For a chance to win $2,500, submit your take on the campus speech debate to the Charles Koch Institute’s first annual Prize for American Free Speech essay contest by Nov. 24th.

“Help me get this reporter out of here. I need some muscle over here.”

Who would have guessed 20 years ago that this quote was not from an overbearing administrator or an angry cop but a protesting professor on a college campus? Whether reflective of campus justice advocates taking the call for safe spaces too far, or symbolic of a major rift between on-campus activists and the mainstream media, this is not a state of affairs one would have predicted back when student protests and press freedom were part and parcel of the same movement. Times, they have a-changed.

With students calling for an administrator’s resignation over an email at Yale, and protesters at the University of Missouri shutting out a reporter with the above quote, the debate over free speech on campus has reached a fever pitch in the past week. Media pundits are commenting away, but news outlets often get the nuances of campus culture wrong, or they look at students as a unified mass rather than individuals with a wide variety of opinions on these events.

Now, more than ever, it’s critical that student voices are heard.

Like the Young Americans for Liberty group at Mizzou who kept their free speech wall up in the hopes of “promoting productive dialogue,” pro-liberty students know that in order to get through this heated – but critical – national debate over the purpose of academia, race, and the future of American society, we need to keep the lines of communications open to all perspectives.

To help promote this discussion (and for a chance to win $2,500), submit your take on the importance of free speech on campus to the Charles Koch Institute’s first annual Prize for American Free Speech essay contest. CKI is looking for the best essay, 500 words or fewer, on the following question:

“What is the importance of free speech to a flourishing society?”

Students should submit their essays by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, November 24, 2015, to be eligible to win a top prize of $2,500 and possible assistance with publication. The winning essay will be announced on January 4, 2016.

• First Prize: $2,500
• Second Prize: $1,000
• Third Prize: $500

Please see the official contest rules for additional information on how to take part in what may be the most important conversation of your college career.