Billy Ayers, a former FBI fugitive, urged students to inform themselves about the world, to take political stands and find effective tactics to communicate their views effectively Thursday.

Ayers related different strategies for social change to his experiences protesting the Vietnam War and his book “Fugitive Days: A Memoir,” where he reflects on the decisions he made as a protester.

As the Vietnam War progressed, Ayers said he used different forms of communication to take a stand against a war he believed to be “illegal and immoral.” He discussed persuasion, agitation and terrorism as tactics of social change.

He said one of the most important aspects of speaking out politically was to “speak to be heard, not just to look cool” and to “listen with the possibility of being changed.”

Though he stressed that discussion about social, political or economic problems was a “very effective way of communicating,” it was important to consider the impact of protest action. He said damaging property as a form of protest was “often foolish, unless it had a definite reason.”

Ayers was president of the Michigan Chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s, a group that used persuasive tactics to sway the majority of Americans against the Vietnam War. In 1965, when the majority of Americans were against the war when SDS and other groups used persuasive tactics like knocking door-to-door, passing out flyers, writing letters to editors and holding demonstrations to bring the number of Vietnam protesters into the majority in just three years.

Other reasons for the sway in opinions, Ayers said, included help from the civil rights movement and the large number of veterans returning home with “horrendous war stories.”

When the peaceful efforts of SDS to end the war seemed to fail, Ayers broke off from the group to form The Weathermen, which used more radical and agitating communication tactics. The group began building and detonating bombs to blow up statues and other attention-getting projects to gain support.

Though The Weathermen were accused of detonating a bomb inside a restroom in the Pentagon and attempting to bomb soldiers at a dance, Ayers defended the groups actions.

“We didn’t think of ourselves as terrorists, but as combating (terrorism),” he said.

Ayers, who was raised in Chicago, described himself as “one privileged boy waking up and stepping out of his comfort zone and stepping into a world of flames.”

“I believe that none of us a can achieve full humanity if we don’t exile ourselves again and again from the comfort of our lives,” he said.

He told students to inform themselves about the world, events and policies implemented by our government and to “open your eyes, wake up and take a political stand.”