EUGENE, Ore. ÷ When a group of students camped at Johnson Hall in April 2000 to protest the University of Oregon's resistance to joining the Worker Rights Consortium, nobody told them they were outside their "free-speech zone." Nobody told them they must move to a remote part of campus. In fact, it seemed they recognized only one free-speech zone: everywhere.

Two years later, free-speech advocates and administration officials around the country are weighing in on what may be an extensive First Amendment battle.

The fight is over "free-speech zones": small, often remote locations on some university campuses that are designated for free speech. The conflict begins when students are restricted to these locations to protest, demonstrate or speak.

The free-speech zones also raise an important question for opponents: Are the rest of these campuses "censorship zones?"

Many universities are either adopting new free-speech zone policies or enforcing old rules; however, it is unclear when the idea for free-speech zones first arose. Some newspapers report that they were created in the 1960s to control student activism, while others say it was in the 1980s.