REPAIRING AN IMAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300300001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 1999
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 28, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

FOIAb3b
Sanitized - Approvr vo e ease : Cl
2 8 AUG 1967
CPYRGHT
Repairing an Image
or the National StlitlenE ..
this is the time for introspection. While
the issues at past conventions have cen-
tered on the war, civil rights and drugs,
the 1,200 delegates from 334 colleges
meeting at the University of Maryland
last week seemed most concerned about
the future of the NSA itself.
The NSA's image as an independent,
loosely knit organization devoted to stu-
dents' interests was hurt last winter when
Ramparts magazine disclosed that the
Central Intelligence Agency had bank-
rolled and influenced the association for
more than a decade. NSA president W.
Eugene Groves even admitted as the
two-week convention opened that, the
association had been no less than "an-in-
telligence and operations wing for the
CIA." But the I Spy period may be over.
The NSA says it has cut its ties to the
intelligence agency, and has even taken
over the tnoi tgaf a 13i yments on its na-
tional headquarters in Washington (a
burden formerly carried by the CIA).
Ironically, the CIA disclosures may
have breathed life into the NSA. Thirty
colleges and universities have joined
since the Ramparts article appeared,
while only one-Brandeis-dropped out.
"Sure, there's good and bad in the NSA,"
says Chuck Hicks, president of Syracuse's
university union, a newcomer to the as-
sociation. "But we feel it has a lot to offer
in terms of student services."
Same Game: The major challenge to
NSA programs last week came from
about twenty members of the aggressive
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
who set up their own counterconvention
nearby on the Maryland campus. Citing
continuing State Department payments
to the NSA, the SDS charged that stu-
dent association officers still "play the
same games of international politics" as
in the CIA days.
Most NSA delegates paid the SDS
scant attention, happily shifting their at-
tendance from. all-night legislative ses-
sions to performances by the Fugs and
Timothy Leary, who came on with flow-
ers and beads. Leary, who exhorted the
students to "drop out of American so-
ciety," was disappointed with the re-
ception they gave him. He conceded
that he usually felt "more rapport" with
an audience.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000300300001-8