Glenn Beck recently addressed Ann Coulter’s appearance at ISFLC, and at first attempted to judge whether or not she was right in suggesting that libertarians focus too much attention on drug legalization. However, the segment soon turned into a criticism of the libertarian movement’s openness to so-called outsiders. Beck pleaded with libertarians to be more open to those who don’t necessarily share a complete commitment to individual liberty, free markets, and peace. Beck believes that without openness and compromise that libertarianism will languish without influence on the future of American politics.
First, it’s important to point out that Students For Liberty is a very open organization. Unlike student organizations of the past who have issued sweeping statements about specific policies and goals (see the Port Huron and Sharon statements), SFL merely identifies social, economic, and academic freedom as the principles which comprise our belief in liberty, while we make explicit that “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.” Let us not allow Beck to label SFL as an exclusive club. We provide resources to groups of all stripes whether they be explicitly libertarian groups, Objectivists, or single-issue like drug legalization, LGBT rights, or gun rights. Also, our regional conferences are free and open to anyone to attend. (more…)
This Friday students from around the world will descend upon Washington, DC for the 6th annual International Students For Liberty Conference. The conference promises to bring together the leading experts in the movement, but also the most promising student leaders who have a passion and devotion to actively advancing liberty on campus. North American student leaders of liberty have an exciting opportunity to attend an information session which will fully detail SFL’s Campus Coordinator Program. SFL’s Campus Coordinator Program is the premiere program for community organizing for liberty on college campuses. SFL Campus Coordinators (CCs) are tasked with growing the student movement for liberty in their area in both quality and quantity. This highly competitive program seeks out strong student leaders to spread the ideas of a free society from the grassroots level by starting new pro-liberty student groups, organizing events to promote the ideas of liberty, providing resources for student groups and identifying and mentoring other pro-liberty students.
Students interested in this opportunity are highly encouraged to attend the Campus Coordinator informational session during the ISFLC this weekend. The info session will take place on Saturday evening during the dinner period from 6:15-6:45 PM in Franklin Square, a room in the conference space. Current SFL Campus Coordinators will be sharing their experiences in the program and fielding questions from prospective applicants.
For further information about the program and to apply, click here.
Students For Liberty is thrilled to announce that the application for the 2013-2014 Campus Coordinator Program is now open!
The Campus Coordinator Program has been the driving force behind SFL’s growth over the past three years. A Campus Coordinator (CC) is a student leader with three main objectives: to assist student groups in their region, to establish new student groups, to find and mentor new pro-liberty students, and to assist with SFL regional conferences.
The current class is the third to go through the Campus Coordinator Program with 70 students from 21 different states and Canada. This is a substantial increase in leadership from the inaugural year, 2010-2011, which had 21. The CC Program has been an incredible factor for SFL’s significant growth this past year, and with more CCs in 2013-2014, we intend to reach even more students and continue to spread the message of free markets and individual liberty by providing SFL’s high quality resources and conferences to new regions. As we often say, we have not yet come close to finding all the pro-liberty students out there.
Members of the CC Program will work with the Campus Coordinator Manager and Regional Directors of the SFL executive board to establish and implement outreach strategies that are tailored to the unique environment the CC is responsible for. This is a fantastic opportunity for young leaders who enjoy meeting new people, organizing events, and actively advancing liberty to find new allies in spreading the cause. If you have already achieved success on your campus and want to take your activism to the next level, then this is the program for you. SFL firmly believes that college is the ideal time and place to spark a love of individual liberty and economic freedom, and CCs are a prime force for igniting that passion.
Consider a story that Brian Doherty tells in his masterful Radicals for Capitalism. Frank Chodorov, a father of the modern libertarian movement, understood well the crucial role students will play in advancing liberty. Doherty explains, “Chodorov’s strategy for social change was a populist variant of the Hayekian model, aimed at changing the minds of the next generation of thought leaders, college students. (Chodorov thought it was already too late for the faculty.) The intellectual and political victories of the planning mentality in the United States were caused, Chodorov maintained, by student groups advocating socialism in the early twentieth century, capturing students’ attention by adopting an aura of idealism, radicalism, and pacifism. The individualist counterrevolution would have to do the same, assiduously planting individualist thought in the mind of the young, slowly turning the wheels that would change the world’s direction away from collectivism, toward individualism. A return to cultural individualism could take another fifty years or more, he realized.” Those fifty years have come, and it is time to move forward with the infrastructure that has been strategically put in place by past radicals for liberty.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis but space is limited. Interested students are encouraged to attend the 2013 International Students For Liberty Conference to meet the current class of CCs and leadership. During June and July incoming CCs will receive training via webinars. This training will culminate with an all expenses paid three-day retreat in Washington DC from July 20-22.
In the coming fall and spring semesters, SFL Campus Coordinators will organize various “forums for freedom” in different regions throughout North America. The forums serve as a clearinghouse for the exchange of best practices and the development of leadership skills within the student movement for liberty. While the Students For Liberty regional conferences are an excellent opportunity to hear from top speakers and learn about new pro-liberty ideas, the forums serve the purpose of facilitating an informal environment in which to network with other student leaders and learn from their successes and failures of organizing for liberty. (more…)
