After several years of dormancy, the UCA chapter of the Secular Student Alliance is once again active and looking to grow.
The SSA, as the name implies, is a national organization that represents students with no religious affiliation. Sophomore Dylan Ruple, one of two presidents of UCA’s SSA, said he wanted to create a space where individuals with similar worldviews could discuss issues and make friends.
“We wanted to create a community for the non-religious, and to increase the visibility of the secular population on campus,” said Ruple.
Junior Colton Crain, the other president of SSA, said representation and visibility of the secular community is a very important endeavor, especially in places where Christians are the overwhelming majority.
“Our group provides a place where people can communicate without discrimination,” Crain said. “This group is a speck in the sea of Christianity, a refuge for the nonreligious, and the only secular club on campus to contrast the many religious clubs.”
The organization has been active for around five months and only has 10 members at the moment. However, Ruple said that he thinks other secular-minded students would probably be interested in joining if they knew about the group.
SSA meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month in LSC 101. Meetings consist of planning the future of the group and discussing issues such as religion, science and secular humanism. Crain said future meetings will have a set topic of discussion that relates to such issues.
image via logodatabase.net
