"Student organizing has played an important role in US history, yet student organizing itself is fundamentally unstable, at the whim of graduations and expulsions of its best leaders. That said, students internationally have an established model for addressing this. This model is the student association, sometimes called a student union. These student groups are elected decision-making bodies that serve as the voice of the student body. In some countries, student unions have even toppled dictators and colonizers. Unfortunately, US student unions have remained rather weak."
"Back in the late 1970s, two groups came together to create the US Student Association (USSA), a federation of local student government associations that played a valuable movement infrastructure role from its founding in 1978 until its demise in 2017. USSA's dissolution was tragic, not only because it served as a stable fighting force for students, but because it was also a vital place for young organizers to learn how to build community, engage in internal democracy, manage staff, and run campaigns."
"Last year, however, efforts to rebuild USSA began. In March 2025, 150 students from nearly 40 campuses in 18 states gathered for the group's first in-person meeting in eight years. What Is the USSA? What makes [independent state student associations] unique ... is their funding model and legal structure. Student organizing, and what would eventually become the USSA, fundamentally changed with the passage of the 26th amendment in 1971, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18."
Student organizing in the United States has repeatedly driven social change but remains unstable because leaders graduate or face expulsion. Student associations or unions offer an electoral, geographically based model of elected decision-making bodies that represent students and have toppled dictators in other countries, but US unions have been weak. The US Student Association (USSA) formed in 1978 as a federation of state student governments and provided infrastructure and organizer training until dissolving in 2017. Rebuilding efforts began in 2024–2025, culminating in a March 2025 meeting of 150 students. State student associations grew after the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18.
Read at Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
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