Leadership Perspectives

Students for Freedom (SfF) is a new student organization waiting to receive official university recognition on Carnegie Mellon’s campus. As a leader within the organization, I created the group as a reaction to the heavy bias toward campaigning so prevalent in the political groups Carnegie Mellon Students for Barack Obama and College Republicans. Students for Freedom is a club that is intended to encourage political activity on campus, without partisan affiliations — only philosophical ones.

Although it is still very young, Students for Freedom has already interviewed several prominent national politicians. These include Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, Green Party congressional candidate Titus North, and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The interview with Bob Barr can be found on Students for Freedom’s YouTube account (students4freedom).

The organization has also already participated in many debates and performed well. Students for Freedom will have its own panel at the SPIRIT debate Tuesday.

With a name like Students for Freedom, one might expect the new group to be a strictly libertarian-leaning club. This, however, is not the case. While many of our members are libertarian, others are simply politically active — not just small-government, low-taxes favoring conservatives, but also Democrats and very active third party members (such as with the Green and Socialist parties).

Students for Freedom has been successful so far because it functions to allow members with such differing opinions to help each other to better understand political issues. We respect everyone in the club and their ideas as highly as our own individual ones. While other prominent on-campus political organizations are respectful as well, Students for Freedom encourages multi-sided debates.

We will be holding a lecture and debate open to the public — regardless of one’s political affiliation or involvement in a political club — this November. It will be hosted by Gary Spina, author of Patriots and Scoundrels, who will also be signing copies of his book.

In the coming weeks, look for Students for Freedom tabling on campus for upcoming events, as well as our interviews and debates in several media outlets, including cmuTV. Contact us at students4freedom@gmail.com with any questions or comments.