The two libertarian groups on campus have a new name: Kent Student Liberty Alliance.

As of this year, College Libertarians and Young Americans for Liberty combined to form KSLA. President Maggie Dickerson said several students attended both meetings last year anyway, so they supported the idea.

Dickerson and Outreach Director Corey Moore began discussing the merge at the end of last semester. They both agreed that meeting separately was actually working against them and having more students meant more goals could be accomplished.

“We felt that having two groups was counterproductive. It was double the paperwork and a lot of bureaucracy,” Moore said. “We’re against that, so why encourage it more?”

David Higgins, previous president of Young Americans for Liberty, said he supports the groups combining although he is no longer involved. Both Moore and Dickerson said they thought he was unhappy with the outcome.

“It’s how it worked last year anyway,” Higgins said. “There’s really not much of a change… I just wasn’t happy about how little we accomplished last year.”

Higgins said he thinks KSLA should focus on attracting students so they can achieve more as a group. The executive board planned to do just that, as their first meeting was sparsely attended.

Jack Lorenzetti, previous president of College Libertarians and vice president of KSLA, said he is pleased with the formation of the new group. He thinks it has already improved the dynamic.

“This group in particular has brought together everything from personal liberty to religious liberty,” Lorenzetti said. “It’s definitely the best of all the groups.”

KSLA now focuses on becoming more inclusive. Dickerson said any student interested in a certain aspect of libertarianism can join. By merging, she said the group has become more impartial.

“By combining, we’ve actually neutralized to a point where people will want to come out,” Dickerson said, ”and they’ll find out that by coming to our meetings, we have views that are very similar to theirs.”

As the transition from two groups to one comes to a close, KSLA plans to become more prevalent on campus by working with Students for Sensible Drug Policy, planning an anti-war conference and participating in on-campus political debates. Moore said they will offer their help to Libertarian candidates, but their focus is on values.

Contact Taylor Rogers at [email protected].