National Student Federation of America records

The National Student Federation of America (NSFA) organized on December 13, 1925, in Princeton, New Jersey. The outgrowth of a meeting of the Intercollegiate World Court Conference, the NSFA became a formal organization through which 245 participating institutions agreed to collectively represent the interests of students and student governments across the United States. At that time, the student delegates drafted the original charter and elected the first officers, including the first president, Lewis Fox of Princeton, class of 1926. The NSFA specifically planned to "achieve a spirit of unity among students of the United States; to give consideration to questions affecting student interests; develop an intelligent student opinion on questions of national importance; and foster understanding among students of the world in furtherance of enduring world peace."

National Student Federation membership consisted of the student bodies of individual colleges and universities. The size of the NSFA ballooned in the early years and leveled during the 1930s with approximately 150 active member institutions. The formal ruling body of the NSFA was the executive committee, comprised of seven regional delegates, two delegates elected at large, the President, Vice President, and Treasurer. Beginning in 1930, a National Board of Advisors of thirteen elected college and university faculty assumed partial responsibility for directing policy and finances. Officers and advisors were elected at the Annual Congress, when delegates from member institutions gathered to determine program and policy for the upcoming year. Also, by 1930, the NSFA established a national office and hired young college graduates to serve on staff. Staff responsibilities included developing the program outlined by the Annual Congress and conducting surveys on student activities and educational problems.

The NSFA increased its national and international presence in the 1930s, representing student opinion on a multitude of issues, including the subsidization of college athletes; compulsory military training in land grant schools; censorship of college newspapers; mandatory student chapel attendance; and world peace. In addition to voicing student concerns, the NSFA fostered international study and understanding by hosting foreign debate teams and sponsoring the travel of American students abroad. As one of many thriving student activist organizations in the 1930s, the NSFA cooperated in affiliation with like-minded organizations in promoting its agenda, including the International Student Service. The NSFA also joined the American Youth Conference, an umbrella organization that encompassed student organizations of varying ideological and political views.

The NSFA informed member institutions and affiliates of its program and activities through the distribution of a weekly newsletter and a more substantial monthly magazine titled The National Student Mirror. In order to reach a broader audience, the NSFA initiated a series of national radio broadcasts and in 1935 established the NSFA Motion Picture Service to promote students' needs and concerns.

The National Student Federation of America remained an active and lively organization through the decade of the 1930s. The records of the NSFA evidence its survival through at least 1939; additional documentary evidence suggests that the organization survived another few years until 1942. However, without conclusive documentation, the fate of the NSFA cannot be determined with certainty.