U of S Archives - The Student Experience

Students and the World: Student Government

Student Representative Council Executive

Dawn of the USSU

By 1968-69 a widening gap began to develop between the SRC and the various college student societies on campus. While the SRC had been formed to coordinate the events, athletics and social activities on campus this became increasingly difficult as the student body exploded in numbers. By the late 1960s individual college student societies had begun calling for direct control over their own social functions, University administration had taken nearly full control of intercollegiate athletics and the need for a body to address student issues and services became increasingly evident. Thus as the 1970s dawned the SRC evolved into the USSU, and the centralized control and organization of social events on campus disappeared.

SRC Executive, 1918-19

SRC Executive atop the MUB

Referendum on the USSU and Student Centre fees

Tax potash, not students!

Students increasingly demanded full participation in University decision-making. In May 1973, “The Report of the USSU Commission on Student Participation in University Government” suggested “Unless these doors begin to open, students cannot be expected to wait endlessly outside, content to knock politely. We are not threatening faculty with imminent violence; we are merely saying that history has shown that confrontation invariably occurs when a group whose desires are constantly frustrated demonstrates a collective will to achieve its goals regardless of obstacles.”

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