On to Wisconsin

There are two familiar patterns which the touted new National Students Organization hopes distinctly not to resemble: the shrieking "save the world" crusader with rag-paper pamphlets and the cautiously respectable student council federation with annual parliamentary junkets. Regional delegates, meeting here over the weekend in a warmup before this September's week-long Constitutional Convention at the University of Wisconsin, displayed unanimous determination to steer clear of both political axe-grinding and do-nothing organization for its own sake. What they are out to build is an utterly representative national body in which every American student will feel himself a citizen-member. Their aim is to coordinate the efforts of students in the solution of common problems; to provide a voice that can speak and command respect when an issue arises concerning students as students.

Precisely how the embryo organization may set up shop on U. S. campuses with a program flexible yet concrete has been set forth in the draft constitution prepared by the National Continuations Committee established by the Chicago Conference in December. Through five national commissions with a regional and campus hierarchy the NSO intends to integrate itself with every imaginable phase of student life. Commission I (Campus Academic, Social, Cultural, and Physical Conditions) could well step in at once where small colleges abound and initiate cooperative regional planning for lecture and concert attractions which otherwise would never venture into the grass-roots. Commission II (Student Publications and Student Government) will, in a sense, trail-blaze for NSO itself when it seeks to formulate ways for rendering student governments functional rather than merely honorifle. Commission III (Educational Opportunities and Discrimination) might adopt the suggestion for a national employment counseling service to beat the "closed shop" dilemma confronting many men and women of minority race or religion in professional and other fields. Commission IV (Educational Standards and Curricula) should attempt to gain united student support for increased faculty salaries. Commission V (International Student Cooperation) faces a full agenda with world student exchange, foreign relief work and rehabilitation projects as well as the more obvious matter of helping to orient students from abroad. The number of such specific questions with which each commission can deal when the NSO launches its career stands limitless. By tackling limited tasks suitable for student action, NSO can fulfill the need for an impartial, authoritative organization able to stimulate awareness of deficiencies and provide machinery for their solution.