“The student movement for liberty has grown dramatically … to the point that it is a vibrant part of campus life these days, and people are starting to notice it.”
The school year is in full swing, which means that Students For Liberty (SFL) is running at full steam to introduce students to the ideas of liberty (especially the millions of freshmen who just started their collegiate careers).
There is good news: the statists are running scared, and we are succeeding.
You may often hear reports from full of dire warnings about Marxist professors trying to indoctrinate classrooms, hostile university bureaucracies inhibiting student organizing, and restrictions on free speech that cause a chilling effect on open discourse. [Editor note: many have experienced progressivist professors either ignoring or dismissing pro-freedom thinkers and arguments.]
These threats to liberty still exist, but to be honest with you they are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
What matters is that Students For Liberty is growing, that libertarianism is becoming the dominant force on campuses around the world.
Here are just a few of our plans for the 2014/15 school year to highlight the impact we’re having:
Growth
When we started SFL in 2008, there were less than 50 pro-liberty student groups in the world, less than 10 of us in SFL’s leadership, we organized one conference for 100 students, and could only distribute a minimal number of resources to the groups in our network.
The student movement for liberty has grown dramatically since then, to the point that it is a vibrant part of campus life these days, and people are starting to notice it.
To read more about how SFL is gaining ground right now, please check my SFL bimonthly memo.
This Year
SFL is poised to have a greater impact this year than ever before, but we need your help to do so. Students have the passion, time, and energy to promote liberty. But they need the resources and support to make a difference.
SFL just ran 9 conferences for 1,170 students in 1 day this past Saturday. In fact, we are running 21 conferences in the US and Canada this fall, as well as our 8th Annual International SFL Conference in Washington, DC from February 13-15, 2015, where we are expecting over 1,300 attendees (see www.isflc.org). If you can join us for any of these conferences, we’d love to have you there to see why there should be great optimism for the future of liberty.
The statists are scared and liberty is on the rise, but there is much to do for a new generation. Please join us to build the student movement for liberty for a freer future.
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Alexander McCobin is cofounder and president of Students For Liberty (Facebook page here).
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APPENDIX: Q&A on SFL
1) What is SFL’s mission?
SFL’s mission is to provide a unified, student-driven forum of support for students and student organizations dedicated to liberty.
2) What does SFL stand for? What does liberty mean?
Students For Liberty is an organization that supports liberty. SFL does not dictate the foundations upon which individuals justify their belief in liberty. Rather, Students For Liberty embraces the diversity of justifications for liberty and encourages debate and discourse on the differing philosophies that underlie liberty. What Students For Liberty endorses are the principles that comprise liberty:
3) Does SFL support political parties, candidates, or legislation?
No. SFL is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. As such, we do not endorse any political party, political candidates, or legislation.
4) Is SFL a membership-based organization?
No. SFL does not utilize a strict membership model where people sign up for SFL each year. Nor does SFL have chapters or mini-SFL’s on campus that take orders from a national office. Our model is more akin to a coalition. SFL is an external organization that provides tangible support for pro-liberty student organizations.
We work with a diversity of student organizations across the many ideological positions within the philosophy of liberty. These include the campus Students For Liberty groups, College Libertarians, small “l” libertarian associations, economics clubs, Objectivist societies, Austrian Economics reading groups, Students for Individual Liberty clubs, and any other name that students dedicated to liberty adopt.
5) How can a college student. How can I get involved with SFL?
Since SFL is not a membership-based organization, the answer to this question is not as simple as saying “pay your dues.” There are various ways that you can get involved.
6) Does SFL work with other nonprofit organizations?
Yes! SFL works with a variety of other nonprofit organizations dedicated to promoting liberty. These include student-directed support organizations, think tanks, student associations, academic institutions, and many others.
7 ) What makes SFL different from other pro-liberty nonprofit organizations that support students? What makes SFL different from other student political organizations?
There are many strategies for promoting liberty, each of which is effective and important in the overall pro-liberty movement. Recognizing that there is no single strategy to support students and promote liberty, SFL is dedicated to carving out a niche in the cause of liberty that complements the work of other organizations and utilizes our comparative advantage. What makes SFL truly unique is our focus on effectively promoting the philosophy of liberty on campus.