Secular Student Alliance Minimum Standards of Affiliation

The Secular Student Alliance invites high school, college, and university groups who advocate for and support secular students to join the Secular Student Alliance. We define secular students as individuals with identities independent of any assumptions about the supernatural, who eagerly rethink their beliefs in light of empirical evidence, and form their values based on concern for the present and future of our world.

Secular Student Alliance groups are often composed of atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, skeptics, and others who identify as non-religious or secular, as well as theistic allies. Chapters must be:

Community-Focused
We foster safe, welcoming, and supportive spaces for secular students on campus and in the larger secular movement. Strong communities are integral to creating a safe and positive environment for all secular students. We effect positive change by working with other communities and allies who share our values and will work with us toward shared goals.

Humanistic
We embrace human and civil rights, social justice, and other ideals informed by the philosophy of humanism. Groups should also seek a diversity of students who share these core values, and reach out to those who have been historically marginalized in society or underrepresented within the secular movement. We will not support groups that promote a denial of rights or liberties in areas of religion, speech, or equality under the law.

Inclusive
We embrace and welcome individuals regardless of their identity. This includes, but is not limited to, religious affiliation, worldview, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Additionally, we actively seek to foster, and engage with, diversity at all levels of the national secular student movement.

An SSA group may not deny membership to individuals based on their identity. However, groups can and must set and enforce acceptable limits of behavior within the group in order to foster a safe and comfortable space for all secular students.

Naturalistic
We hold a naturalistic and non-theistic worldview as the basis for understanding the cosmos. We believe that critical inquiry and empirical investigation are integral to understanding the universe in which we live. Groups that advocate for supernatural or pseudo-scientific phenomena, or take a neutral stance on naturalism do not meet the minimum standards of affiliation.