Campus Reform: Westminster College (PA)

Since 2007, Clarion University's Annual Pro-Life Week has worked to educate students on the national (and international) tragedy of abortion.  Last week, the 6^th annual event demonstrated Clarion's continued movement toward respect for life and the unborn.

Hosted annually by the Clarion College Conservatives and Clarion Students for Life, Pro-Life Week features a number of events and programs for the benefit of students, faculty and pro-life causes.

Like years past, the pro-life team set up its annual "Cemetery of the Innocent" display - a memorial of 350 crosses, each representing 10 unborn children lost to abortion every day in the United States.

For many college students, April 15^th is just another beautiful spring day.  For the rest of America, however, it's one of the most frustrating days of the year: Tax Day.

On Monday, April 16^th, the College Conservatives at Clarion University used the occasion to educate their peers on our complicated - and unfair - taxing system.  How?  By conducting Campus Reform's "Tax Your GPA" activism event.

As Clarion University students passed by, members of the College Conservatives asked them to fill out a tax form.  But this exercise had nothing to do with determining the students' income taxes.  Instead, it asked students to calculate hypothetical taxes on their GPA.

University of North Carolina - Wilmington professor Mike Adams spoke to a standing room-only crowd at Clarion University last Thursday.

The event - titled "Abortion, Personhood, and Human Equality" - was a rational, academic defense of the pro-life position.  Dr. Adams addressed the definition of life and countered left wing arguments for abortion.

Styled as a town hall event, students and faculty were encouraged to attend and question Dr. Adams' remarks.  Members of the university's pro-choice organization, Choices Clarion, were in attendance to attempt to dispute Adams' claims.

Throughout his speech, Adams broke down pro-choice arguments in support of abortion.  He criticized the idea that abortion is necessary in cases of poverty or genetic disability.  Arguments for exceptions in cases of rape or life of the mother, he said, were still fundamentally flawed but carried more logical weight.

Ultimately, Adams said, the debate boils down to one question: is the unborn a living human being or not?  He then proceeded to lay out an argument in support of life beginning at conception.

NOTE: This blog post was written by LI Regional Field Coordinator Mike Armstrong 

Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA, has joined a list of other religious colleges across the country to file a federal lawsuit against the Obama Administration.

The lawsuit is in response to an unconstitutional mandate by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for religious employers to provide contraceptives to employees.  As a Christian college, Geneva objected to the mandate on the grounds of religious freedom.

The primary reason behind Geneva's decision was that many contraceptives covered by the HHS mandate were abortifacients.  

A display set up by an LGBT group at Washington & Jefferson College has sparked outrage on campus and throughout the Washington, PA community.

Earlier this month, the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) placed a small "Christmas" tree in the university's student center.  The controversy?  The group covered the tree in condoms in order to promote AIDS awareness.

W&J Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) President, Joshua Habursky, said that the display first appeared on campus on December 1, AIDS Awareness Day.  Despite the outrage, the GSA has kept the display up as a play on the Christmas season.

Habusky, YAF, and the College Republicans are leading the fight on campus to have the tree removed. 

"It's a direct attack on Christianity and borderline obscene," Habusky told The Blaze.  "I pleaded to the college president to take it down." 

The administration, however, has no plans to remove the display.  "I met with the dean of student life who said that he approved the tree and that he would approve the tree again," Habursky said.

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On November 21, 2011, the Slippery Rock YAL chapter hosted a stirring debate featuring highly-respected economic scholars.  Austrian economists, Grove City College professors, and Von Mises Society scholars Dr. Jeffery Herbner and Sean Ritenour provided a free market approach to current economic problems ranging from jobless rates to high tuition costs.  Presenting the case for further government intervention were SRU economics professors, Dr. David Culp and Dr. Frederick Tannery.

Graveyards are a common decoration or scene on Halloween - but the Slippery Rock University Young Americans for Liberty (SRU YAL) created one with a twist. 

October 25th and 26th SRU YAL held a graveyard of civil liberties. 

As part of an activism movement amongst liberty-loving student groups on campuses across the nation, SRU YAL placed several "tombstones" with rights and liberties lost as a result of ever-growing government.

Chapter president, Brandon Cestrone said,

THE FOLLOWING POST WAS WRITTEN FOR THE PUBLIUS SOCIETY BY JAMES MCKIBBIN, A MEMBER OF THE PITT LIBERTARIANS, AFTER ATTENDING THE OCCUPY PITTSBURGH RALLY.

The political climate of this country is one of tension and anger.  Whether on the left, right, or something else altogether, Americans are upset with the current system.  There is no better display of these emotions than the current Occupy movement which is rapidly spreading across the country.