The United States National Student Association: Democracy, activism, and the idea of the student, 1947--1978
Item
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Title
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The United States National Student Association: Democracy, activism, and the idea of the student, 1947--1978
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:1523fefbaf97:09993
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identifier
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10126
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Creator
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Johnston, J. Angus,
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Contributor
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Gerald Markowitz | Joshua B. Freeman
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Date
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2009
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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American history | Education history | Higher education | student activism | student activist | student government | student history
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Abstract
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The United States National Student Association (USNSA, or simply NSA), America's dominant national union of students from 1947 to 1978, was the locus of an extraordinary variety of student organizing over the course of its 31-year history. A confederation of student governments, NSA claimed an active membership of hundreds of colleges and universities, trained and informed tens of thousands of student leaders, and served as both a resource and a foil to the other student organizations of its era.;NSA's annual meeting, the National Student Congress, drew participation from a broad cross-section of American campuses. It was an incubator of theories and strategies of student empowerment that shaped the university, and a site of debate, consciousness-raising, information exchange, and organizing work.;NSA maintained significant relationships with a wide variety of other student activist groups, including Students for a Democratic Society, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Young Americans for Freedom, and the National Student Lobby, the last of which it merged with in 1978 to create the United States Student Association. From the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, its top leadership was also engaged in a clandestine relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency.;Through more than three decades NSA provided one of the few sources of long-term continuity in American student activism, and its persistent emphasis on the student's role in the university and the larger society enabled it to retain its campus focus, and its student base, as other student organizations drifted, often to their detriment. NSA grew from the premise that a student organization could be both activist and representative of the nation's students. This premise was the source of much of its strength. It was also, however, a source of great internal strain, and a drag on some of the Association's grander ambitions. While NSA's grounding in student government lent it a stability, longevity, and ideological diversity that is unparalleled among American student organizations, it also often fostered a timidity and a bureaucratic mindset that often constrained it from taking bold action at moments of upheaval and opportunity.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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History
