|
|
Introduction/History | Record Group/Series Description | Inventory
Introduction/History
The United States Student Association (USSA) Collection was donated to the Center for Archival Collections in 1993, with a
second addition acquired in 2005, to be part of the National Student Affairs Archives. The Collection is comprised of the
papers of Dr. Dennis Trueblood who was on the National Advisory Board/Council during the formative years of the USSA. The
Collection consists of meeting (Congress) files, chronological and subject files, and publications. The papers date from 1946
to 1966. These papers were donated with the assistance of Dr. Jack Graham, Professor Emeritus of Educational Administration
and Higher Education at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Dr. Trueblood headed the College Student Personnel Program
at Southern Illinois and also served as president of the American College Personnel Association. No restrictions exist on
the research use of this collection and duplication is permitted for administrative and scholarly purposes. The collection
was arranged and finding aid prepared by Ann Bowers, National Student Affairs Archivist, in October 2005.
The following history of the USSA is excerpted from A Brief History of NSA and USSA, written by Angus Johnston, USSA National
Corporate Secretary, 1990-1992, and available on the USSA web site: http://www.usstudents.org.
In 1946 students from the United States and 37 other countries met in Prague to launch the International Union of Students.
Upon their return, the American students called for a new national student organization. Hundreds of students attended a planning
meeting in Chicago that December and a Constitution Convention was held the following year, officially establishing the United
States National Student Association (NSA). In its first years of operation, it drafted a Student Bill of Rights and worked
to strengthen student government and expand access to higher education.
From the beginning NSA members debated whether it should be a non-partisan organization or whether it had the responsibility
to enter the political arena. Its original non-partisan stance was for all practical purposes eliminated when the NSA went
on record in opposition to educational segregation. In 1951, NSA condemned "McCarthyism" but not McCarthy, and in 1953, it
condemned South African apartheid but only in higher education. This "middling" road resulted in criticism from the conservatives
which accused NSA of being a communist front and from the Communist Party for being too right-wing.
The 1950s also brought serious financial difficulties. These difficulties were eliminated when the CIA approached the leaders
with a secret offer of large-scale funding which was accepted. For the next fifteen years, a small group of officers and staff
worked closely with the CIA while others in NSA leadership positions were kept in the dark.
NSA officers and staff used their position to gather information on student leaders abroad for the agency and some alumni
worked to ensure that NSA took "correct" positions on controversial questions. Most of the students were motivated by a sincere
belief in the rightness of the government's cause. Self-interest also was a motivation as several received draft deferments
and other help from the government.
By the late 1950s and 1960s, the NSA became involved in civil rights, opening up a civil rights office in Atlanta and developing
ties with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. NSA also joined with the Students for a Democratic Society in antiwar
protests. In 1967, a former staffer, Michael Wood, told a reporter from Ramparts magazine about the CIA connections. The Ramparts
article exposed the CIA links with several organizations and brought the NSA almost to the point of dissolving. Instead it
re-emerged as a radical group endorsing the Black power movement struggle and initiating a task force working to deny Lyndon
Johnson re-nomination for President in 1968, instead replacing him with a candidate committed to ending the war in Vietman.
By 1974, NSA, criticized by other student organizations for not also advocating for higher education issues, created a separate
foundation to carry out non-political work. This allowed the NSA and the National Student Lobby to merge in 1978 under the
new name, United States Student Association. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the USSA located new funding sources, provided
organized assistance to state student associations and in 1985, co-sponsored the first Grass Roots Organizing Weekend for
campus leaders. The USSA advocated multicultural leadership when in 1989 the Congress mandated that people of color fill half
the seats on the Board of Directors. In succeeding years, similar amendments ensured the representation for women, lesbians,
gays and bisexuals on the Board.
USSA is the oldest and largest student group in the country and is reflective of what has occurred since WWII with the American
student movement. Its current vision statement includes the following statements:
USSA believes education is a right and works on building grassroots power among students to win concrete victories that expand
access to education at the federal, state and campus level.
The organization tracks and lobbies federal legislation and policy, and organizes students from across the country to participate
in the political process, through testifying in official Congressional hearings, letter-writing campaigns, and face-to-face
lobbying visits between students and their elected officials.
In addition, USSA trains and organizes students to win concrete victories on their campuses-like stopping fee hikes, expanding
retention and recruitment programs for underrepresented students and improving campus safety.
Record Group/Series Description
The United States Student Association collection is divided into three record groups: Congresses; Chronological/Subject Files;
and, Publications. These record groups and divided into record series which are described below.
Congresses
Congress Files
1946-1957, 1960-1961, 1966, 1968
Arranged chronologically
Includes programs, planning correspondence, publicity, presentations and speeches for the annual conference of the United
States Student Association. Also includes files documenting the first conference held in Chicago in 1946 followed by a constitutional
convention in 1947 which officially established the United States National Student Association.
Chronological/Subject Files
Chronological Files
1948-1956, 1958, 1961, 1963, n.d.
Arranged chronologically
Includes correspondence, reports, evaluations, organizational background, news releases about US National Student Association
and its business by members of the National Advisory Council. Also includes photo of Dennis Trueblood in 1963.
Subject Files
1948, 1949, 1952-1955, n.d.
Arranged by subject and within chronologically
Includes files documenting the USNSA's responses to the Indiana Daily Student newspaper article about links between communism
and the USNSA; the USNSA and international issues/students; segregation; and activities of the Ohio Region, USNSA.
Publications
Publications-Serial
1948, 1949-1958, 1960, 1966, 1967, 1968,n.d.
Arranged by title and within chronologically
Includes scattered issues of the Advisory Council newsletter, The Student Government Bulletin, the NSA News, handbooks and
brochures.
Publications-Monographs
1948-1962, n.d.
Arranged chronologically
Includes monographs (most in mimeograph format) published by the USNSA or connected to the USNSA on various subjects of interest
to students and higher education. Topics covered include student leadership, student government, discrimination, international
students, campus justice, values, purchase cards and parking.
Inventory
Record Group: Congresses
Box 1
- National Student Conference (Chicago), December 1946
- Constitutional Convention of the US National Student Association (University of Wisconsin), August 30-September 7, 1947
- First Annual Congress (University of Wisconsin), August 23-28, 1948
- Second Annual Congress (University of Illinois), August 24-September 3, 1949
- Third Annual Congress (University of Michigan), August 23-31, 1950
- Fourth Annual Congress (Iowa State College), August 20-29, 1951
Box 2
- Fifth Annual Congress (Indiana University), includes photographs, August 18-27, 1952
- Sixth Annual Congress (Ohio State University), August 24-September 2, 1953
- Seventh Annual Congress (Iowa State College), August 22-31, 1954
- Eighth Annual Congress (University of Minnesota), August 21-31, 1955
Box 3
- Ninth Annual Congress (University of Chicago), August 21-31, 1956
- Tenth Annual Congress (University of Michigan), August 20-30, 1957
- Thirteenth Annual Congress (University of Minnesota), August 22-September 1, 1960
- Fourteenth Annual Congress (University of Wisconsin), August 20-30, 1961
- Nineteenth Annual Congress (University of Illinois), August 20-September 1, 1966
- Twenty-First Annual Congress (Kansas State Univ.), August 17-24, 1968
Record Group: Chronological/Subject Files
Box 1
- Chronological File, 1948-1951
- Chronological File, 1952
- Chronological File, 1953
- Chronological File, 1954-1956, 1958, 1961
- Chronological File, n.d.
- Subject File-The Indiana Daily Student and the USNSA, 1952
- Subject File-International Issues, 1949, 1952-1955, n.d.
- Subject File-Ohio Region, 1948
- Subject File-Segregation, 1954-1955, n.d.
Record Group: Publications (Serials)
Box 1
- Advisory Council Newsletter, 1949-1952
- Student Government Bulletin and Report, Volume 1, #1-8, October 1952-May 1953
- Student Government Bulletin and Report, Volume 2, #1-6, 8, October 1953-May 1954
- Student Government Bulletin, Volume 3, #2-8, November 1954-May 1955
- Student Government Bulletin, Volume 4, #2-3, 5-8, November 1955-May 1956
- Student Government Bulletin, Volume 5, #1-4, November 1956-April 1957
- The NSA News, May 1948, November 1955- February 1956, December 1957, February 1958, May 1958, October 1958, November 1960
- Handbooks, 1951/52, 1956, 1957, 1966
- Brochures, n.d.
Record Group: Publications (Monographs)
Box 1
- Foreign Student Summer Project (M.I.T.), 1948
- Student Personnel and Guidance Services, 1948
- Student Leadership and Government for Higher Education, 1949, 1953
- Student Government Survey, 1949
- A Call To Order-Guide to Parliamentary Procedure, 1952
- Statement in Answer to "The Students for America", 1953
- Fair Employment Practices Act in the States in 1953: A New Dimension for Student Government, c. 1953
- Discrimination and the Campus, [1953]
- Course Evaluation, 1954
- The Tools of Giving: Handbook for Student Fund Raisers, 1954
- Towards a Democratic Campus: A student's Manual for Better Human Relations, 1955
- Campus Justice, [1955]
- Guides for the Student Body President, [1956]
- Student Leadership in American Education, [1956]
- The American Student-Profile and Promise (USNSA-1947-1957), [1957]
- The College Student and the Changing South 1958
- Student Responsibility in Higher Education: A Guide to Campus Programming, 1958
- Mass Communication on Campus, 1958
- Entering the Academic Vocation: What Can Students Do? [1959]
- Better Education for More College Students: Backgrounds and Bases for Student Responsibility, 1959
- Purchase Card System, n.d.
Student Discount Service [1959]
- The World of the American Student: Collection of Essays [1959]
- Human Relations Agencies, 1959
- Student Responsibility in Advising, Counseling and Tutoring, [1959]
- Campus Parking, 1960
Box 2
- Working Papers: the Aims of Education, 1962
- Readings in Campus Values and Climates, 1962
- Readings in Relationship of Institutions of Higher Education to Legal Owners and Sources of Financial Support, 1962
- Readings in Civil Rights, North and South, 1962
- In Loco Parentis, 1962
- Readings in Campus Communications, 1962
- Readings in Student Educational Peace Report, 1962
- Student-Faculty-Administration Relations and the Role of Students in Policy Formation, 1962
- Academic Freedom, 1962
- Readings in Student Community Involvement, 1962
- Readings in Structure and Role of Student Government, 1962
- A Guide to Campus International Programming, 1962
- Student Welfare Goals and Programs, 1962
- Academic and Social Honor Systems, n.d.
- Education in the National Emergency, n.d.
- How to Plan a Symphony Forum, n.d.
- A Continuing Leadership Program, n.d.
NSAA Bibliography | Education Bibliography
|
|
