Oftentimes, internships burden students with tedious unenviable tasks that dull the mind and leave the intern feeling bored and underutilized. Fortunately for me, the Secular Student Alliance does not emulate this practice. Starting April 16^th, The Secular Student Alliance hosted the 2010 New England Leadership Summit at Harvard University, and I was thrilled to accompany them. The summit featured sessions focused on a multitude of issues facing secular student groups and the movement in general. Preparing student leaders to facilitate cooperation with other campus groups, come up with interesting programming ideas, and get people to meetings were a few of the many topics discussed at the summit. The summit struck a balance between introducing new speakers with fresh perspectives on the direction of the movement and providing access to established freethought leaders such as Greg Epstein, Rebecca Goldstein, and Greta Christina.

by Ryan Hampton

On November 4, 2009, a hundred students at Furman University found a seat to listen to a panel of their peers discuss instances of what they termed “unintentional discrimination.” Panelists represented several student organizations, including The Society of Free Inquiry, Student League for Black Culture, Encouraging Respect of Sexualities, Hispanic Organization of Learning and Awareness, and Furman University International Student Association. Panelists hoped to expose some common words and actions that can translate offensively and help those in attendance give more thought to how they interact with others in a way that is respectful of diversity.

This story originally appeared on the SCSU Intellectuals blog on February 25, 2010. Used here with permission.

By Benjamin Seghers, SCSU Intellectuals

Recently the Campus Crusade for Christ (CRU) and the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) hosted a debate at St. Cloud State University between August Berkshire and Joe Boot on the existence of God, with Prof. Suzanne Stangl-Erkens serving as the moderator. Boot argued in the affirmative, while Berkshire argued in the negative. The turnout was spectacular. There were 700 seats set out in the Atwood ballroom and an additional 200 were brought in to accommodate the influx of people. Even then, there were still people standing, so attendance was close to 1,000 people. That was far more than I think anyone was expecting. It was clearly a subject many people were interested in, including college students. In most of these types of events on campus, there are usually more older adults than young people. I did not notice that here. It seemed that God-fearing Christians outnumbered the secular nonbelievers in the crowd, but that would be consistent with the broader demographic, though there was still strong support for Berkshire. Unfortunately, the audience was not polled beforehand to measure their beliefs, though I noticed more people went towards SSA's table than to Boot's near the entrance of the ballroom. I think free material enticed people more than books for sale.