CFA Appoints Student Volunteer Debbie Goddard as the New CFA Student President.

Dear CFA member,

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am interested in philosophy and science and am currently a student at Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania, where I founded a philosophy club that is also a CFA affiliate group. I plan to attend Temple University in the spring and major in philosophy.

I have been involved in CFA for a couple years now, and this summer I had the chance to attend summer school at the Center for Inquiry, which was undoubtedly the most worthwhile and inspiring two weeks I’ve ever experienced. I am very excited about serving as CFA President, and have many ideas about how we can take CFA to the next level in advancing reason, science, and freedom of inquiry in education.

CFA is experiencing a lot of growth, and as our full-time staff members will tell you, maintaining and supporting groups is even more of a challenge than starting them is. That's why we have created so many resources to help keep groups going. The threats to academic freedom and free inquiry keep increasing on many fronts, so we keep working hard being the place on campus for critical dialogue on religion, human values, and the borderlands of science.

And that's why I want you to get involved: I want to invite you to explore the new CFA website, www.campusfreethought.org, to find out all of the ways you can help CFA succeed on campuses in your area. While at the website, stop by the Online Discussion Forum where you can explore issues like starting and running a group on campus and have freethought and skeptic conversations with students from around the world.

Also, keep your eyes open for the November issue of the Campus Inquirer to learn about how you can get involved with student leadership opportunities in the CFA by joining one of the special action committees.

Furthermore, I would also like to encourage you to share the word about CFA with any high school or college students that you know. Please invite any students and faculty who are interested in our mission to join CFA (it is free) via the website. Together we will all continue responding to the religious extremists and paranormalists, the bad science and bad faith, that has been growing so much on campuses across North America and around the world.

Enthusiastically,

Debbie Goddard

PS -- I sometimes travel on the weekends to visit freethought, skeptic and secular humanist groups near where I live in Philadelphia. If you ever see me out and about, please be sure to say "hi."