University of Wisconsin--Stout. Stout Student Association.

Agency History: The Stout Student Association was started in 1923 because President Burton E. Nelson saw the need for better organization for the student body. Initially, the SSA was involved only with social activities and students organizations in scheduling student activities, distributing money to student organizations, issuing tickets, and planning Homecoming and portions of Commencement. The Stout Student Council was established in 1926 as the student governance body. (There had been an attempt at student governance in 1914 when the Student Council was formed, but this appears to have lasted only two years.). In the fall of 1927, the Stout Student Council ceased to exist and the Stout Student Advisory Board was established as the official governance arm of SSA. The Board also served to represent the students through their class organizations and appears to have been loosely tied to SSA.

During 1930-1931, SSA officially took over student governance with the establishment of the Joint Committee on Student Affairs. Gradually, the Student Advisory Board (or later called the Student Advisory Council) evolved into an organization for class officers only with input to the Joint Committee and by 1939 no mention is made of the organization. Also by 1939, the joint committee was known as the Joint Committee on Student Relations. This named changed again between then and 1948 to the Student Governing Board and again changed to the Student Senate prior to 1959. In 1989, the SSA contains two units of the Student Senate and the University Programming Board.

History of the unit may be found in the SSA General File (88-38 Unprocessed).