Allison Jaynes was a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and president of the College Libertarians club. Allison’s group had repeatedly attempted to hold campus events, only to be told that they must confine their events to the school’s tiny free speech zones. As Allison explained at the Campus Freedom Network’s 2008 summer conference, UNCG’s free speech zones consisted of two tiny lots "and one was mostly paved and had a big dumpster on it. So that’s what you get. You want to speak freely, go over there by the dumpster.” To makes things worse, the free speech zone also required a reservation two days in advance.

The Campus Libertarians quickly found the restrictive policies to be cumbersome. Considering the lack of support they had received from the administration and their knowledge of the UNCG campus, they decided that the easiest way to garner attention for the situation would be to hold a protest. They chose to hold a protest near but not in one of the free speech zones in order to expose how ridiculous and arbitrary the restrictions really were. They advertised the event ahead of time and made sure to invite the local media. At the protest they displayed banners and disseminated flyers and petitions demanding that the school reform its policies. The morning of the protest, college police officers and student life administrators confronted them and demanded that the group move to the free speech zone. They were informed that if they went ahead with the protest they would be arrested. Allison’s group respectfully refused to oblige—citing the First Amendment—and continued to host their peaceful protest without incident.

A few days later Allison and another student were charged with violating the student code of conduct, specifically a "violation of Respect,” for refusing an order to stop their protest. They quickly contacted FIRE, which wrote to UNCG Chancellor Patricia Sullivan and then to UNC System General Counsel Leslie Winner, explaining that UNCG’s blanket restrictions on speech outside of the "free speech zones” are contrary to the First Amendment. FIRE also reminded UNCG that it had defeated similar policies at Texas Tech University, West Virginia University, and Citrus College in California.

Following FIRE’s involvement, the charges were dropped and Allison was even invited to help rewrite the school’s policies. As FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said at the time, "It’s about time that UNCG realized the error of its ways. Punishing students for having the courage to protest the university’s unconstitutional rules would have been an exercise in tyranny.” The result of Allison’s efforts was that UNCG went from a campus where less than 1 percent of the campus was safe for free expression to a campus where more than 95 percent of areas are open. The only remaining restrictions regard blocking the streets and standing too close to buildings, which Allison describes as very reasonable. "I feel like it was a great victory and students there now have free speech if they choose to exercise it,” she said.

At the 2008 CFN Summer Conference, Allison offered a number of tips for students who might be considering similar efforts to oppose their college’s unconstitutional or illiberal policies.

Consider your message – Before launching a protest, consider all the elements that you will need to prepare and how you plan to execute the event. For example, the point of the UNCG protest was to expose the ridiculousness of the school’s free speech zones, which is why they decided to hold the protest right next to an existing zone. Before staging something similar, you should consider what your goals are and how to best articulate your message.

Publicize – Allison’s group told their story to local media and invited them to attend the protest. As she explained, free speech is strongly supported by members of the press and the public so it is often easy to get local journalists interested in your cause. Allison and others also distributed flyers around campus to advertise the event and to encourage students and faculty to come out and join them. They also contacted student life officials and university police the night before the event and explained what they would be doing. As Allison explained, "You actually want them to know you’re doing this. You don’t want this to slip under the radar.”

Come prepared – Allison stressed that it’s also important to have literature available at the protest itself. As she put it, "You can't have a protest and just stand there.” She pointed out that it is important to let people know why you are protesting, why they should care and how they can help. Along with flyers, Allison's group also had banners with phrases like "UNCG Hates Free Speech”. "You want to be a bit inflammatory,” Allison explained, "because you want the university to get upset with you.” The flyers and banners served as a call to action along with petitions demanding reform of the free speech zone policy for students and faculty to sign.

Build a coalition – Allison also stressed that as many people from as many diverse groups and affiliations should be represented, regardless of which group is sponsoring the protest. The point of these protests is to showcase the broad, bipartisan support that defending freedom of expression attracts. Allison cautioned that anyone who agrees to join the protest should be made aware that there might be repercussions for getting involved.

Flyers

Record everything – A protest can be a chaotic event and any number of things could happen. To be prepared, she suggested that it is important to record everything. Take pictures and record video of the protest. Doing so might come in handy in further publicizing your cause or might be crucial to your case if you get in trouble. In fact, Allison explained that they had not one but two people filming in case the first camera malfunctioned or was confiscated.

Be respectful – Allison was also very clear that it is important to be respectful to everyone on campus. Be careful not to obstruct anyone or cause more of a commotion than intended. Remember, you want the support of people on campus. Additionally, you don’t want to give administrative figures an easy excuse to disrupt your protest. On that note, be respectful but firm to authority figures who try to stop you.

Allison also cautioned students to be prepared to face the college’s PR machine and that they may be subjected to outright lies. "You will be dealing with people who don’t understand the fundamentals of the First Amendment. They don’t understand that unpopular speech is the only speech that needs protection,” she said, "You don’t need protection if you want to walk down the street saying that America is the greatest, best country on the face of the Earth.” Relating her own experiences in dealing with UNCG’s press office, "My university had the audacity to report that they were already reviewing the policy. Yeah, right.”

Document everything – When dealing with administrators, writing e-mails and letters is better than face-to-face conversations. Record meetings when possible. It is important to create a record of conversations in case your group faces any sort of discipline.

As Allison’s case demonstrates, these tactics can be successful if used correctly. Although serious reform can often take place while working cooperatively with the campus administration, sometimes it cannot. Sometimes, student activism has to take other forms, as the case at UNCG demonstrates. As Allison said at the CFN conference, “There is something we can do. If we can light a fire at these respective colleges we can get something changed, we can get something done. Ideas of freedom are extremely contagious and if we just become the sparks, this movement will catch on.”