In early spring of 2019, University of Maine chapter president Dylan Oliver contacted YAL’s Director of Free Speech to discuss the impromptu “Free Speech Zone” that had been set up by the university before a big speaking event. This was a perfect example of how schools use free speech zones as well as other methods to intentionally curb students’ expression; in this case, keeping any counter-protest to a speaker far away from anyone who could hear it.

Although this free speech zone was never sanctioned by any official school policy, Oliver and YAL’s Free Speech Director discovered a separate policy that also inhibited free expression. They decided to approach the school to both change the official policy and address the temporary free speech zones that had appeared earlier in the year. Oliver and his chapter at UMaine held massive free speech events on campus calling on the school to change their unconstitutional policies. One of these free speech days was attended by Senatorial Candidate Eric Brakey.

In October 2019, Oliver and YAL’s DFS reached out to FIRE to obtain a policy memo for Oliver to deliver to the school outlining the extent of the school’s constitutional violations. Using this memo as leverage, Oliver and his chapter members were able to meet with school officials several times between the months of October – December, and were finally able to secure a guarantee from the school that UMaine would adopt Constitutionally compliant free speech zones. After much diligent work from Oliver as well as FIRE’s Policy Reform department, the school announced on February 26, 2020 that the policies had changed.