Penn State Atheist and Agnostic Association member Yasic Naumenko (senior-physics) reads a passage from the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. PHOTO: Peter Tesoriero

This story originally appeared in The Daily Collegian Online (Penn State’s morning newspaper) on 9/22/2008, and is used by permission.
Article by Erin Rowley, Collegian Staff Writer.

Hemant Mehta Chair, Board of Directors

August E. Brunsman IV Executive Director

Lyz Liddell Senior Campus Organizer

Nov. 19, 2008 - The past year has been phenomenally successful for the Secular Student Alliance.  Most notably, our affiliate count has gone up by 70%.  This report details our 2008 activities, from campus group affiliate support and a great conference to our electronic newsletter and summer internships.

 Direct Campus Group Affiliate Support

We presently have 156 campus affiliate groups in twelve countries. This time last year we had 90; at this time in 2006 we had only 65.  Our affiliates range in size from just a handful of students to groups like the Campus Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists (CASH) at the University of Minnesota, who obtain thousands of dollars a year from their student activities board, and have organized their own conferences. Regardless of size or resources, each group receives individual attention from our staff. Providing these services is the core of our work.

We ask all of our affiliates to update their contact information with us twice a year.  Because we do this, we are able to publish the most up-to-date list of active humanist/atheist student groups of which we are aware .  This helps campus groups connect with each other and makes them more accessible to off-campus groups in the movement and the media.

We have a full time Senior Campus Organizer (SCO), Lyz Liddell, who coordinates the delivery of services, develops new services, advises campus leaders and helps them troubleshoot problems, and maintains our relationships with our affiliates.

Our SCO also supervises our Campus Organizing Interns. These are temporary positions filled by students who work ten hours a week supporting and starting groups in their geographic region.  This spring we had Campus Organizing Interns in Northern California, Southern California, and New York City.

With a subscription to Bacon’s Media Database (courtesy of the American Humanist Association) and technical assistance from the Institute for Humanist Studies’ Communications Director Duncan Crary, the Secular Student Alliance is able to send out press releases for campus events to local media markets. Over a dozen media mentions about SSA campus affiliate groups resulted—many of which we republished on our website (with permission).

Additionally, the Secular Student Alliance itself was covered in the following stories this academic year:

Atheism services on the rise at colleges – 9/21/07
The Daily Free Press – Boston, MA

Faithlessness on the rise? - 11/7/07
Brown Daily Herald – Providence, RI

Cake and controversy for Darwin's birthday – 2/12/08
Brown Daily Herald – Providence, RI

Losing Faith in Modern America – 5/7/08
New Zealand Herald – Auckland, New Zealand

This story by Hemant Mehta is reprinted with permission from friendlyatheist.com.

The Boise State Secular Student Alliance were manning a booth for their group during a recent Parent and Family Weekend. Lloyd Lowe, the president of the group, set up the table and walked away for a while. When he returned, his found that the banner he had put up was no longer visible to the public:

• Introduction
  
• FFRF Conference: Chicago or Bust!
• Campus Atheist Group Censored in Idaho
• Secular Swag at CafePress
  
• Secular Student Group Urges Local Religious Leaders to Obey IRS Tax Laws
  
• Atheism at Dartmouth: Part 2
  
• Check Out the New SSA Campus Events Calendar
  
• Youth Against World Youth Day
  
• Dan Barker: How to Talk to a Fundamentalist: Part 2
  
• The Great American God Out! - November 15
  
• Evolution Wins Over Intelligent Design in Mock Trial in Kentucky!
• Religulous Reviewed
  

• Introduction
  
• New SSA Resources for Student Groups
  
• Welcome to Our New Affiliates!
  
• Secular Alliance at Indiana University Makes a Statement.
  
• Atheism at Dartmouth
  
• Dan Barker: How to Talk to a Fundamentalist
  
• A Harvard Student's Experience at the Secular Student Alliance Conference
  
• Student Voice Follow-Up: University of Michigan SSA
  
• Express Yourself in a HumanLight Design Contest!
  
• The Blogging of a Secular Lobbyist
  
• Welcome to Our New Senior Campus Organizer

TAKE ACTION NOW
A proposed regulation at the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services would allow medical workers in federally funded facilities to refuse on religious grounds to provide legal medical services. If adopted, this regulation would permit

- an emergency room physician to withhold information about emergency contraception from a survivor of rape

- a surgical assistant to refuse to perform a vital blood transfusion during an operation

- a nursing home worker to refuse to care for a patient with AIDS

Protect your right to direct your medical care according to your own conscience: contact Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, via this Secular Coalition for America Action Alert.