The 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day has come and gone and in the wake of that celebration we are left contemplating what King might think of the world today.

One question that remains particularly poignant on college campuses concerns the issue of free speech. Specifically, how free is free speech, and what place does it have in a university?

NIU answered that question in 1985, when it established its first “free speech zone,” but 16 years later, a growing portion of the student body disagrees.

Because the First Amendment does not require students to meet in specified areas in order to practice free speech, many students feel the university’s policy is unjust. Since NIU’s designated free speech zone constitutes less than 1 percent of the campus, it might not even qualify.

University groups such as the Labor Rights Alliance have protested that these zones be abolished for more than five years. After corresponding with NIU legal counsel Ken Davidson on the matter since October 2004, Davidson informed the LRA in the fall of 2005 that the university “was too busy,” and that he would contact the group when they had more time to deal with the issue. The LRA since has not heard from the university regarding the issue.

NIU has restricted free speech to the small concrete area near the Holmes Student Center, made available for use only with the university’s permission. University-sponsored organizations that obtain proper permits are limited to other areas such as the King Memorial Commons, an area outside the Convocation Center and certain areas of the campus lagoon.

In 2005, two students who displayed their artwork in these zones had their pieces confiscated. One artist’s work was taken because she did not file the proper permits; another’s was removed because administrators feared signs in her piece would encourage others to deface school property.

When Vice President Dick Cheney visited NIU in September 2004, NIU police videotaped protestors who passed near the general area of the Convocation Center as well as attendees in the rally for Sen. Dick Durbin occurring in the Central Commons Park at the same time. Students and professors who attended the rally felt unsettled by the police’s intrusion.

Unfortunately, the result of our university’s free speech arrangement has been contradictory to its original principle. Precise restrictions of speech may make our campus seem more organized and safe, but they have severely limited the nature, content and impact of what they were designed to exhibit.

Not only does this strict approach to free speech create an inhibiting disposition among students, it can also generate confusion for anyone participating in, observing or, even remotely associated with campus demonstrations of any kind.

When King marched on Washington and announced “Now is the time to make the real promises of democracy,” it was clear the only way justice would be actualized was by the persistence and integrity of a concerned and dynamic people.

As a new semester at NIU begins, it is important to remember the King holiday was put in place not so we all can rest from work, but so we can remember the hard-fought goals of a man who struggled voraciously for our civil rights and, if need be, follow his example.