Kansas State University is the second college in the country to boast a fully-fledged training program for aspiring drone pilots. In the wake of President Obama’s unprecedented drone rampage across Pakistan and Yemen, however, many in the program are hesitant about how our elected officials might apply their training.

Increasingly, participants who had hoped to genuinely defend the United States, or perform search and rescue operations, wonder if their skills will instead be squandered on frivolous global police actions. At its recent Generation of War event, members of KSU’s YAL chapter sought to affirm this skepticism. 

As students at KSU walked to class, a large model drone hovered ominously above the school’s crowded Bosco Plaza. The event was well-received by a wide array of students, including a number of soldiers from nearby Fort Riley.

"I was really pleased with how many people came out to the event” said Elizabeth Francis, president of KSU’s YAL chapter. “The drone model drew a crowd who then stayed to play Pin the Drone on the War Zone and speak with YAL members about the convention.”

Francis said members handed out over 60 flyers promoting the April 20th Kansas YAL convention and spoke with over ninety people.

The drone was especially popular. "Quite a few people wanted pictures of themselves with the drone” said Vice President Ian Unruh.

Hey Guys!

Yesterday, YAL @ Southern Adventist University club members hosted our Generation of War table outside of our student center. We had all of our awesome literature, stickers, mini Constitutions, and questionnaires out for all to see! 

As students walked by, we invited students to take our questionnaire, whilst being filmed! Currently, we are cutting together iPhone footage into a cool video that covers the entire questionnaire about the Iraq-American war. The footage covers a lot of ground, and was definitely valuable research for us in the club, as far as assessing campus awareness of America's hand in global politics. It was amazing to find that some students didn't even know that we were in a war with anyone! WHAT?!

We had a specific plot along our promenade that showed a plethora of flags, each flag representing 100 killed soldiers in Iraq. Some students were surprised to even see that! Many were touched.

A ton of people took brochures and stickers. My housemate, Chastin, came by and found out that she actually identified as a libertarian, to her astonishment. Kind of funny, but its so interesting putting out all of our information and seeing how people respond on the ground. 

The BGSU YAL chapter finally takes action during our first event of the year!

After spending prior weeks planning, preparing, and hanging up flyers, we set up camp in our Student Union two days in a row to educate students on the benefits of economic freedom and recruit like minded individuals.

At our table, we offered a variety of treats as rewards for participating in the game. Afterward, we explained the empirical supported benefits of living in a free society and facilitated friendly, relevant conservation relating to their political interest, interest with certain issues, or, really, anything at all! We then told students who we were, offering the educational materials that came with the game, and invited them to take a free book and sign up for more information about our chapter.

The Univeristy of Kansas (KU) Young Americans for Liberty partnered with some coalition friends and allies on April 2nd to advocate for a fairer, better tax system. YALKU was working with the Kansas Policy Institute, the Douglas County Republicans, and the Kansas Sovereignty Coalition to sponsor a discussion and forum related to the various tax proposals on the floor of the Kansas Legislative. This includes the reduction of the Income Tax (in increments until the Income Tax is eliminated entirely), the Fair Tax proposal, and other suggestions that are brought up during the forum that are related to the primary discussions.

Featured speakers include our own sponsor and renowned Professor of Economics at the University of Kansas, Art Hall, and two other speakers from Kansas Policy Institute (KPI): Todd Davidson and David Trabert, who is also the President of KPI. Our panel discussion and general forum portion included Steven Anderson, the Kansas Budget Director, Senator Ty Masterson, Chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and Kansas Secretary of Revenue, Nick Jordan. Other notable individuals showed up, including the entire event being MC'd by Jim Mullins, as well as three other state legislators.