"Years of membership decline, restructuring of grantmaking portfolios in large private foundations, and toxic infighting" led to its operational collapse;[1][2] tax returns continued to be filed in subsequent years.
[3][4] The organization was born in August 1978 during a joint meeting between the National Student Association (NSA), formed in 1947,[5] and the National Student Lobby (NSL), itself originally born of a split in 1971 with the NSA.
[6] The membership of both organizations voted overwhelmingly to merge due to overlapping lobbying work and student government-based membership.
[8] By the mid-1980s, the USSA met annually in Washington, D.C., with several hundred students attending.
[10] It also advocated against rising college tuition costs.