WSA affiliates with SAM & USSA, a "left-wing radical outlet"

This past Wednesday, the Western Student Association passed resolution 0708-02, officially aligning the WSA with a super-university organization named the Student Association of Michigan, or SAM. This is the group responsible for the organizing of the upcoming student rally in Lansing on Sep 26th. The intent of this rally is to increase government funding of higher education in Michigan by lobbying legislatures. Grand Valley's student government has chosen not to join SAM and MSU's government is not participating in the rally.

In making the case for this resolution, the authors of the resolution indicated the SAM had been formed by a representative from the United States Student Association.

The USSA was formed by a merger of the National Student Association (NSA) and the National Student Lobby (NSL). These organizations both have a very storied past, and one which we should be concerned about, especially when officially affiliating our student government with a group organized by the USSA.

Here is some disturbing information directly taken from the United States Student Association's website:

Until 1948, the NSA was associated with the International Union of Students, which had aligned itself with the Communist bloc. 1951 the NSA condemned "McCarthyism."

The 1950s brought financial difficulties, and in 1951 three of NSA's five staff positions were eliminated. When the CIA made the association a secret offer of large-scale funding the following year, the NSA president accepted. For the next fifteen years, a clique of "witting" officers and staff worked closely with the CIA, while others in NSA leadership, particularly those who worked solely on domestic issues were kept in the dark. CIA-backed foundations underwrote as much as eighty percent of the total NSA budget some years, and CIA-linked alumni wielded significant influence in the association. During this period some officers and staff used their positions to gather information on student leaders abroad for the agency, and some alumni worked to ensure that NSA took "correct" positions on controversial questions. High-ranking NSA leaders obtained draft deferments [from the Vietnam War] and other help from the government, and some went on to work for the CIA more directly when they left the association.

In 1966 a California Congressman attacked NSA on the floor of the House, citing a State Department grant that had funded a trip to Vietnam by the NSA president, and urging Congress to "consider requiring the Department to cease its support of this radical organization which is subverting American foreign policy." By this time, NSA "radicals" were receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from the CIA.

The 1967 NSA congress passed a resolution endorsing the Black Power movement's struggle "by any means necessary," and withdrew NSA from membership in the cold war international group it had founded. Delegates cheered when a network television commentator called NSA "a left-wing radical outfit."

In 1972 NSA's president traveled to North Vietnam to gather evidence of US violations of international law, hoping to lay groundwork for a war crimes trial. Actions like these earned NSA a place on President Nixon's infamous "enemies list," and caused division among activists as well. In 1971, a group of California students broke away, dissatisfied with NSA's militancy and focus on the war. They formed a new group, the National Student Lobby (NSL), to lobby the states and the federal government on issues such as economic access to higher education.

But the pendulum was already swinging back. In 1974 NSA created a separate foundation to carry out non-political work. This move allowed the association to become more involved in lobbying, and encouraged cooperation with NSL. In August 1978 a joint meeting of the two groups overwhelmingly approved a merger, naming the new group the United States Student Association.

Outside of the USSA's far-left past, it has strong roots to many left-wing groups today. The "SLAP" program is a pro-union affiliation with the Jobs for Justice campaign, a group that encourages universal health care, massive unionization of our workforce, anti-trade/globalization, and is pro-immigration. The Student of Color Campus Diversity Project is a program with the goal of promoting affirmative action programs on college campuses.

The USSA also supports the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) which "would repeal the federal provision and allow immigration relief to undocumented immigrants."

Upon further research into the USSA and its puppet organization SAM, we now can see that the WSA has officially affiliated itself with a radical left-wing group which will no doubt begin pushing its agenda onto us. In resolution 0708-02, the WSA is authorized to paid dues of up to $200 to SAM. The resolution also allows the WSA to resign from SAM at any time.

With these facts now come to light, I urge the President of the WSA to strongly consider the ramifications of officially aligning Western students to such an organization and to resign from SAM, refusing to financially support it, unless SAM officially condemns the USSA and vows to break any and all ties with the organization. The student body of WMU cannot affiliate itself with a group as radical as the USSA who's far-left beliefs do not represent the opinions of WMU students.