The University of North Dakota may ban petition drives and other campus solicitations during its "welcome weekend" for students preparing for the fall term, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said.

The question arose in August after Roland Riemers, North Dakota's Libertarian candidate for governor, was ordered off campus property. Riemers and a companion were asking for petition signatures to put the Libertarian presidential candidate, Michael Badnarik, on North Dakota's November ballot.

Riemers had set up a table in front of the Hancock residence hall, in an area known as the Walsh Quad. His van was parked nearby, bedecked with Libertarian signs, and a pro-Libertarian message played over a loudspeaker.

A campus police officer told Riemers to leave, and said he would be arrested for criminal trespass if he declined, a UND report says.

Riemers moved to a nearby public sidewalk alongside University Avenue, after telling the officer his free-speech rights were being violated, and that he would sue.

Before the four-day "welcome weekend" began Aug. 20, two university vice presidents, Robert Boyd and Robert Gallager, sent a memo to student organizations, telling them solicitations would not be allowed during the period.

"By eliminating recruitment and solicitation from the first week of school, we allow new students to become familiar with their surrounding and comfortable with college life," the memo says.

Rep. Eliot Glassheim, D-Grand Forks, asked Stenehjem for a legal opinion on whether UND could restrict speech during student orientation. Stenehjem's opinion, issued Wednesday, said he believed the ban did not violate constitutional free-speech guarantees.

The prohibition "is narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest, and may be lawfully applied so long as ample alternative channels of communication are open," Stenehjem wrote.

In an interview, Stenehjem said the university held an event a week later specifically for organizations to recruit students, which was open to political activists such as Riemers.

UND requires individuals or groups to notify the school's scheduling office and fill out a form before holding an event on campus. Julie Ann Evans, the school's general counsel, said Riemers did neither.

Stenehjem's opinion also says that UND buildings and grounds that are normally available for public use may be used "as a public forum for free speech … subject to reasonable, content-neutral time, place and manner regulations."