Descriptions of the contemporary student radical movement in North America by writers in the social sciences have varied enormously. Some have described the movement as a relatively unified entity opposed to the dominant, social and cultural order,while others have found a collection of rival political groups and styles which will not give one another support. My thesis will attempt to uphold the second assertion, i.e. that there exist irreconcilable rifts within what is commonly called "the student movement”. Two radical political groups who held meetings at a large western Canadian university in 1968 will be examined with the aid of transcript data taken from tape-recordings. Evidence of tension and conflict between the differing political orientations adhered to by these two groups will then be presented. Kenneth Keniston's description of "political activist" and "culturally alienated" poles within the student movement provides a loose set of categories in terms of which the two groups may be viewed. The group calling itself SDS is seen to resemble Keniston's "political activists" who follow more traditional means of organizing political protest. Members of SDU, the group which preceded SDS chronologically, fit into Keniston's category of "culturally alienated" by being involved in a search for intensified subjective experience. They depart from his description, however, by emphasizing intersubjective encounter in a public group setting rather than remaining alienated social isolates. While SDS, with its goal of confrontation politics, resembles many other New Left groups described by writers on the Movement, SDU, with its goal of achieving a sense of community, remains unique. It is because of SDU's unique character that the problem of recruiting new members is explored in the final portion of the thesis. Newcomers to SDU had a difficult time understanding what was taking place as the meeting situation departed so greatly from their expectations of what a radical political meeting should look like. Problems with newcomers and the appearance of SDS as a rival political group led to the abandonment of SDU as an unusual attempt to create a communal experience of interpersonal encounter on campus instead of the more usual tactics of confrontation politics. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

The Canadian Union of Students (CUS) was Canada's national postsecondary student organisation from its founding in September 1963 as the successor to the National Federation of Canadian University Students (NFCUS), until its dissolution in October 1969. This thesis recounts the political history of CUS by tracing the development of CUS policies on access to higher education and on student involvement in the governance of postsecondary institutions. The central argument of this thesis is that over time CUS policies and activities became increasingly "left wing," causing CUS to become ever more isolated from the mainstream students who constituted its membership. The loss of confidence by the members resulted in campus student associations withdrawing support from the organisation, leading to the dissolution of CUS in October 1969. This thesis is not strictly an historical policy analysis, although such an analysis appears throughout. This thesis also offers comparative discussions, recounting developments in the Quebec student movement, in the Canadian anti-nuclear and social justice movements, and in the American civil rights and student movements. To a lesser extent, this thesis also contains elements of social history, collective biography and organisational history. This variety of approaches helps in more fully explaining CUS's changing politics. As demonstrated by the developments in policies on access to higher education and institutional governance, CUS was not content with merely treating the symptoms of educational inequity, but increasingly sought to identify the causes of such inequity and eliminate them. This put the organisation in conflict with prevailing social, political and economic arrangements and divided the CUS leadership from its membership. Although a significant minority of disaffected youth and students challenged the norms of the day, they were unable to bring large numbers of people to their cause and thus unable to sustain pressure for change. The CUS leadership's attempt to reverse the course of the organisation to save it from collapse was unsuccessful and CUS folded under the weight of a rapidly declining membership.

The Canadian Union of Students (CUS) was Canada's national postsecondary student organisation from its founding in September 1963 as the successor to the National Federation of Canadian University Students (NFCUS), until its dissolution in October 1969. This thesis recounts the political history of CUS by tracing the development of CUS policies on access to higher education and on student involvement in the governance of postsecondary institutions. The central argument of this thesis is that over time CUS policies and activities became increasingly "left wing," causing CUS to become ever more isolated from the mainstream students who constituted its membership. The loss of confidence by the members resulted in campus student associations withdrawing support from the organisation, leading to the dissolution of CUS in October 1969. This thesis is not strictly an historical policy analysis, although such an analysis appears throughout. This thesis also offers comparative discussions, recounting developments in the Quebec student movement, in the Canadian anti-nuclear and social justice movements, and in the American civil rights and student movements. To a lesser extent, this thesis also contains elements of social history, collective biography and organisational history. This variety of approaches helps in more fully explaining CUS's changing politics. As demonstrated by the developments in policies on access to higher education and institutional governance, CUS was not content with merely treating the symptoms of educational inequity, but increasingly sought to identify the causes of such inequity and eliminate them. This put the organisation in conflict with prevailing social, political and economic arrangements and divided the CUS leadership from its membership. Although a significant minority of disaffected youth and students challenged the norms of the day, they were unable to bring large numbers of people to their cause and thus unable to sustain pressure for change. The CUS leadership's attempt to reverse the course of the organisation to save it from collapse was unsuccessful and CUS folded under the weight of a rapidly declining membership. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate