Saturday, May 19, 2007

CFI Student Leadership Conference

In 1996, in the heat of a Buffalo summer, seven college students came to
New York on a mission. On their campuses, they had noticed a growing
disdain for science and reason, but increasing beliefs in mysticism and
pseudoscience. They had witnessed a resurgence of religious
fundamentalism and watched as religious factions attacked individual
liberties.

Recognizing these trends as threats to the educational environment of the
University, the students worked with the Council for Secular Humanism and
founded the Campus Freethought Alliance, a network of students dedicated
to the promotion and enhancement of freethought, skepticism, secularism,
nontheism, and humanism.

Now, eleven years later, tens of thousands of students like you have
participated in hundreds of activities on campuses around the globe.
With over 120 active groups and dozens of new chapters forming every
semester, CFI-On Campus is the largest student freethought organization
in the world.

As you know, every semester CFI sends speakers, educational materials,
logistical, and promotional support to groups across the country, but
it's summer now which means it's time for students to do the travelling.
It's time for you to come to CFI for our annual Student Leadership
Conference, June 15-17, in Amherst, New York.

The Student Leadership Conference is the perfect time for you to meet
other freethinking students, to share ideas and experiences from the
previous year, and to learn how to plant and grow your group in the
coming year.

In addition to workshops and discussion groups, we also have top notch
lectures and entertainment. Guest speakers this year include Dr. Barbara
Forrest, philosophy professor and a key witness from the Dover/Kitzmiller
Intelligent Design trial; Taner Edis, physics professor and author of the
new book, "An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam"; and
Eddie Tabash, constitutional lawyer and chair of the Council for Secular
Humanism First Amendment Task Force.

Saturday night, renowned magician and sleight of hand master Jamy Ian
Swiss will perform a special program for conference attendees called "The
Illusion of Psychic Powers."

If you are part of a campus freethought organization or would like to
start one at your school, you need to attend this conference. To help,
we're keeping costs down – registration, room, and board for the entire
three-day event cost only $35.

We also have a limited number of travel grants available to help people
attend even if they lack the resources to do so. The registration form
and grant application can be found here.

Lauren Becker
Field Organizer
CFI-On Campus
716-636-4869, ext. 406
lbecker@centerforinquiry.net

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home