On Saturday, Oct. 12, the Denver Liberty Forum hosted the Students for Liberty Regional Conference at DU for the second year in a row. The event was held in Anderson Academic Commons and offered students the chance to hear from speakers in the libertarian movement, network with pro-liberty students and discover opportunities for jobs, internships, conferences and seminars.
According to third-year student Morgan Dunmire, acting president of the Denver Liberty Forum and campus coordinator for Students For Liberty, being pro-liberty is about promoting individual choice, individual governing, smaller government and a freer society.
“The biggest thing about pro-liberty is that it is a self-definition,” said Dunmire. “As a pro-liberty group of people we want to engage in debate and educate ourselves, but we also recognize we might not agree with each other.”
Dunmire said over 180 students registered for the conference and over 140 attended this year, compared to the 100 students that attended last year. These students came from Utah, Texas, Kansas, South Dakota and the East Coast. One student came from Costa Rica and another came from London.
“I always get something out of attending a regional conference,” said John Knetemann, campus coordinator for Students for Liberty at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. “I listen to new perspectives and ideas within the liberty-movement and I love it. My life revolves around the liberty-movement.”
Last year was first time the Great Plains regional conference was held in Colorado.
“For us to go from never having one to having more than 100 people show up was really exciting for us,” said Dunmire. “For how few campus coordinators we have in this area, we’re holding one of the larger per capita conferences.”
Dunmire said Students for Liberty chose DU because it is central and easy to get to, and it is easier to coordinate with than other campuses in Denver. It also has to do with how many campus coordinators and pro-liberty organizations are in the area.
Organizations represented at this year’s conference included the Young Americans for Liberty, Foundation for Economic Education, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Institute for Humane Societies, National Association for Gun Rights and DU Law School’s Federalist Society.
For many of these organizations, Students For Liberty is a resource for books, webinars, speakers, grants, scholarships, internships and work placement, according to Dunmire. It also connects students to other organizations.
“I think one of the nicest things about the conference is it helps us find other people who are interested in being campus coordinators and starting their own student group,” said Dunmire. “It has really helped the pro-liberty movement in our whole region because people feel like they’re not alone.”
Speakers at the conference included Matt Kibbe, president and CEO of FreedomWorks; Bob Bowdon, executive director of ChoiceMedia.TV; Professor Tom W. Bell from Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law; Professor Randy Simmons, director of the Institute for Political Economy at Utah State University; Trevor Burrus, research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies; Harris Kenny, business analyst at Panorama Consulting Solutions; and stand-up comedian Chuck Roy, host of Film on the Rocks at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
“We had a really interesting line up compared to some of the other regional conferences,” said Dunmire.
Topics these speakers covered included Tea Party politics, education reform, copyright law, environmental policy and constitutional law.
“I think people are really starting to hold the government more accountable,” said Dunmire. “Both sides of the government are nervous about how active people are becoming. Student groups like this have exploded.”
Dunmire said her personal concern is local government.
“If I spend more time creating student groups and working with people in the local area, I see great change,” she said. “But if I just kept writing Obama letters I can’t imagine I would see too many things change.”
According to Dunmire, a lot of the attendees were political science majors who were interested in changing policy in some way.
“Being pro-liberty is not like being part of one party or another party and having to agree with everything on that platform,” said Dunmire. “It’s about having the freedom to change your mind.”
