The problem of representation is not simply confined to the operation of the National Congress. There is a general problem of contact and communication throughout the structure of NSA. It is a problem that runs both ways, between students and officers. The nation is split into 22 regions in NSA, each with several elected officers. The nation is split into 22 regions in NSA, each with several elected officers. The regions vary in size from New England, with about 60 schools, to the Great Southeast with less than 10 (Note--NSA lost much of its membership in the deep south in 1954 when about 80 schools pulled out because of the Association's endorsement of school desegregation.) Regional officers are responsible for planning conferences and meetings, helping individual campuses run programs, and in general making NSA a reality. Assisting regional officers are a variety of national staff people; and the two annually elected Program Vice-Presidents (P.V.P.'s). The latter are supposed to spend their time going from campus to campus helping on specific problems and setting up actual programs.

Operation Unsatisfactory

The operation of this whole structure has been less than satisfactory. Regional officers change every year, and hardly learn their jobs before they leave. The mobile P.V.P.'s are hard to call on for aid once they have driven out of the campus gate. In any case they only get to a small minority of campuses, and then only for a mere brief visit. Regional officers have proved almost impotent in helping some poor confused NSA coordinator, who wants to "educate" his fellows but hasn't the slightest idea of how to go about that rather large task.

Recently there has been a good deal of talk in NSA of splitting the country into four to six large areas, and setting up a permanent office for a program vice-president in each area.

An expanded P.V.P. system would enable some part of the Association to give personal attention to a school's unique situation. But it all depends on finding enough money. And the prospects for such a find are not encouraging.

In light of this discussion of NSA structure and operation, the older criticisms of NSA as being "unrepresentative" have a certain validity. In fact NSA was not involving a good many of the more conservative students in the country--either because their schools didn't belong or because students on the "right" were not attracted to what the Association was trying to do in the 50's. The idea of making other people concerned about political issues appealed, in general, to people who were fairly liberal. The liberals in addition seem to work harder at NSA conferences to influence the great mass of uncommitted delegates. During the great HUAC debate at the 14th Congress two years ago, there were so few conservative speakers that some had to talk twice. The liberals, as is their wont, elbowed each other for the microphone.

Solutions Possible

Last fall both the College Young Republicans and the YAF passed qualified resolutions asking their members to participate in NSA. This seems to indicate that part of the problem is approaching solution. On the structural side several reforms have been made in the operation of the Congress. But the rules were never the real problem. Conservatives have apparently realized that, despite its problems, the structure of NSA is open, and they can influence it.

At the same time, the newer complaint that NSA takes positions that are, or should be, of no concern to students does imply a fundamental disagreement between the Association and its critics. Most of the issues on which there is no student opinion, and on which NSA posses resolutions, are considered on the theory that there ought to be student concern in such areas. Someone once quipped "If we really represented American student opinion, the Codification of Policy would be 100 blank pages." Apparently it is not sufficient for NSA to merely ask students to become concerned with one area or another. The virtue of passing resolutions at the Congress is that it gives students a reason for being concerned. If past student apathy is any guide, NSA is correct in believing that more than the rhetoric of democratic responsibility is needed to get through the wall of disinterest most American students erect around themselves.

It is true that many of the people who do, and have made the "non-political" objection to NSA are individuals student interest to political questions, injured in some way by the shift of This is a shift which NSA seems intent upon furthering. Student body presidents and fraternity people, consciously or unconsciously, often wish more attention were given to campus problems. For the campus is their element. But at the same time there does appear to have been a more fundamental change in student attitudes that has brought about the increase in this kind of criticism of NSA.

The reasons for what appears, to this writer, to be an increasing privatism on American campuses in the past few months are hard to pin down. But this trend seems to be the source of the changing focus in the criticism leveled at NSA. The recent increase in student activism that began in 1900 was clearly due, in part, to the impact of the sit-ins. Picketing, sitting in, freedom riding all gave students the feeling that they could do something to affect that great, ponderous bureaucratic world out there. The brief vogue of peace and disarmament demonstrations helped keep this feeling alive. So did the shift in occupancy of the White House to an administration that promised all kinds of social action and appeared to be sympathetic to youth.

Civil Rights Struggle

But now the civil rights struggle has entered a phase where activity in the south demands genuine sacrifice and courage. And there is little room for the white in southern action projects anyway. In the north, the efforts of the student activist have been centered in the hard, unflamboyant work of tutorial projects and selective patronage campaigns. The newer activities are often less dramatic, usually demand more dedication, and therefore are less likely to involve fringe people. The work has become so hard, or so long-range that it has become unreal to most students. Once again they feel irrelevant. Once again there is the frustration and impotence.

In the area of international affairs the triumph of the hard line in Cubs sapped the vigor of much of the leftwing. For all students, continuing crises and problems with no apparent solutions have drained away emotional commitment. One can only follow Laos so long, and be upset about it so long. And if it is not Laos it is Viet Nam, or Berlin. People have retreated a bit further into their own lives when confronted with a world which apparently operates without them, and beyond their influence.

At the same time it is true that NSA has moved away from some of the burning political issues and toward questions more closely connected with the academic community. In some sense this is a response to the criticism that NSA is too political. In part this movement is a tactical one. Perhaps the people who would ignore NSA if approached on more political issues can be involved in debate that will ultimately lead to questions of social concern by becoming involved in questions of higher education.

At the same time there is much feeling in the Association that there are genuine questions that face the American educational community that need student attention in their own right. The impact of federal funds on the university, the nature of social development of students in an academic community, academic freedom: these issues NSA feels a responsibility toward--since they affect students and it is a student organization. Also here NSA has a greater chance to make itself felt. Other educational organizations like the American Association of University Professors, and the National Education Association take NSA views seriously, not as an indication of what all students are thinking, but as some indication of concerned student opinion.

It is difficult to say what will happen in the future. There is a need for more work on each campus. Yet who is going to do that work is another matter. Regional structures will only improve when the funds appear from somewhere to hire people to do the work that full time students cannot get to. The fact that there is apparently some increase in student apathy and privatism makes the job of the Association more difficult. But perhaps it is one more argument for the need for an organization like NSA