Conservative & Resigned

At Iowa State College last week, some 800 delegates, claiming to represent 800,000 U.S. college undergraduates, wound up the annual congress of the U.S. National Student Association. In ten days of argument and discussion, resolutions and amendments, one thing was clear: there was not a wild eye in the house. The N.S.A., born in 1947 to a rough and tumble fight over controversial issues (e.g., racial discrimination, banning of Communist teachers, etc.) had gone conservative, in expression even more than in politics.

When one group proposed to seek a U.S.-Russian student-exchange program to further "communication"--a surefire controversy in 1948--there was little inflamed oratory. The motion was merely voted down, 235-69. An almost inevitable resolution on segregation packed a surprise: it was far milder than the U.S. Supreme Court ban, was challenged only by four Northern delegates--for its severity. Joe McCarthy was routinely deplored, rather than denounced; not even a stouthearted right-winger rose to Red-bait in reply. Nor did the students spend much time discussing the vagaries of the draft and U.M.T. (rejected by N.S.A. in 1952). Said one N.S.A. officer: "We're pretty well resigned to all that."

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