CFI On Campus
In 1996, the Council for Secular Humanism, North America’s leading organization for ethical, non-religious people, brought seven college students to its headquarters at the Center for Inquiry Transnational in Amherst, New York. The students were concerned about the rising tide of religious-political extremism and anti-scientific outlooks among members of their generation, as well as the lack of a strong and supportive community for young freethinkers. They wanted to establish a network of non-believers and critical rationalists on university and college campuses across North America to turn back that tide.
The students agreed that there were dangers inherent in the present religious assaults on academic freedom, civil liberties, and scientific literacy in the United States. They outlined their concerns in a Declaration of Necessity, which they then distributed via the Internet. The results were astounding. Within a year, their dream had become a reality: forty campus groups were soon established or affiliated with what was then known as the Campus Freethought Alliance. The founding students set a goal of adding one hundred new student groups to CFA during their second year.
Since then, the movement has continued to grow and has received strong support from the Council for Secular Humanism and other programs of the Center for Inquiry. In 2004, CFA changed its name to Center for Inquiry On Campus to better reflect its commitment to the ideals put forth by the Center for Inquiry. Center for Inquiry On Campus now has full-time coordinators at its transnational headquarters at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York.
Today, CFI On Campus remains dedicated to its original purpose: to promote and defend reason, science, and freedom of inquiry in education, and to enhance the presence of freethought, skepticism, secularism, humanism, philosophical naturalism, rationalism, and atheism on college and high school campuses throughout North America and around the world.
If you would like to start a campus freethought group, register an already-existing group, or just learn more about campus activism, visit http://www.campusfreethought.org/. The FAQ page is also helpful.
