United States Student Association

Last updated
United States Student Association
Predecessor National Student Association and the National Student Lobby
FoundedAugust 1978;46 years ago (1978-08)
TypeStudent government; Student lobbying organization
Location
Area served
United States
Website https://usstudentassociation.org/

The United States Student Association (USSA) is an American national student advocacy association. It serves as the national student government representing postsecondary students in the United States and is recognized by the Global Student Forum. [1]

Contents

History

The organization was born in August 1978 during a joint meeting between the National Student Association (NSA), formed in 1947, [2] and the National Student Lobby (NSL), itself originally born of a split in 1971 with the NSA. [3] The membership of both organizations voted overwhelmingly to merge due to overlapping lobbying work and student government-based membership. [4] [5] The merger saw the NSL absorbed by the NSA, and the NSA renamed as the USSA, no new entity was created. [6]

By the mid-1980s, the USSA met annually in Washington, D.C., with several hundred students attending. [7]

In the early 1990s, the USSA advocated on behalf of students being eligible for credit cards and beginning to build credit. [8] It also advocated against rising college tuition costs. [9] [10]

Following a period of inactivity from the late 2010s to the mid-2020s, [11] [12] [5] [13] the USSA was revived by representatives from US student governments from around the country 2025, with the USSA organizing a conference that same year. [14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Membership Directory". Global Student Forum. 2025. Retrieved 2025-05-25.
  2. ↑ "United States National Student Association Collection | Berea College Special Collections and Archives Catalog". berea.libraryhost.com. Berea College. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  3. ↑ Johnston, J. Angus (2009). "The United States National Student Association: Democracy, Activism, and the Idea of the Student, 1947–1978" (PDF). City University of New York.
  4. ↑ Johnston, Angus. "A Brief History of NSA and USSA". United States Student Association. Archived from the original on Nov 8, 2023.
  5. 1 2 "United States Student Association". InfluenceWatch . Retrieved Aug 16, 2024.
  6. ↑ Johnston 2009 "Formally the merger was accomplished by absorbing NSL into NSA — the delegates to the conference amended NSA’s governing documents, rather than creating a new entity. They banned proxy voting in the new group, after nodding to NSL’s sensitivities by requiring that legislative stands be approved by a 60% super-majority vote in the plenary. And they gave the new organization its new name — The United States Student Association."
  7. ↑ Gailey, Phil; Weaver Jr., Warren (March 16, 1985). "BRIEFING; The Students Are Coming". The New York Times .
  8. ↑ de Witt, Karen (Aug 26, 1991). "Using Credit Cards, Students Learn a Hard Lesson". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ Crawford, Philip (Oct 5, 1993). "The Solid-Gold U.S. Diploma". International Herald Tribune – via The New York Times.
  10. ↑ "Price of Higher Education Becomes Even Dearer". The New York Times. Associated Press. Sep 28, 1994.
  11. ↑ Huang, Beth (October 10, 2023). "What DSA Can Learn from Organizational Death In the Student Movement". The Forge. Retrieved Aug 16, 2024.
  12. ↑ Patrick, Justin (March 2022). "Student Leadership and Student Government" (PDF). Research in Educational Administration and Leadership. 7 (1): 9. the collapse of the United States Student Association in the late 2010s
  13. ↑ "United States Student Association". ProPublica . Retrieved Aug 19, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Our History | United States Students Association" . Retrieved 2025-05-25.


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