The University of British Columbia's Alma Mater Society says a clause intended to protect Olympic sponsors on campus could end up being used unfairly against critics of the 2010 Games.

VANOC has imposed a clause on contracts for students renting housing at UBC against the improper use of sponsoring brands of the 2010 Olympic Games.

The university is home to one of the official venues for the 2010 Games, the $50-million Winter Sports Centre where ice hockey and figure skating will be held.

VANOC says the clause in question is necessary because sponsors paying hundreds of millions of dollars to help build the venues of the 2010 Games are promised that the integrity of their brands will be protected.

UBC's Alma Mater Society is calling the clause a threat to free speech and wants it removed from renting contracts.

Timothy Chu of the AMS says that the wording of the clause is too loose and students could be evicted from their suites for expressing ideas contrary to the interests of the 2010 Games. He even takes it one step further, saying that the university could use this in the future to punish students "for their political beliefs."

UBC's spokesperson Stephen Owen says that the reason to enforce this clause is so that "if students or any other tenants of the university are within sightline of the Olympic site they will not put up false or unauthorized commercial advertising."

UBC officials assert that the clause is only intended to protect official Olympic sponsors and refuse to scrap or amend the appendix in the residence contracts.

David Eby of B.C.'s Civil Liberties Association agrees with the AMS view. He says that VANOC may be going too far in its attempt to protect the reputation of the 2010 Games.

"We're concerned about a trend more broadly that during Olympics there is a crackdown on free expression," Eby said.

B.C.'s CLA has also raised concerns over the recent announcement that VANOC wants to assign protest areas or "free speech zones" during the February 2010 Games. The group sees this as another attempt by the Olympic Organizing Committee to minimize any criticism of the 2010 Games.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber