Student Freedom of Speech Contest

The United States Constitution provides the foundation for our republic and outlines the structures and powers of the national government. The Bill of Rights explicitly conveys the rights and liberties Americans enjoy. These are mainly expressed in terms of protection from an overzealous government. The First Amendment arguably receives the most attention with protection for citizens in five areas: religion, the press, assembly, lobbying, and possibly the most well-known, respected and revered freedom – the freedom of speech.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
- First Amendment to the US Constitution

What these rights mean in practice has ebbed and flowed over the course of history. With respect to the freedom of speech, for instance, the Supreme Court has at different times permitted the government to limit speech for different reasons.

The meaning of the First Amendment and the protections it provides are still debated today. Can the government compel speech and can schools limit a student’s speech are two recent examples.

The beauty of the First Amendment and many other elements of the Constitution is that the language is both relevant and debatable as time passes. That continues today.

As a public institution, Oakland University supports and promotes freedom of speech for students, faculty and staff.

In support of that, the Center for Civic Engagement is pleased to announce the second annual Student Freedom of Speech Contest where students are invited to submit responses that address a question about this Frist Amendment right. The winning submission will receive a $2,000 cash prize that is supported by the Walsh/Pescovitz Annual Student Free Speech Competition endowment made possible by a generous gift from President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz and Dr. Dan Walsh.

Any full-time Oakland University student is eligible to participate.

This year’s prompt is:

Should freedom of speech in the United States be absolute, or should there be limits on what is protected speech? If freedom of speech is not absolute, where are the boundaries?

Similar contests exist elsewhere and are typically limited to essays. But because freedom of expression can take many forms, we invite submissions in various formats. These include, but are not limited to:

• Essay (1000 word maximum)
• Video (5 minute maximum)
• Poem
• Audio recording (5 minute maximum)
• Drawing, painting, or some other form of artistic expression

Submissions will be evaluated using this rubric.

Submissions are due by November 1 and must be submitted via the Google Form here.

Judges this year are:

• Professor Roger Larocca, Department of Political Science
• Professor Nicole Asmussen Mathew, Department of Political Science
• Bill Horton, OU alum; attorney and member of the Board of Directors at Giarmarco, Mullins & Horton, P.C.

A note about submissions:

Rules for this contest will mirror the University’s academic conduct policy. 

All members of the academic community at Oakland University are expected to practice and uphold standards of academic integrity and honesty. Academic integrity means representing oneself and one’s work honestly. Misrepresentation is cheating since it means students are claiming credit for ideas or work not actually theirs and are thereby seeking a grade that is not actually earned. Following are some examples of academic dishonesty: cheating, plagiarism, falsifying records, and unauthorized collaboration.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

AI refers to technology that is used to perform tasks normally associated with human intelligence, such as speech, writing, and problem-solving. It includes generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, as well as the chat feature of Grammarly or Quillbot, that produce new content in response to prompts. These are powerful tools that promise to increase productivity by automating mundane tasks. However, AI tools have also proven to be unreliable, produce biased responses and hallucinate sources. Moreover, reliance on these tools in the education realm short-circuits the learning process, especially learning to write, because we learn these skills by practicing them. These reasons provide a rationale for limiting the use of generative AI in this contest. 

Note that some AI writing tools, such as Grammarly and Quillbot, include multiple features. This policy does not apply to AI-assisted grammar-check features that suggest revisions to the user’s own writing, but it does apply to features that produce new content in response to prompts. In this contest, grammar-check features are not allowed.

The following policies will apply to this contest:

• AI plagiarism is not allowed. AI plagiarism occurs when someone misrepresents AI-generated content as their own. AI plagiarism includes copying and pasting AI-generated content into your own submission without quotation marks or citation. It also includes close paraphrasing of AI content, that is, borrowing the content and structure of an AI-generated passage while making only superficial changes to the wording.

AI Policy Enforcement.

The judges for this contest may take the following steps to ensure compliance with the AI policy.

• The judges may compare students’ submissions with an AI-generated response to the prompt to check for AI plagiarism.
• The judges may use AI-detection software to red-flag submissions for further review. The judges will not rely on the results of a single AI detector as the only evidence of an AI-policy violation.
• The judges will require writing submissions to be typed in a Google Doc that is shared with the judges (use the email address: [email protected]) to corroborate that human time and effort was spent on the submission.
• The judges will use their own common sense and experience to discern what authentic college-level writing sounds like.

For more information on the Student Freedom of Speech Contest, email Dave Dulio at [email protected].