OUSFL Launches

By Michael Rankin

In weeks leading up to Ohio University's 2009 Homecoming, president Anthony Hennen secured libertarian legacies by registering OUSFL as an official student organization at Baker University Center. Junior John Kerkhoff launched the organization's first internet domain at the same time, mobilizing a critical tool in the quest to establish a libertarian enclave.

Hennen and Kerhoff's accomplishments come on heels of much planning, thought, and history. Ohio University distance runners Todd Holbrook, Christopher Myers and Hennen founded OUSFL at Alden Library in 2008 after the Ohio Libertarians led by Robert Arnold phased out. Holbrook, who now works in Washington, D.C. began the chapter his senior year with Myers who had attended numerous Ohio Libertarian meetings at the Baker Center his freshman year.

Opening the first meeting at the Athens Civil War Monument in September 2009, five members planned the design of a formidable website worthy of carrying the weight of political, economic, and social ideas concentrated from Ohio University's sole libertarian camp.

In September, Hennen and Myers tapped tenured professor Richard Vedder to advise the organization, suggesting Vedder's outstanding career and expertise in economics would serve OUSFL well.