Civil rights and educational issues will dominate the 16th Congress of the National Student Association, beginning Sunday at the University of Indiana. NSA officials, however, expect the Association's position on a whole series of issues to be challenged by a resurgent group of right-wing students, currently riding the best of a smashing victory at the national Young Republican convention.

The Young Americans for Freedom, the largest conservative student organization, is expected to be especially vocal at Indiana's Bloomington campus. The Big Ten school withdrew from NSA last spring, thanks largely to a campaign by the local YAF chapter.

Indiana politics is not the only reason to expect a strong conservative push. Student right-wingers throughout the country are taking heart from the increasing popularity of Sen. Barry Goldwater (R.-Ariz.), long their political idol.

Fully half of the Harvard delegation, poses by the Council on Undergraduate affairs, is solidly conservative. Of the voting members, one describes himself as a liberal, one as a conservative, had one as a moderate. The other hasn't decided whether he's a "liberal segregationist" or a "conservative integrationist."

NSA, which currently has 386 member schools with more than 1.2 million students, has traditionally been left of center in its political stands. A much heralded conservative revival two years ago proved to be little more than the work of a good press agent. But NSA officials are predicting the conservatives at Indiana will be a larger, if less flamboyant group than the ones at the 14th congress at the University of Wisconsin.

It is considered extremely improbable, however, that the conservatives will succeed in altering any of NSA's basic policies. The most important of those policies likely to be debated is NAS's stand on civil rights.

While NSA was one of the earliest and most forceful supporters of the sit-in demonstrators, the Association has not yet adopted a broad, general policy on the civil rights issue. Such a policy will be considered this summer, according to Timothy Manring, National Affairs Vice-President of NSA.

NSA leaders will also propose the establishment of a teacher program in Prince Edward County, Va., where schools have been closed since 1959 to thwart integration. NSA is also planning to add three full-time workers to be stationed in the South.

This year for the first time one of the Congress seminars will treat the problem of "community development," Manring said, which basically means civil rights in the North.

Since the Congress will run through Aug. 30, some have proposed an early adjournment to allow delegates to join the march on Washington Aug. 28. Manring said it is now unlikely such a motion would be adopted, since the Congress has a great deal of business on its agenda.

Another key issue the Congress will consider is the relationship between higher education and the federal government. Marning said one resolution in this area would probably survey the general problems posed by the great increase in Federal contributions to university budgets. A second resolution will deal with the increasing cost of education, and possible ways of alleviating the financial burden on college students.