History

The origins of Students For Liberty can be traced back to the summer of 2007 when several students in the Institute for Humane Studies Koch Summer Fellowship got together on July 24th to hold a roundtable discussion about best practices for student organizations dedicated to liberty.  Many members of the fellowship were involved in campus organizations and used the forum to share successes and failures in their organizations for the sake of learning from others’ experiences.  After the successful roundtable, Alexander McCobin and Sloane Frost teamed up to take the success of this roundtable to the next level, to create a conference to pro-liberty students to meet and share best practices on organizing for liberty.

Alexander and Sloane began to outline the conference and develop a proposal for a modest, 40 person conference exclusively for students from the northeast. Two other fellows were soon recruited to join the venture as well, Pin-Quan Ng and Sam Eckman. When the summer fellowship ended and the school year began, the conference’s growth led to the induction of Richard Tracy to the Executive Board. As more time went on, the size and expectations of the conference grew. Students from the west coast and internationally contacted the Executive Board about attending the conference. As well, the foremost figures of liberty were brought on as speakers at the conference, showing true excitement at the prospect of speaking to a group of students for no financial compensation.

The Students for Liberty Conference was held at Columbia University from February 22-24, 2008.100 students from 42 schools as far west as California and as far east as Ukraine attended with many more non-students attending lectures alongside students.  This was in spite of the fact that on the morning of February 22, a terrible snow storm hit the northeast, causing countless students’ travel plans to fall through. But even though roads were dangerous, flights were canceled, and trains delayed, the students persevered, finding innovative travel methods and routes to attend the conference.

The conference was a tremendous success and led the Executive Board to decide that a conference was not enough. Inspired by this proof of enthusiasm, the Executive Board announced on the last day that the Students for Liberty Conference would be transformed into the Students For Liberty, an organization to provide year-round support for students.

Since then, Students For Liberty has undergone an incredible transformation.A distinguished list of scholars signed on to the Board of Advisors.The Executive Board has attracted more passionate student leaders for liberty, and SFL now has six full-time staff members.Partner organizations are working with Students For Liberty to provide as many resources to students as possible.SFL has the potential to transform the educational system and with such incredible momentum behind us, we are sure it will happen.

(The founding Executive Board of the Students for Liberty Conference.From left to right, Alexander McCobin, Sloane Frost, Richard Tracy, Sam Eckman, and Pin-Quan Ng.)