Program

Friday, February 22

3-5:00pm Registration
5-6:00 Meet and Greet
6-7:30 Dinner/Opening Ceremonies
7:30-9:00 Opening Keynote Speaker
David Boaz, “The Power of Libertarian Thought”
9-On Friday Night Social

Saturday, February 23

8-9:00am Breakfast
9-9:50 Speaker Session I
Sheldon Richman, “Is Individual Freedom a Radical Idea?”
Jerome Huyler, “Locke’s Philosophy”
10-10:50 Workshop Session I
Dr. Jim Lark, “Starting a Student Organization“
Matt Harrison, “Finding a Niche”
Sam Eckman, “Bringing in Speakers”
11-11:50 Speaker Session II
Dr. Tom Palmer, “Globalization”
Michelle Muccio, “Film for Liberty”
12-2:00pm Lunch/Free Time
1-2:50 Liberty Fair
3-3:50 Workshop Session II
Tamira Cole, “Navigating the College Bureaucracy”
Dr. Nigel Ashford, “Changing the World for Liberty”
Alex Weller, “Fundraising”
4-4:50 Speaker Session III
Greg Lukianoff, “Rights as a College Student”
Will Thomas, “Objectivism and Liberty”
5-5:50 Workshop Session III
Jason Talley, “Political Activism on Campus”
Stan Molever, “Effective Campus Recruiting”
Alexander McCobin, “Developing Organizational Leadership”
6-6:50 Speaker Session IV
Scott Bullock, “Protecting Rights in the Courts”
Andrew Langer, “Property Rights”
7-8:00 Dinner
8-9:00 Institute for Humane Studies Speaker*
Randy Barnett, “Libertarian Anarchism in a Statist World”
9-12:00 Saturday Night Social

Sunday, February 24

8-9:00am Breakfast
9-10:30 Student Panel: “Bringing it all Together”
Student Panelists Alexander McCobin, Eric Plourde, Alex Weller, Marco Zappacosta
11-11:50 Speaker Session V
Doug Leard, “Presentation Skills”
Jo Jensen, “The Power of College Students“
12-12:50pm Closing Lunch
1-2:00 Closing Keynote Speaker
Dr. Alan Charles Kors, “Liberty in Academia Today and Tomorrow”

* Named events signify sponsorship by the organization the event is named after.

Speaker Biographies:

David Boaz, Cato Institute- David Boaz is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute and the author of the new book The Politics of Freedom. He has played a key role in the development of the libertarian movement, and his study “The Libertarian Vote” drew national attention in 2006. He is the author of Libertarianism: A Primer, the editor of The Libertarian Reader, and coeditor of the Cato Handbook on Policy. His articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, National Review, and Slate. He is a frequent guest on national television and radio shows, and has appeared on ABC’s Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, CNN’s Crossfire, NPR’s Talk of the Nation and All Things Considered, John McLaughlin’s One on One, Fox News Channel, BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other media.

Dr. Alan Charles Kors, University of Pennsylvania - Alan Charles Kors is professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches the intellectual history of Europe.

Kors has fought for academic freedom since his arrival at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1993, he defended Eden Jacobowitz in the infamous “water buffalo case,” which led to his co-authorship The Shadow University (1998) and his co-founding of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which he served for many years as president and chairman. Kors has been elected four times to University and School Committees on Academic Freedom and Responsibility by his colleagues. He has received four awards for distinguished college teaching and numerous awards for his defense of academic freedom. He has also written and lectured widely on the assault upon liberty and freedom of conscience on America’s campuses. In 2005, he was awarded a National Humanities Medal.

Kors has published extensively on the conceptual revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and he has published two taped series on the period for The Teaching Company. He was editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment (Oxford University Pres, 4 v., 2002). He is married, with two adult children, and he lives with his wife in suburban Philadelphia.

Dr. Nigel Ashford, Institute for Humane Studies- Nigel Ashford is Senior Program Officer at the Institute for Humane Studies. He is a recipient of the International Anthony Fisher Trust Prize for published work which strengthens public understanding of the political economy of the free society.

Dr. Ashford has lectured in 16 countries. He is author of Principles for a Free Society, and co-author of US Politics Today; Public Policy and the Impact of the New Right, and A Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought.

Dr. Ashford works on many of the Institute’s educational programs, teaches at summer seminars, liaises with the IHS faculty network, produces regular academic newsletters for faculty and graduate students, and provides academic career advice to graduate students.

Randy Barnett, Georgetown Law School- Randy E. Barnett is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts. He has also visited at Northwestern and Harvard Law School. Professor Barnett lectures internationally and appears frequently on radio and television programs such as the CBS Evening News, The News Hour (PBS), Talk of the Nation (NPR), and the Ricki Lake Show.

Professor Barnett’s scholarship includes more than eighty articles and reviews, as well as seven books, including Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty, (Princeton, 2004), which was awarded the Lysander Spooner Book Award for the best book on liberty for 2004, and The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law (Oxford, 1998), which has been translated into Japanese.

In 2004, Professor Barnett argued the medical marijuana case of Gozales v. Raich in the U.S. Supreme Court. A former prosecutor in real life, in 2007, he played an assistant prosecutor in the sci-fi film InAlienable, which stars Richard Hatch, Courtney Peldon, Marina Sirtis, Erick Avari, and Walter Koenig.

Professor Barnett founded and manages the website LysanderSpooner.org and is a Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute. His 30+ year involvement with the libertarian movement began in 1974 when, as an undergraduate at Northwestern, he taught a student-organized seminar on libertarianism. While in law school at Harvard, he joined the board of directors of the Center for Libertarian Studies (CLS) in 1975 and co-founded the Boston libertarian support group, Center for the Study of Social Systems, which sponsored monthly libertarian dinners in Cambridge. His earliest publications were as a law student and appeared in the Journal of Libertarian Studies published by CLS, Murray Rothbard’s Libertarian Forum, and Laissez-Faire Books’ Books for Libertarians. As undergraduates, his daughter and son formed the Boston University Libertarian Society.

Scott Bullock, Institute for Justice- Scott Bullock joined the Institute for Justice at its founding in 1991 and serves as a senior attorney. Although he has litigated in all of the Institute’s areas, his current litigation primarily focuses on property rights and free speech cases in federal and state courts.In property rights, Scott has been involved in a number of cases challenging the use of eminent domain for private development. He was co-counsel in and argued the landmark case, Kelo v. City of New London, one of the most controversial and widely discussed U.S. Supreme Court decisions in decades. He was also counsel along with Dana Berliner in the first state Supreme Court case to address eminent domain abuse after Kelo, where the Supreme Court of Ohio in July 2006 unanimously stopped the use of eminent domain for private development. Scott has worked with property owners in scores of other cities, including spearheading the litigation that saved the land and homes of the Archie family in Canton, Mississippi. For that accomplishment, he was awarded in 2002 the top civil rights prize by the state chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Among his work on other constitutional issues, Scott served as lead counsel in the Institute’s First Amendment lawsuit to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s campaign against investment newsletters, computer software and websites, establishing one of the first federal precedents extending free speech guarantees to Internet and software publishers. He has also led successful lawsuits challenging rental inspection laws on behalf of tenants, the abuse of civil forfeiture laws, and he has been involved in several cases advocating greater protection for commercial speech and parental rights.

His articles and views on constitutional issues have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, 60 Minutes, ABC Nightly News, National Public Radio, and many other publications and broadcasts.

Scott’s volunteer activities include serving on the board of directors of HR-57, a Washington, D.C.-based music and cultural center dedicated to the preservation of jazz and on the board of a national, grass-roots civil forfeiture reform organization.

Scott was born in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and grew up outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh and his B.A. in economics and philosophy from Grove City College.

Tamira Cole, Austin Peay State University- A current graduate student at Austin Peay State University studying curriculum and instruction with a concentration in advanced studies, Tamira A. Cole brings a myriad of accomplishments, leadership experience and interests to the table.During her undergraduate career she was named one of Glamour Magazine’s Top 22 College Women of 2005 and was named Honorable Mention on the USA Today All-USA College Academic Team in 2004. In December 2006, she graduated with a bachelors of science degree in English with a minor in Journalism.

She has volunteered more than 5,000 hours of community service, coordinated and implemented four major outreach programs, and served on five executive committees including APSU’s Panhellenic Sorority Council. She has traveled more than 3,000 as the National Health Occupations Students of America Region II Vice President. She was a founding member of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance on her campus and wrote for CosmoGIRL and Seventeen Magazine.

Her studies in Shakespeare, economics, liberty and journalism have taken her to London, England and to three major seminars and conferences through the Institute for Humane Studies (that include Princeton University, Bryn Mawr College, and George Mason University). She will complete her second study abroad program this summer in 2008 in Ireland. She plans to own a publishing company and obtain her doctorate.

Matt Harrison, Prometheus Institute- A 2005 graduate of the University of Miami, Matt serves as the Executive Editor of the Prometheus Institute, which he founded in 2003. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Political Science, and is currently a J.D. candidate at the University of Southern California. An Orange County native, his interests include BMW M cars, music, University of Miami Football, and snowboarding.

Jerome Huyler, Seton Hall University- Jerome Huyler is an adjunct professor of political science at Seton Hall University. He earned his PhD. in political science from the New School for Social Research in 1992 and a Bachelors Degree from Brooklyn College, where he majored in philosophy. Dr. Huyler’s doctoral dissertation was edited for publication as Locke in America: The Moral Philosophy of the Founding Era (The University Press of Kansas, 1995, 2001). His latest manuscript, Unintended. The Consequences of Liberalism is now complete and is being shown to leading book publishers. A controversial book entitled, Everything You Have: The Case Against Welfare was published in 1980 but is currently out of print. Jerome has delivered talks at New York University, St. John’s University, Baruch College, The University of Connecticut, and other leading colleges. In addition to speaking before graduate seminars on the American Founding Era at Fordham University, he has addressed professional conferences, including those of the Liberty Fund, the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association and the New York State and Northeast Political Science Associations. His articles, interviews and book reviews have been published in prestigious journals, such as The William & Mary Quarterly, The American Historical Review, The Navigator, and The Independent Review, among others.

Jo Jensen, Students for Saving Social Security- Jo Jensen is the Executive Director of Students for Saving Social Security (S4), the nation’s largest grassroots student-run nonprofit that advocates for Social Security reform through personal retirement accounts. Started in 2005, S4 has over 8,000 members in all 50 states. Jo is a recent graduate from Mount Holyoke College and plans to attend law school next year.

Andrew Langer, National Federation of Independent Business- Andrew Langer joined NFIB in the Spring of 2002. As Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs, he helps White House and Executive Branch policymakers understand why small businesses are different than big businesses, how the regulatory state impacts those small businesses, and what government can do to best help small businesses. He is responsible for protecting the interests of small business in the face of an ever-increasing burden from regulatory agencies, as well the protection of the private property rights of small business owners.In 2003, Langer formed a DC-based property rights working group. Mr. Langer predicted the current crisis of eminent domain abuse, and foresaw the outrage that judicial decisions like the Supreme Court’s 2005 Kelo v. New London would spark across the nation.

As a public speaker, Mr. Langer is much in-demand. He has spoken at events all around the United States, keynoting many. Mr. Langer prides himself on being able to take dry topics such as federal regulatory policy and private property rights, and draw audiences in - making the subjects exciting and inspiring.

Mr. Langer’s background in international issues is being increasingly called upon. He meets regularly with foreign delegations to discuss the American regulatory state, and the impact the regulatory state has on an economy. In 2006, Mr. Langer was asked to be part of a USAID-funded mission to Morocco to assess Morocco’s small business sector.

Dr. Jim Lark, University of Virginia, Virginia Libertarian Party- James (Jim) W. Lark III, Ph. D. served as the United States Libertarian Party National Chairman from 2000 to 2002. Lark is a professor of systems engineering at the University of Virginia where he spends much of his time coordinating LP activity on college campuses. He is currently the Region 5 representative to the LNC. On February 19, 2007 The Libertarian Party of Virginia has awarded Jim Lark the designation of “Libertarian Leader” for 2007 in recognition of his many contributions to the Libertarian Party. Lark is the fourth person to be so honored.

Doug Leard, Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania- Doug is Media Relations Chair for the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania. Previously, he co-founded and chaired Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County Libertarian Party (LP), served as Vice-Chair of the Pennsylvania LP, and has twice been the party’s candidate for state representative. Professionally, Doug is Director of Software Development for a major software company. He is married with three children, (ages 13, 11 and 9) and resides in Blue Bell Pennsylvania.

Greg Lukianoff, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education- Greg Lukianoff is the president of FIRE and has been with FIRE since 2001, when he was hired to be the organization’s first director of legal and public advocacy. Greg is a graduate of American University and of Stanford Law School, where he focused on First Amendment and constitutional law. Greg has published articles in The Stanford Technology Law Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Fraternal Law, Inside Higher Ed, The Boston Globe, the New York Post, and numerous other publications. He is a blogger for the Huffington Post and served as a regular columnist for the Daily Journal of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Greg is a frequent guest on local and national syndicated radio programs, has represented FIRE on national television shows—including The O’Reilly Factor, Glenn Beck, The Abrams Report, Hannity and Colmes, and Buchanan and Press—and has testified before the U.S. Senate about free speech issues on America’s campuses.

Before joining FIRE, Greg practiced law in Northern California, interned at the ACLU of Northern California and the Organization for Aid to Refugees in Prague, Czech Republic, and was the development manager of the EnvironMentors Project in Washington, D.C. Greg, along with Harvey A. Silverglate and David French, is a co-author of FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus. Greg is also a proud member of the board of directors of Philadelphia’s Theater Exile.

Alexander McCobin, Students for Liberty Conference- Alexander McCobin is currently a joint bachelors and masters degree candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating this May. Throughout his collegiate career, Alexander has been involved in the cause of liberty and general organizational leadership at a number of levels. In 2005 he began Perspectives Debate Incorporated, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing youth debate education to underserved students in the greater Philadelphia region. Perspectives is now one of the nation’s leading nonprofit for debate education with over 100 volunteers, $120,000 raised and 300 students impacted. In the same year he began the University of Pennsylvania Libertarian Association, a student organization dedicated to educating members and the campus community at large about the diversity and richness of libertarian philosophy. The Penn Libertarian Association is now one of the campus’s most active political organizations and is under control of a new executive board that will continue the organization’s existence and development into the future. Most recently, Alexander co-founded and became Executive Director of the Students for Liberty Conference.

Stan Molever, Teach For America- Stan Molever was first exposed to the ideals of freedom, like many others, via the writings of Ayn Rand and John Stuart Mill early in his collegiate career. He was fortunate enough, however, to have the unique opportunity to absorb these texts (and, subsequently, many others) under the tutelage of David Schmidtz, Kendrick Professor of Philosophy and Joint Professor of Economics at the University of Arizona. Through the Kendrick Philosophy of Freedom program, he was able to continue studying the essential questions of human liberty and graduate from the UA in the spring of 2007 with a degree in Philosophy. After graduation, he accepted a position with Teach For America, teaching middle school English to under-resourced students in New York City. It is his hope to help all students obtain the kind of excellent education necessary to fully exercise their own freedom.

Michelle Muccio, Acton Institute- Michelle L. Muccio is a production associate and Washington, D.C. representative for Acton Media. Concurrently, Michelle is participating in the Koch Associates Program of the Charles G. Koch Foundation in Washington, D.C. She earned her B.A. in economics from George Mason University. Beginning her career in the office of former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Michelle later went on to serve as a litigation policy fellow to the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco. Prior to joining Acton, Michelle worked for the Heritage Foundation as a federal budget researcher, providing members of Congress and their staff with budgetary and economic analysis of spending and revenue trends. Michelle has lived abroad in Florence, Italy and is proficient in the Italian language.

Dr. Tom Palmer, Cato Institute- Tom G. Palmer is Vice President for International Programs at the Cato Institute, director of the Center for Promotion of Human Rights, a Senior Fellow of the Institute, and director of Cato University, the Institute’s educational arm. He was very active in the late 1980s and the early 1990s in the spread of classical liberal ideas in the Soviet bloc states and their successors and continues to be active throughout the region through his work with www.cato.ru, the Cato Institute’s Russian-language program, and with the Institute’s European programs. He also established and supervises Cato’s programs in Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Azeri, Portuguese, Chinese, and throughout Africa. Before joining Cato he was an H. B. Earhart Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford University, and a vice president of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. He frequently lectures in North America, Europe, Eurasia, Africa, Latin America, China, and the Middle East on political science, public choice, civil society, and the moral, legal, and historical foundations of individual rights. He has published reviews and articles on politics and morality in scholarly journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Ethics, Critical Review, and Constitutional Political Economy, as well as in publications such as Slate, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Spectator of London. He received his B.A. in liberal arts from St. Johns College in Annapolis, Maryland, his M.A. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and his Ph.D. in politics from Oxford University.

Sheldon Richman, Foundation for Economic Education- Sheldon Richman is editor of The Freeman, published by The Foundation for Economic Education, and serves as senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation. He is the author of FFF’s award-winning book Separating School & State: How to Liberate America’s Families; Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax; and FFF’s newest book Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State.

Mr. Richman’s articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, American Scholar, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and other publications.

A former newspaper reporter and former senior editor at the Cato Institute, Mr. Richman is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia.

Mark Smith, Federalist Society- Mark W. Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of The Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy: The Arguments You Need to Defeat the Loony Left. A former professor of law, he is a practicing trial attorney who is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar. He is also vice president of the New York City chapter of the Federalist Society, the nation’s most prominent conservative legal organization. Smith, a graduate of the New York University School of Law, regularly appears in the national media as a political and legal commentator. He lives in New York City, where he navigates the perils of liberalism with his trusty canine sidekick, Peanut.

Jason Talley, Bureaucrash- Jason manages the Bureaucrash Activist Network. Affectionately known as the Crasher-In-Chief, he works with Crashers around to world to resist bureaucracy and promote freedom.

Jason joined the U.S. Air Force after high school and served tours in Great Britain and Japan. Then he moved back to his hometown of Gainesville, Florida where he started a political action committee, the Liberty Project, and ran for the City Commission. Jason has held various political and technical positions before being hired by Bureaucrash in January of 2002. Even before coming on board Bureaucrash professionally, Jason worked on the Tax Slavery Sucks campaign and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) counter-protest in Quebec, Canada.

Will Thomas, The Atlas Society- Will Thomas is currently the Director of Programs at the Atlas Society, overseeing TAS programs oriented toward the Objectivist community and the theory and practice of Objectivism. He oversees event programs such as the Summer Seminar, and coordinates the student and scholarly programs of TAS’s research and training division, The Objectivist Center. Will also speaks and writes on Objectivism and cultural topics, and is the editor of The Literary Art of Ayn Rand.

Alex Weller, Penn State College Libertarians- Alex Weller is currently a Junior at Penn State University main campus, majoring in honors economics and microbiology. As president of the College Libertarians, he spreads the messages of libertarianism and freedom to the members of the Penn State community. He enjoys visiting foreign countries, having other people pay for his vacations and explaining the Austrian Business Cycle Theory. He can be found either watching Cops on TV or reading Human Action. Alex was thinking that he wanted to go to medical school, but that does not seem fulfilling now.