An often overlooked way to get students on your campus involved in the mission to change your campus speech codes is to write op-eds and letters-to-the-editor. Most campuses have at least one campus newspaper if not many. An easy way to let students know about the problems on campus is to write about them and explain why the particular issue is a problem for your campus.

Things to keep in mind while writing your letter:

Be concise - when in doubt, write less. Students are so busy with homework, sports, jobs and extracurricular activities that they often do not have time for a lengthy explanation of why a particular college policy is worth fighting. Make your letter brief and to the point. It has a much better chance of being read.

Understand the policy - make sure that you really understand why the policy is unconstitutional. You don't want to misstate the case against the policy. It will make you look uninformed and will hurt your effort to change the policy. Don't hesitate to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for any assistance with this.

Use examples - to highlight a particularly egregious problem on your campus, it is often helpful to show examples of how similar cases have gone awry at other campuses. Often, satire is a useful tool. By making light of the policies, you can help people realize how ridiculously dangerous to free speech these policies really are. Oftentimes you will be pointing out the problems with a policy whose deficiencies are often not public because disciplinary records are private. Craft an "imagine if ..." narrative for your readers to explain how the policy could go wrong. If your school's policy bans "offensive or insulting jokes," then you could point out that many common jokes would be outlawed. And while a sharply worded "yo mamma" joke might be offensive, that doesn't mean students should be banned from making them. Or in the case of a restrictive free speech zone which requires 48 hours notice before any protest can be held, you could use the example of September 11th. Imagine, you might write, that students had wanted to hold a campus memorial on that day or hold a rally. Under the school's policy, such an act would have been effectively impossible. If you need help coming up with examples, contact FIRE and we may be able to provide a few from previous FIRE cases.

Make it personal - the more you can make the issue hit home for the reader, the better. You don't want to spend all the time crafting this letter only for students to brush it off or not understand how the issue impacts them. Make sure you explain how terrible it would be to be investigated under an unconstitutional sexual harassment code for protected speech or have no way to demonstrate for a cause that means a lot to them because of a restrictive free speech zone.

Inspire action - considering how busy most students are, it is important not to leave them excited but without an outlet. Be sure to close your letter with some ideas on what they can do to help out. Depending on the type of people on your campus (and you know your classmates best) you can suggest things like writing letters to the college president or board of trustees, encourage them to join a Facebook group or email list serve to discuss the issue in more depth, or invite them to a protest you are holding.

Also, your community paper will likely be interested in stories about your campus. That said, depending on the community and the size of the paper, it may be more difficult to get local papers to include your letter. So, even if you cannot get your letter to the editor published, you can always inform the local media of any events you are hosting on campus, such as a lecture or a protest.  (Visit our speaker's page to learn more about hosting a FIRE speaker.)

Obviously not all students read the campus papers, but the ones that do are likely to be among the most involved on campus. Since engaged students are your target audience anyway, an op-ed can often be an effective tool. The other benefit is that alumni often stay in touch with their alma mater through the student newspaper, so an article on your school polices might be their only way of finding out that something is amiss at your school.