American Student Apathy

A few weeks ago the French national student association passed a resolution on the Algerian situation which an American observer termed "tantamount to calling for an end to the war."

It is not extraordinary for students in other countries to have heated national political conferences. Foreign students "riot very often--more than American students--over very serious issues," asserts a member of the U.S. National Student Association--NSA.

But the student in the United States who becomes actively involved in international student activity is the exception rather than the rule. The young American prefers his "Mad Comics--'What, me worry?' attitude," Bruce D. Larkin, NSA International Affairs Vice President, comments.

It was a considerable news event when Clement H. Moore '57, summa cum laude, was expelled from France this January as a result of a speech he delivered to the Union Generale des Etudiants Musulmans Algeriens (UGEMA.) Moore had been serving as an NSA "representative abroad" while studying political science in Paris.

In the cosmopolitan Harvard community, Larkin noted, there is above-average awareness of international affairs. One problem with students in other parts of the country is that "they don't have The New York Times," Larkin remarks.

It was only a few years ago that Harvard students were charged with dominating the International Commission of NSA. The International Activities Committee of the Student Council, H.I.A.C.O.M. was responsible for establishing NSA's International Commission at 142 Mt. Auburn Street.

Most of Harvard, however, is apathetic or antagonistic towards organized student activity on the international scene, and has only hazy recollections of NSA. Several reasons have been advanced to explain why American students in general are less enthusiastic about student movements than are their European, Asian and African counterparts.

First, the concept of one's "duty as a student" is less familiar in the United States than elsewhere. It is common for a European or Asian to identify himself with student interests until he is 30 years old or more.

Americans, on the other hand, seldom regard themselves as a "student class" with a particular role in society. While in College they feel that they cannot have much impact on national and international affairs. Larkin suggests that the American student considers himself an "embryonic adult."

A second reason is the degree of financial security that the U.S. student enjoys. The European or Asian student may be more interested in his government's policies because they often directly affect his income.

Third, in smaller countries, students feel closer to their government, and a close-knit intellectual elite of student makes united action easier and increases interest.

Suspicion of student politicians forms a final barrier to international student activity on some American campuses. There is a tendency to equate--often erroneously--NSA work with the local student council.

The NSA was born in the years following World War II. Twenty-five American students attending a student conference in Prague in 1946 realized that the United States stood alone without a representative national students association. Returning home, they initiated the movement that became USNSA.

Regardless of American evaluation of the importance of this type of work, NSA is the sole contact which overseas students have with U. S. undergraduate opinion. USNSA--despite much student apathy--is interpreted abroad as the voice of the American student.