United States Student Association

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The United States Student Association (USSA), founded in 1947, bills itself as the oldest and largest student association in the United States. It has a historical and current commitment to diversity and breaking the barriers to educational access imposed by inequality and discrimination. It strives to build a movement that is representative of the diversity lacking in political institutions, and organize to alter the relations of power.

USSA was formed by a merger of the National Student Association (NSA) and the National Student Lobby (NSL); and it later absorbed the National Student Educational Fund (NSEF).

Its political activism was cited in a 1995 lawsuit concerning the University of Wisconsin's mandatory student fee. In University of Wisconsin v. Southworth 529 U.S. 217 (1999). In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the university's right to subsidize political speech with student fees.