About Kelley Freeman

Harrison Hopkins is a rising sophomore at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. At the end of his senior year of high school, he challenged the prayer at his graduation and won. He was down in Columbia recently and met up with A Matter of Doubt podcast and did an interview detailing his own deconversion and the story of how he challenged the school district. I think it’s a great interview to listen to, especially for some high schoolers out there who are interested in challenging their schools but don’t really know the process or where to begin.

(I also did one a few weeks ago, but I guess mine is less exciting!)

It’s May! You know what that means — hordes of former students are being thrown into the real world and job market with this thing we call “graduation” this month. Now it’s time to start finding a real job (good luck!) and, hopefully, supporting former students like yourself.

However, with paying back student loans (eek!), paying for rent, your car, your gas money, your groceries, your cat, and all those other bills, how are you ever going to afford to support students?

Luckily, the Secular Student Alliance is full of people who have been exactly where you are now — poor, but wanting to support the movement in any way possible! To help out, they are now offering an alumni membership!

Normally, non-student memberships for the Secular Student Alliance are $35 a year, but the introductory alumni memberships are $15 and include an optional free year-long membership to American Atheists as well! That’s like two memberships for the price of one.

I’m still a student for another year, but I know next year I’m going to have to graduate and become an adult. Being involved with my SSA affiliate has absolutely made my college years better, though, and life wouldn’t be the same without a community like that after I graduate. We often talk about the need to make the transition from on-campus to off-campus groups go more smoothly and it thrills me that the SSA is trying to do just that!

So you’ve wanted to get involved in the movement, but you’re not really sure how, eh? Well, luckily for you, one of the absolute best organizations (not that I’m biased or anything) for atheists and agnostics is hiring RIGHT NOW. That’s right. You could be an atheist and GET PAID FOR IT.

Provided you have the necessary skills and experience.

The Secular Student Alliance is currently accepting applications for a position as an IT Manager.

If you have any experience with IT (especially Drupal/CiviCRM-based websites), then you should definitely apply! Columbus, Ohio is a fantastic city if you’re looking to move somewhere interesting. Applications for the position are due on May 24^th!

I can say with confidence that you’d have some of the best coworkers in the world. However, I will have to warn you that they are super serious and no fun things occur in the office, ever.

Okay, so that last bit might be a lie.

The nice part about being a nosy former intern for the Secular Student Alliance is that I get to sometimes learn of awesome news before anyone else. The sad part is that I don’t get to tell anyone about it, even if it’s the most awesome news ever! I’ve been really excited about this news for a while, so I am absolutely thrilled to be allowed to finally announce it!

The Secular Student Alliance is offering free memberships to all high school and college students! Yes! Free! They rolled out this news somewhat quietly two weeks ago at the Reason Rally, but now it is completely live and so far over 1000 students have signed up — can you imagine how awesome it is going to be to have more accurate data for how many students are involved in the secular movement on their campus?

What is even better about this news is the benefits that come along with being a member — you get discounts to their conferences (which are awesome, but Hemant and I may be a bit biased… it’s kind of the highlight of the summer), discounts to other national events (they have paired with the American Humanist Association and American Atheists before to provide student discounts), awesome swag to display your membership, a membership card (to make things official, you know), and eligibility for Leadership Travel Aid to conferences and other events!

I have always encouraged the members of my affiliate group at the University of South Carolina to join the Secular Student Alliance, but now that it’s free for them, there is absolutely no reason for them not to! This is making it so much easier for students to connect to the larger secular student movement and maybe create an even more widespread network for support.

So, are you ready to join one of the absolute best organizations out there? Then go here! We’ll be thrilled to have you!

Are you a leader of an affiliate group and want to compile a group membership? Then email Lyz to ask about organizing that!

Yay!

There is a new Secular Student Alliance affiliate at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts!

It was started by freshman Ian Stewart after a winter break spent engrossed in The God Delusion. He and two other freshmen started the group because “[they] felt inspired to counter campus faith-based groups by uniting [their] fellow non-believers.”

Look at those charming faces.

They’ve spent seven hours over the last week getting students to help create their group on campus:

“As someone who is both gay and an atheist, I feel more persecuted as an atheist than as a gay man, and that’s saying something,” said [Stewart] the performing arts major. “I wanted to create a group for not just atheists, but agnostics and humanists, so that they could feel comfortable.”

I have heard that a lot from non-theists I’ve met over the years. It’s not always easy to come out — and if you’re a double threat (heh), then it can be even harder. That why it’s great that the number of SSA affiliates has been rising so rapidly. It’s easier than ever to come out as an atheist now, but there’s still some areas where it can be scary. Stewart says he wants to help remove the stigma attached to being an atheist and plans on getting his group involved with volunteer work.

Kate Caldwell, the president of the Emerson Christian Society, says she was surprised to hear about the formation of the group, possibly due to Emerson’s largely secular student body.

“There are the Christian, Catholic, and Jewish organizations on campus, and I just never had thought that people with agnostic or atheist views would want a place to meet and talk about that,” said the writing, literature, and publishing major. “If they do, I think that’s totally cool.”

Sounds like an awesome, totally reasonable response! Glad to hear that there are some open minded and rational people at Emerson. Not everyone understands why the group is a welcome addition to the school’s groups, but member Sara Detrick had a response to that:

“I was talking to a girl on my floor who is a part of a Christian group here, and she said there were so many secular people there is no need for the group,” [member] Detrick said. “I think because there’s so many of us, we need to be connected so that we can get things done.”

I’m looking forward to see how this group does. I hope they flourish up there in Boston!

Earlier last week, the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society (ASHS) at University College London became involved in a fight over censorship for including a picture from the webcomic, “Jesus and Mo” on their Facebook page for an event.

It was an event for their weekly drinks social.

For those of you who have never read Jesus and Mo, it’s a webcomic that deals with religious satire where the title characters engage in theological and philosophical discussion, usually in a bar. As far as “offensive” goes, I would rank it on the low end of the scale, but the ASHS has had to deal with several complaints alluding to the depiction of the prophet Muhammad and the possibility that the drink he is holding might be something containing alcohol.

The student union of University College London contacted the president of the ASHS and demanded that he remove the image from the page.

Rightly so, ASHS decided not to remove the image. They also stood up against their student union. They launched an online petition last week, and managed to rake up 3700+ signatures, including that of Richard Dawkins.

From their Facebook group page, the president of the group released this statement:

We can now tell you that the University College London Union has recognized that mistakes were made and that the initial correspondence with our society was flawed. The Union is to review its stance on such matters and has said that this will not happen again. They can no longer call on us to withdraw the image. We welcome these developments, which set an important precedent for other universities. We also feel it appropriate to recognize the swift response of the Union, which certainly helped us reach this positive conclusion.

Unfortunately, the Union has considered the possibility that posting the image might have constituted an act of bullying, prejudice, harassment or discrimination. We firmly believe in the protection of our fellow students through University and Union policy; however we cannot accept such a suggestion. They have also considered the force of our actions and unwillingness to concede. As such, the society may be risking a disciplinary hearing which could lead to the forced resignation of committee members, or disaffiliation from the Union. In light of our now constructive relationship with the Union, such an event seems unlikely, though we would ask for your support should it ever occur.

I’m glad to see that they’ve made progress with their case, but it doesn’t seem like they’re quite out of the clear. The backlash from Ahmadiyya Muslim Students Association (AMSA) hasn’t been the friendliest. Their treasurer declared:

It is not for Atheists to decide what will or will not offend believers of different religions.

It’ll be up to the student union as to what happens from here, but the cartoon they used for their event seems to me to be one of the least offensive images they could have used.