Section 1 | General Info

About SSA

The mission of the Secular Student Alliance is to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics. We envision a future in which nontheistic students are respected voices in public discourse and vital partners in the secular movement's charge against irrationality and dogma.

The Secular Student Alliance is a 501(c)3 educational nonprofit. We work to organize and empower nonreligious students around the country. Our primary goal is to foster successful grassroots campus groups which provide a welcoming community for secular students to discuss their views and promote their secular values. Though our office is based in Columbus, Ohio and our affiliated campus groups are predominantly in the United States, we do support affiliates around the world.

We support our affiliates in a variety of ways, including supplying literature and outreach supplies, group-running guides, hands-on assistance, discounted access to prominent speakers, and monetary project grants.

For individual students, we cooperate with other national nontheistic organizations to get discounted students rates for large events and provide travel grants to help the students attend. We hold regional summits and a national conference each year to give students leadership training and the opportunity to network and problem-solve with their peers.

The Secular Student Alliance devotes the majority of its resources to supporting its affiliate groups. We only offer this support to groups that further our mission. We have developed a set of standards to help campus groups determine if they should seek affiliation with us.

We invite campus groups to affiliate with us if they share our values of naturalism, reason and compassion in the service of making the world a better place for all humanity. They must share a philosophical worldview informed by the methods of science, recognize the evolution of our knowledge, and be free from dogma and open to revision as new evidence and more compelling reasons are presented.

We embrace the common goals and shared aspects of all naturalistic, secular worldviews. Secular Student Alliance affiliates include, but are not limited to, atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, skeptics, naturalists, brights, Pastafarians, and many others.

Specifically, we are interested in affiliating with groups that are:

Naturalistic - We hold that natural things are the only things about which humans can coherently communicate or think. Most of us believe that all things that exist are natural things. We also believe that critical inquiry, combined with empirical investigation where possible, leads to a more accurate understanding of the world in which we live than revelation, faith, or authority.

Economically Neutral - We share many common concerns with organizations that advocate specific economic principles, including Libertarians, Objectivists, Greens, and others. However, we cannot affiliate with groups that pursue an active economic agenda, be it on the left or right. We do acknowledge that the study of economics and sound economic policy is vital to the betterment of humanity. However, we have no interest in endorsing one economic view over others. We strive to see naturalism, reason and compassion take center stage in economic discussions and encourage our affiliates to promote discussion of economic issues.

Civil Rights-Minded - We cannot support groups that promote denial of liberties in areas such as religion, speech, or equality under the law.

Non-discriminatory - We cannot affiliate with groups that bar members from joining on the basis of their creed or worldview. We also cannot affiliate with groups that discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, national origin, sex, age, handicap, or veteran status.

Note that these standards apply only to groups that wish to officially affiliate with us. We are open to cooperation on an ad-hoc basis with other organizations - regardless of their worldview - on specific issues of common concern. Additionally, individuals of any worldview are welcome to join the SSA if they wish to support our mission.

Five Focus Areas

These areas guide the way SSA and its affiliates operate. Specifically, they represent most of what our student groups choose to do with their time. To meet the needs of your group and your community, you may engage more in some areas than others.

Education

Our affiliates endeavor to educate themselves and their communities about our world, secular worldviews and issues that affect their members and communities. From hosting speakers on a wide variety of topics to debates, dialogues with other campus groups, outreach activities and awareness campaigns, Secular Student Alliance affiliates contribute to the marketplace of ideas of their campus.

Service

As ethical nontheists interested in the betterment of the human condition, our affiliates engage in service as an important and significant way to make a positive impact on our world. Engaging in service is also a way to build relationships between group members and with members of cooperating groups, and helps demonstrate that nonbelievers can in fact be good without any gods.

Activism

Our affiliates stand up for the issues they believe in, from church-state separation to a wide range of causes that affect their members and communities. Letters to the editor, protests and demonstrations, and participation in rallies are all ways in which SSA affiliates make their voices heard.

Community

Campus groups provide a haven for secular students to find companionship and belonging, to connect with and be affirmed by a community of like-minded individuals. Facilitating community building between members and between helps a campus group stay together and continue to grow. Even events like game nights and pub crawls are valuable when the element of community is concerned.

Cooperation

We think it is important for our affiliates to constructively engage with one another, with groups with similar values and with groups of differing worldviews. Cooperation can promote understanding and respect between theists and nontheists, develop coalitions with natural allies, and lead to mutually beneficial relationships with off-campus secular groups.