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The Importance of Building EA Communities at Universities

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The current state

Mckinsey spends ~1 Million per campus per year

College career offices often aren’t helping

College students care more about doing good this generation

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Key Points

Why universities seem particularly promising for community building

A 2024 vision of the EA at universities

Why this might be especially impactful for you right now

Reasons this might not be the right option for you

Ways to get involved and test your fit

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University: Critical Window

Not locked in

Peer groups

Thinking about priorities

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2024 Vision

Top 200 universities

Majority of students hear about EA

Introduced to ideas
Meaningful conversations
Connected to opportunities

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Trajectory

Spring 2021

15 schools

Fall 2022

65 schools

2024

200 schools?

Dozen Campus Centers

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We can do so much more

We are in the first Chapter

Pre-orientation Programs

EA courses

Great career programs

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You are the best positioned to do this

Typical pinnacle of impact in 50s and 60s

You are the expert

You know the users and culture

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Current options

Work part or full time on your group

Join a campus centre

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These could be the highest impact years of your life

Multiplier Effect

People who

helped run a charity incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship charity now is a data scientist at the World Bank

helped get plant based meat in fast food restaurants across the US

influenced $16B of pandemic funding

started on a job at the White House in the fall

Particularly important moment if

Bigger soon

Hingey moment

If you’re currently a university student I think there’s a chance the next 1-2 years could be the highest impact years of your life, even if you go on to specialize in other fields. Not guaranteed but certainly plausible

10 min

Multiplier effects - counterfactually get someone involved in EA as good or better than you

One helped run a charity incubated by Charity Entrepreneurship charity now is a data scientist at the World Bank
Another friend who helped get plant based meat in fast food restaurants across the US
A final friend played a vital role in the COVID response and is now influencing $16B of pandemic funding
One had a pivotal conversation - through connections at an EA group - that influenced the direction of their PhD right before they encountered lock in to start working on emerging technology. They started on a job at the White House in the fall

Experts in the meta space who think this could be one of the most, if not the most, important decade for movement building

If you think we’re going to bigger soon, opportunities for movement building will be less good
If you believe we’re in a hingey moment related to transformative tech -- doing things earlier matters more

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“...then there’s more than a 50% chance that an optimal allocation of your time over the course of your undergrad degree would involve you spending at least one full time -year on student group organizing.”

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Who can do this?

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Kuhan - As part of Stanford Existential Risk Initiative ; Stanford Existential Risk Summer Fellowship -- hundreds of applicants, more competitive to get into than Stanford
Koki - EA NYU Abu Dhabi - innovate on the ifor intro program a multicultural approach. which had a fellowship with people representing 17 different countries.
Leilani- UCLA;

"While working on UCLA EA she realized there was a bigger need for retreat operations in the EA community so she started an org
Received funding from EAIF
Several upcomingcovering over 100 attendees and growing demand

Jemima - Durham; EA Journal Her and Tom Blake at manchester

Desire for an EA themed student journal.
With co-founder surveyed 80 young EAs, over half would submit an article.
Opening for submissions in september.

Kirsten - EA Blue - Philippines

Recruiting a leadership team, member engagement system, handover

Dewi - Ran successful group at Durham, came back full time to Cambridge

Cause specific fellowships & cause specific reading groups - AI Safety fellowship one of the best learning opportunities for university students & org staff (know people from 80,000 Hours and CEA participating right now :))

The three main organizers of this conference were all group organizers

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You (yes you!)

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Why?

Strong sense of urgency

Figure out what is the most impactful

Take ideas and implications seriously

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Benefits of Community Building

Skills

People management

Recruitment

Project management

Organisational development

How to communicate EA ideas

Personally

Meeting professionals

Developing deep understanding of EA Ideas

Figure out your own cause prioritization

Build a reputation and get referrals

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Why shouldn’t you do this?

If you don’t think you are as good at creating multiplier effects

Still learning EA ideas

Less of a track record

University is already saturated

If you have a high opportunity cost

Opportunity you cannot delay

Who should / shouldn’t consider this?

What’s the impact model:

How good are you at creating multiplier effects?
What’s the opportunity cost, if any, for your direct work

Might take away from your peak impact

Considering this less as an option:

Less good at multiplier effects

Are still learning EA ideas, so you want to invest more before sharing them with others to make sure they are accurate
Don’t have a track record of getting folks excited about EA ideas

Crowding out someone who could do a better job

Are in a smaller university or university that might not have students that are a good fit for EA problem areas
Already at point of saturation at your university

Opportunity cost from your direct work

Have an opportunity that you can’t delay -- Cofounder who needs you
Benefits of recruiting people aren’t work delaying your direct work for two years, this might be the case if you have super short AI timelines

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What now?

Testing fit, getting experience, make impact!

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Volunteer at a local group

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Start a university group

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Grow your group

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Try an entrepreneurial community building project

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Keep learning!

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An ending anecdote

Stanford 2015

The aforementioned Buck Shlegeris, CTO of Redwood Research, and a manager of the EA Infrastructure Fund
Claire Zabel, who leads Open Philanthropy’s longtermist granting on effective altruism
Caroline Ellison, now a major EA funder, and co-CEO of Alameda Research
Kelsey Piper, the world’s first full-time journalist on topics in effective altruism
Nate Thomas, CEO of Redwood Research

Stanford 2022

Stanford 2016 -2020

Dark

Ending: 2015 Stanford was pretty legendary

The Stanford group in 2015 included:

The aforementioned Buck Shlegeris, CTO of Redwood Research, and a manager of the EA Infrastructure Fund
Claire Zabel, who leads Open Philanthropy’s longtermist granting on effective altruism
Caroline Ellison, now a major EA funder, and co-CEO of Alameda Research
Kelsey Piper, the world’s first full-time journalist on topics in effective altruism
Nate Thomas, CEO of Redwood Research

Today, Stanford is home to a thriving group

But the Stanford group went dark in 2016. People graduated and moved away, and there was only one active member for a few years. They ran some events, but nobody was prioritising the group, so it didn’t cause anyone new to become deeply engaged.

As a result, we probably lost a few Bucks, Claires, Carolines, Kelseys, and Nates[5]. That’s a lot of missing impact.

We want to make sure that future university groups are consistently thriving and growing, and never go dark. We really need the entrepreneurs in this room to help us. To make sure that the message of Goldman and Facebook and McKinsey isn’t the only message that smart young ambitious students hear on university campus

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Summary

But, community building isn’t for everyone

Colleges are failing ambitious do-gooders

There is so much impact at stake

You are the expert

Community building builds transferable skills and career capital

Find out if it is right for you!