What is LibertyCal?

The LibertyCal is a compilation of pro-liberty events across the United States that are hosted by or relevant to students. Event types listed include:

Screen shot of LibertyCal

• conferences
• student group meetings
• essay contests
• application deadlines
• movie screenings
• speaker events
• socials
• book signings
• important dates in the history of the liberty movement
• and many more.

Why LibertyCal?

The purpose of the LibertyCal is to increase awareness of pro-liberty events regionally and to connect pro-liberty students with other students, non-profit organizations, and community members. Organizations that list their events in our calendar can expect increased attendance, and students no longer have to sort through hundreds of emails, Facebook events, and individual websites to find the event information they want. The LibertyCal is a hub, connecting interested students to the events that will benefit them the most.

How does it work?

The calendar is updated with new events from major non-profit organizations like The Cato Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, the American Enterprise Institute, and many of our other friends, as well as individual student groups, as soon as we discover them.

For ease, the calendar is separated into four colors: blue denotes events that are not location-specific, such as webinars, internship applications, essay contests, and some international events; green denotes events in the Eastern region of the United States; red denotes the Central region, and tan denotes the Western region. You can select to view all of the regions at once, or select only the ones relevant to you, while also shifting from monthly, weekly, and “agenda” layouts.

You can also sync the LibertyCal to you personal Google Calendar by clicking the “[+ Google Calendar]” button on the bottom right of the LibertyCal screen.

If you would like your event listed on the LibertyCal, click here to submit your event information. Any questions about individual events should be directed to the points of contact listed for that event. Questions or comments about the LibertyCal in general should be directed to the project’s manager, Brandon Wasicsko (bwasicsko@studentsforliberty.org).

Photo by Scott Stuk

In an event co-sponsored with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Arizona State University Students For Liberty brought in defense attorney Marc Victor for a “Know Your Rights” event.  The event was covered in the university’s newspaper, The State Press:

Victor said that police officers can take advantage of people’s lack of knowledge of the law. Being aware of your basic rights can be the difference between a conviction and an acquittal, he said.

ASU students picked up valuable advice from defense attorney Marc Victor, and many are excited for the Southwest Students For Liberty Regional Conference being held at ASU on October 16th.

The theme of “knowing your rights” will be continued at the conference with Jay Fleming, a former undercover narcotics officer who is now part of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.  Fleming has experience the War on Drugs from an officer’s standpoint, and attests, “The drug war I fought was not about ending drug use—it was about money and power.”

Fleming has made it his mission to speak out and expose the problems he‟s seen in the futile US policy of a “War on Drugs.”  Register today for what will surely be an interesting and exciting conference!

Learn more here: http://politicalconferences.org/2009/10/phoenix-conference-asu/

RSVP to the Facebook event and invite your friends!

The Regional Conferences serve as a local forum of support for students and non-students interested in the ideas of liberty.  They are free to attend, all you have to do is get yourself there. Three free meals and an evening social with hard and soft drinks will be provided at each conference.  These conferences are a great opportunity to meet your fellow pro-liberty students, make new connections to pro-liberty organizations, receive resources, listen to great speakers, and leave with a revitalized vision for the future of the freedom movement.

Here is the full list of conference dates and locations.  They are all one day events held on Saturdays.

• October 9 – Drexel University – Philadelphia, PA
• October 16 – University of Chicago – Chicago, IL
• October 16 – Arizona State University – Tempe, AZ
• October 23 – Columbia University – New York, NY
• October 23 – Kennesaw State University – Atlanta, GA
• October 23 – Pepperdine Univdersity – Malibu, CA
• November 6 – Harvard University – Boston, MA
• November 6 – University of California – Berkeley, CA
• November 6 – Univesity of Texas – Austin, TX

Registration is free, but space is limited.  Register today to reserve your seat, then invite your friends.

Click here to find the conference closest to you and register!

RSVP and invite your friends to the Facebook event!

“I’ve been to my share of tea party events. Let me tell you about these events. Yep, there are some disaffected Republicans there. There are always some Democrats there. Always a couple of anarchists who want to kill all of us in public office.”

Ross goes on to rebut the claim that anarchism is violent or in contradiction to the values of liberty.  It is truly amazing that a pro-liberty student is published in the Christian Science Monitor, and our cause is lucky to have an advocate that writes so eloquently:

Market anarchism is such a basic and consistent idea, an idea so in tune with the values professed by many tea partiers, that it’s only natural for anarchists to show up and challenge fellow freedom-lovers to adopt it.

I agree that a consistent philosophy that values and respects the peaceful choices of the tea partiers and their neighbors is indeed a threat to Boehner and his ilk, but not a threat of the type he claims. It’s not a death threat, it’s the threat of a pink slip.

Congratulations, Ross!

During one of our Q&A sessions, the two following statements were made by summit attendees.  Both were middle age or older.  These are rough paraphrases, but they accurately capture the tone and meaning of the exchange.

Paraphrased statement #1: “What do you mean when you say liberty?  You use that word a lot but have not defined it.  That is the problem with students; they don’t know what liberty means.  You need to define it and tell them.”

Paraphrased statement #2: “Kids today are so narcissistic.  All they care about is themselves and their smart phones.  They won’t listen to anyone, their parents or anyone else.  How can we break through that and get them to do what we need them to do.”

These quotes are very insightful for why most tea party organizers have trouble attracting students.   Many of them take a top down approach to working with young people.  They want to tell students what liberty should mean for them. They want to tell students how they should run their group, what issues they should focus on, and what policies to discuss.  They see it as a paternalistic relationship, where the old people need to tell the kids what to do.

This is completely the wrong approach for organizing and motivating students.  To borrow a line from the Fresh Prince, tea partiers just don’t understand.

The key to successful student organizing is to empower students.  Find out what they want to do, what they are passionate about, and help them do it.  This is our philosophy at Students For Liberty.

We were founded by students to provide a forum of support for their fellow students and student groups dedicated to liberty.  The full time staff works for the student Executive Board.  The student board sets the agenda based on what they know students want and then we (the staff) help them execute it.  We also take the same empowerment approach towards supporting student groups on campus and the results have been outstanding.  It is amazing how much students can accomplish when given the resources and opportunities to be leaders of liberty.

This is why you see so much growth in the student movement for liberty today.  Students across the world are standing up and taking control of their own futures.

The  New Left and anti-war movements of the 1960’s accomplished so much precisely because they were run by students.  It was students fighting back against the government to take control of their own lives that made that movement so strong.  Real movements like this have to be based on bottom up, empowered leadership.

This is what many (not all) of the tea party organizers simply do not grasp.  To them it is all about getting students (those youngins) to get on board with their (the old people’s) plan.  I say this with no malice, simply as an observation.  I have many friends involved in tea party organizations that are doing great work fighting against the government.  More power to them.

I say this only as advice to anyone who wants to work with students to fight for a free society.  Trust the students.  Treat them like the young adults they are.  Be a support mechanism; give them the resources they need to be effective.  Give them ownership over their own projects and their own lives.  That is the way movements grow.  That is the way real, lasting change happens.

This fall, he will be speaking at two Students For Liberty Regional Conferences.  These are one day events that are free and open to both students and non-students who are interested in learning more about liberty and how to advance it:

• Southern California SFL Regional Conference featuring Gary Johnson
  
• Saturday, October 23rd
• Pepperdine University
• More information: http://politicalconferences.org/2009/10/southern-california-conference/

• Texas SFL Regional Conference featuring Gary Johnson
  
• Saturday, November 6th
• University of Texas – Austin
• More information: http://politicalconferences.org/2009/11/texas-regional-conference/

While Governor Johnson is not running for president, that has not stopped political commentators from speculating about what would happen if he declared.  While much of his support has come from the liberty movement, recently he has been gaining traction with the progressive community.

On Wednesday, the Daily Kos declared that Governor Johnson should be the GOP nominee for president.

A Republican nominee opposed to the War, Wall Street and the War on Drugs would force Obama to the left. Because those are issues where there is some agreement between left and some on the right – the war needs to end, Wall St bail outs are corporate welfare and wrong, and the war on drugs is a waste of money and lives.  What if Obama were free to run a Presidential campaign on those terms.  Would he win?  I think he would.  Would he be governing more progressively?  Yes.

That said, the one viable Republican who brings all this to the table is Gary Johnson.  There are a lot of issues where Gary Johnson would be a disaster:  taxes, school choice, many entitlement programs, etc.  But there are a few issues where he would be a very rational alternative to Obama, which is a GOOD thing.

Read the full article here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/18/894283/-The-man-who-SHOULD-be-the-GOP-frontrunner:Gary-Johnson

Obviously the author is not exactly a champion of liberty, but it is interesting to see those in the progressive community taking note of Gary Johnson’s efforts, especially in giving him (and by extension, other liberty advocates) credit for civil liberties and anti-war positions.

• How to Advocate Free Speech on Your Campus
• Free Market Banking
• Blogging for Freedom
• Liberty Round Table
• Stickin’ It to the Man
• Free Market Dispute Resolution

And now, SFL is excited to announce that Stefan Molyneux will be the opening keynote speaker for the conference. Stefan is the host of Freedomainradio.com, a website dedicated to philosophy and inquiry into the human condition.  Stefan covers topics ranging from politics to philosophy to science to economics to relationships to atheism, and everything in between!

This will not be Stefan’s first visit to the Philadelphia area.  At his first appearance on the fourth of July, Molyneux made a poignant speech in front of Independence Hall and the next day faced off with 2004 libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik in a debate entitled ”How Much Government is Necessary”.  Since then Molyneux’s reputation has grown dramatically. He has also debated Jan Helfield and delivered addresses at PorcFest and FreedomFest.  The Mid-Atlantic Region is truly excited and honored to have him as the opening keynote.

“I feel like a mosquito in a nudist camp. I know what I have to do, but I hardly know where to begin.”

Mr. Reed continues to point out the flaws in many popular pro-New Deal arguments, all of which (and more) can be found in his outstanding essay Great Myths of the Great Depression. Watch a video of the entire debate below or on FEE’s website, here.

FDR’s Depression Policies: Good Deal or Raw Deal? from FEE on Vimeo.

Like what you hear?  Mr. Reed will also be the keynote speaker at Students For Liberty’s Southeast Regional Conference in Atlanta. For more information on SFL Regional Conferences in your area, visit www.PoliticalConferences.org.

The conference will be held at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvalia on July 31 from 9:00am-11:00pm. The topics of discussion include practical presentations such as the Most Effective Arguments For Real Freedom, Tabling for Liberty and Flyering for Liberty as well as more theoretical discussions on Anarchy, Voting and Taxation. For a full schedule check out the event’s Facebook page.

If you are interested in attending contact studentlibertyfront@gmail.com.

Unfortunately, on the 28th of June, 2010 the Supreme Court announced a 5-4 ruling which undermines the freedom of association on campus.  FIRE’s announcement explains the impact this ruling has for student groups on college campuses:

“In a blow to freedom of association and religious liberty on campus, a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that a public university may require its student organizations to admit any student as a voting member or officer, regardless of whether that student openly disagrees with or is even hostile to the group’s fundamental beliefs.”

It is important to consider “the rights of expressive campus organizations to form around shared beliefs and for the principle that the College Democrats have the right to be Democrats, the College Atheists have the right to be atheists, and the College Christians have the right to be Christians,” as stated by FIRE President Greg Lukianoff.  As students of liberty, we know that ideas matter.  Especially on college campuses, supposedly an open forum of ideas, students should be able to organize themselves to advance whatever ideas they hold.

A university’s ‘accept all comers’ policy casts student groups like the Christian Legal Society off campus and diminishes the diversity of viewpoints that are supposed to be hallmarks of our public universities.  It is imperative that we stand up for the rights of all student groups, whether we agree with their ideas or not.