“Student Liberty Front Wins Group of the Year Award”

by Carol Moniz, the Triangle

Drexel University’s Student Liberty Front won Student Group of the Year at the 3rd Annual International Students For Liberty Conference Feb. 12-14 at American University in Washington D.C.

“This award means a lot to our group because we are very hard working,” Stacy Litz, pre-junior political science major and vice president of the Student Liberty Front at Drexel, said. “Most of us lose a lot of sleep to get Student Liberty Front work done, but in the end, it’s worth it. The award will also help us get more members and boost the participation of our current members.”

Picture Credit: Chad Swarthout Student Liberty Front members Pericles Niarchos (left), a junior history major, and Stacy Litz, a pre-junior political science major, instruct a workshop on how to market a student organization on campus. SLF recently won an award for Student Group of the Year.

Litz explained that SLF promotes the idea of liberty through education of philosophy, not necessarily through political means. She said the group believes in complete economic and social freedoms.

“This is our first award, being only two years old, but we hope to win more! We were told that we are in for some serious competition for next year, so we’re definitely going to turn things up a notch by the next conference,” Litz stated.

According to the Students For Liberty Web site, this is the second year that awards have been given to recognize students for their work promoting liberty.

“The Group of the Year award recognizes those groups that have shown an outstanding commitment to promoting the ideas of liberty and illustrated successes in developing as an organization,” the Web site states. Four groups were nominated for the award.

“I’m happy to hear that the Student Liberty Front received such an honor. Despite the fact that our two groups are very different, I recognize that the SLF works very hard for their cause and I admire them for their efforts,” Giancarlo Stefanoni, president of the Drexel Democrats, said.

The College Republicans could not be reached for comment.

Litz said SLF is one of the busiest organizations on campus. In addition to weekly meetings, the SLF has organized several debates, speaker events, conferences and entertainment events to promote liberty. They also hosted a students rights week at the beginning of the term.

International Students for Liberty Conference and CPAC!

WOW.  The past two weekends have been very busy, and it’s now time to settle down (for a second or two) and relax.

At the ISFLC, SLF brought home the award for GROUP OF THE YEAR!  This was amazing — all that hard work finally earned us some serious recognition!  And some major competition for next year!

The ISFLC was well worth the countless hours spent planning to get 17 or so members out there, with great opportunities for education, networking, finding internships/scholarships, and more.

The next weekend, a few SLF members attended CPAC, which was interesting, to say the least.

Students For Liberty’s (SFL) co-founder and President, Alexander McCobin, sparked what has become a controversy this weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference when he thanked the event’s organizers for allowing conservative gay-rights group GOProud to co-sponsor the conference.“I would like to thank the American Conservative Union for inviting me to speak,” said McCobin. “This panel is titled, ‘Saving Freedom Across America.’ And so, in the name of freedom, I would like to also thank the American Conservative Union for welcoming GOProud as a co-sponsor of this event. […] The typical student’s response is to be socially tolerant and fiscally responsible. Students today recognize that freedom does not come in pieces. It is a single concept that we must defend at all times.”

While there were some initial boos, McCobin’s statements were greeted with widespread applause from the audience.  The real controversy began soon afterward when another panelist, Ryan Sorba, rose to condemn CPAC for its open-mindedness toward GOProud and to attack homosexuals, which led to him being resoundingly booed off stage before completing his remarks.  Full videos of the two speeches, including views of the audience’s reaction, can be found at www.StudentsForLiberty.org.

I would definitely check out those videos.  While CPAC was full of true liberty lovers, there were definitely many opponents who made their views well known.  All that I can say is that I hope our presence at the conference converted some into believing in true, principled liberty.