus.  Activists recieve rewards ranging from nalgene bottles to flat screen TVs and smart phones.

This year’s list of top winners features two Students For Liberty stalwarts, both leaders of the Drexel Student Liberty Front (SFL’s Group of the Year).  The third place winner is Pericles Niarchos, former President of the Studnet Liberty Front and now member of Students For Liberty’s Executive Board.  For his efforts he recieved a 16GB iPod Touch.

Stacy Litz: FIRE's Grand Prize Winner, Drexel Studnet Liberty Front President, Studnets For Liberty Group of the Year, Drexel Student Life Studnet of the Year, and Students For Liberty Campus Coordinator. Yes, her level of activity puts us all to shame.

The Grand Prize winner is Stacy Litz, current President of the Student Liberty Front and a Students For Liberty Campus Coordinator for the upcoming year.  From FIRE’s news release announcing the winners:

Stacy worked with Pericles to organize Drexel’s Student Liberty Front “Students Rights Week” to educate her fellow students about free speech on campus. Later in the fall, Stacy penned an op-ed in Drexel’s student paper, The Triangle, calling on Drexel to rescind its yellow-light speech codes, which threaten free speech on campus. She wrote,

“It’s time to show the world that Drexel is really “up and coming” and that it is progressive in the sense that it protects students’ rights and allows them the freedom that they need to succeed as scholars.”

Stacy also has been active on the CFN’s social network, recruiting new students to CFN membership. In recognition of her outstanding work and dedication to liberty, Stacy will receive a technology bundle including an HDTV, a Macbook, an iPod Touch, and an HD Flip camera. Stacy also will be inducted into the CFN’s Prometheus Society.

Congratulations to Stacy, Pericles, and everyone who participated in FIRE’s CFN Incentive Program. You can learn more about them and all the winners here: http://www.thefire.org/article/11948.html.

Want to be in the running for these fantstic prizes next year?  Then learn more about FIRE’s Campus Freedom Network here: http://www.thecfn.org/.

Here is the full schedule of events:

Do you know your civil rights?
Monday, May 3
Join a constitutional expert and the Goucher Firearm Safety and Awareness Club for a discussion on the civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution, particularly Second Amendment rights.

Do you know your student rights?
Tuesday, May 4
The following panelists will discuss Goucher students’ rights: Tommy Lane, Goucher security community relations coordinator; Zeke Berzoff-Cohen, SGA president for the 2007-2008 school year and founder of the Student’s Bill of Rights; and Luke Sheahan, director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s Campus Freedom Network.

Do you know how to handle police encounters?
Wednesday, May 5
There will be a screening of the film BUSTED, which illustrates the right and wrong ways to handle common police encounters and how people can protect their rights and themselves. Created by Flex Your Rights, an educational civil rights nonprofit, and narrated by retired ACLU Director Ira Glasser, BUSTED .

Do you know your local rights?
Thursday, May 6
Maryland Del. Joseph C. Boteler III (R), District 8, will discuss citizens’ rights in Maryland and the state’s Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Do you know your rights as a woman?
Friday, May 7
Join students; faculty members; and Jeannette Hadfield, director of student health and counseling services, for a brown-bag lunch discussion about women and sexual rights on campus.

The Goucher Republicans and Libertarians also took the opportunity to pass out educational materials such as FIRE handbooks and Pocket Constitutions from the Cato Institute.  Now Cameron Jernigan is building on this success to found another student group at Goucher to spread the ideas of liberty.  You can learn more about it here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=126616914015348

Today, friend of Students For Liberty and FIRE President Greg Lukianoff kicked off the new HuffPo college section with his article Is College Censorship Destroying Our Society’s “Sophistication Machine”? In it he explains that the biggest challenge facing higher education today is not a lack of state funding but the often oppressive intellectual atmosphere on college campuses created by speech codes and other forms of censorship:

In my opinion, higher education is supposed to work as a sort of “sophistication machine” for our society. That is, it is supposed to help us produce a citizenry with a deep, nuanced, complex, and multifaceted understanding of the issues confronting our nation and world. Many critics of higher education point to ideological imbalance within the faculty, grade inflation and diminishing academic rigor, or the increased corporatization of the university as factors that prevent it from fulfilling this crucial function. These are all problems worth investigating. But I believe the most important factor interfering with the success and credibility of higher education is the continuing maintenance of campus speech codes and other policies and practices designed to discourage and even punish free speech and meaningful dissent.

Read the whole article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-lukianoff/is-college-censorship-des_b_485376.html

While the academy is supposed to be the heart of open intellectual discourse, we students of liberty know this is often not the case.  The intellectual atmosphere on campus is commonly one of group think and ostracization for those who dare to question the orthodoxy.   That is why the mission of the student movement for liberty is so critical.  If the faculty and administrators will not embrace an open dialogue, then it is up to us to bring the ideas of liberty to the forefront.  It is our mission to show our fellow students that liberty is not a fringe idea that can be brushed aside, but an intellectually strong and rigorous philosophy that must be taken seriously.

As the Huffington Post’s expansion of college coverage shows, there rest of the world is beginning to pay attention to these issues.  Now it is up to us to ensure that when others look at our universities they see communities where the ideas of liberty thrive.

Anyone who has been through freshman orientation knows what a brainwashing experience it can be. Administrators and counselors spend days lecturing incoming students on what they cannot say on campus, what the campus police are allowed to do at their whim, and the many ways that students are supposed to conform to the university’s will.

We students who believe in liberty, though, think freshmen need to hear the other side of the story.  Students need to know that the US Constitution gives them rights that do not end at the entryway to the ivory tower, that freedom of speech is paramount in higher education and there are limits to police power.  That is why SFL will be sponsoring the first ever Students Rights Week.  We invite all pro-liberty student groups across the country to join us in this important venture to make known what rights students have on campus.

We will provide the materials. You put them in the hands of students at your university by flyering the campus, setting up a table in the public square, bringing in a speaker, and hosting a movie night. Available resources include:

• Pocket Constitutions
• Fliers, sign-up sheets, and other marketing materials
• A DVD of Indoctrinate U for movie night
• Free Indoctrinate U t-shirts
• Free books and information from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
• A Students Rights Week “How To” guide
• A list of available speakers who specialize in free speech and student rights

Students Rights Week will be the first week of school on every campus, ideally after new student orientation has occurred. The motto is “You’ve learned their rules, now learn your rights!” Not only is this a chance to educate your campus about students rights, but it is an opportunity to spread word about your organization and recruit new members.

Click here to learn more.

If you are interested in joining students across the U.S. by hosting a Students Rights Week on your campus, email Clark Ruper at cruper@studentsforliberty.org.