The Young Americans for Liberty organization plans to celebrate the nationwide YAL Constitution Week by standing up for student rights.
"We have two main objectives which would be to spread the message of the liberty, and to explain the importance of the First Amendment of free speech," said Forest Warren, president of the University's chapter of YAL.
The protests, which were originally planned for the spring, began yesterday with members gathering just outside of the free speech zone next to the library from 10 a.m. - 1 pm.
"We're going to be using the free speech zone or the open air forum, as the University likes to call it--as a tool to spread the message of the importance of free speech," Warren said.
The organization is holding the protests in order to demonstrate that the free speech zones exist, because most students are unaware of them, said Cely Thompson, freshman in economics and director of communications and recruitment for the YAL.
"We're trying to spread the message that if you're restricting one group's free speech, then you're kind of throwing free speech out the window because restricting speech at all isn't free speech," Thompson said.
The concensus of YAL is that it is important for students to learn about the free speech zones because if one right is limited, the boundaries of other rights are threatened as well, Thompson said.
As far as spreading the message of liberty, Warren said the organization will be having several students dress up as Guantanamo Bay prisoners with orange jumpsuits and black bags over their heads.
Several students will be dressed in donated security guard attire as well.
He said there will also be students dressed as TSA officers in a booth made by group members to mock a TSA checkpoint.
Students will be given a convenient, pocket sized Constitution after passing through the booth.
Warren said other plans for spreading the message of liberty include meeting on the concourse Tuesday, Sept. 18 to continue the protests, even though they are still working to raise enough money for a new tent that can be used on the concourse.
The organization had planned to meet on the concourse every day of the week beginning Sept. 17, but Warren had troubles getting the plan approved by the University because of the organization's dunk booth event held on the concourse two weeks ago.
"They were giving me a little bit of what I'd like to call 'bureaucratic troubles' just because of things I had to sign up and pay for," Warren said.
Warren said the University required him to make a $100 purchase for extra insurance and that the dunk booth ended up costing about $600, which was mostly paid for by an activism grant from the Leadership Institute.
The Leadership Institute is also helping YAL to spread the message of liberty with a $750 grant to start its own newspaper to publish on campus and in the community.
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