National Federation of Canadian University Students - Final Years: 1964-1969

Final Years: 1964-1969

In 1964-1965 school year, tuition fee levels across Canada increased markedly in response to the initialization of CSLP. In 1964 a tuition freeze position was adopted by delegates, and in 1965 a tuition abolition position was taken at national Congress. Students at the local level became more combative which took university administrators by surprise. Individual student councils pointed to progressive tax reform, which would pay for post- secondary education and make tuition fees redundant. Also, inspired by the Students for a Democratic Society and the Black civil rights movement, students councils in cooperation with CUS began to organize rallies and other actions on campuses. In response to years of intense lobbying by NFCUS and CUS, along with the tuition freeze and tuition abolition movements on campus, tuition fees were frozen in Canada in 1965.

During this time CUS had radicalized, and became more critical of the university system and the political order. New Left politics, the war in Vietnam, Students for a Democratic Society, and the black power movement had influenced leaders in the CUS. However, the fee freeze and the infiltration of right wing students aligned with the administration, undermined the CUS and served to drive New Left students out of the Union and into other organizations on campus. Several student councils/unions initiated pull-outs at the same time which put immense strain on CUS. This led to the collapse of CUS in 1969. Nigel Moses characterizes the collapse as “without support from the ‘left’ and ‘right’ CUS collapsed....” Students met provincially and nationally through ad hoc committees however, students lacked a coherent nation-wide organization from 1969 to 1972.