The New University Conference, a New Left organization representing graduate students and faculty members nationwide, was formed in the spring of 1968 by a group of 350 persons in Chicago following the Radicals in the Professions Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In its membership the organization resembled a “post-graduate SDS,” for many of the sponsors of the founding meeting, including Jeremy Brecher, John Ehrenreich, Al Haber, Tom Hayden, Michael Klare, Jesse Lemisch, Kathy McAfee, Dan McKelvey, Lee Webb, and Michael Zweig, were members of the Students for a Democratic Society. The keynote speakers at the initial meeting were Richard Flacks and Staughton Lynd. Robert Ross, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Chicago, was named the first national director of the organization, and Flacks, Mike Goldfield, and Dan Friedlander were elected to a steering committee.
The New University Conference (NUC) set forth a five-point program, including organizing local chapters to overcome campus radical ineffectiveness, define political roles and provide internal support; encouraging the development of radical caucuses in the professions; providing a support organization for faculty victims of political discrimination; establishing a new magazine of research and analysis for the Movement; and forming alliances with other activists aimed at making the educational system more responsive to the concerns of the New Left. NUC adopted an organizational system based upon local chapters on university campuses, with regional organizers providing liaison with the national staff and an executive committee composed of national and regional officers and representatives from each local chapter. Richard Rothstein succeeded Ross as national executive secretary in 1969, and was succeeded in turn by Tom Hecht in 1970. Prominent radical intellectuals contributing to NUC included Noam Chomsky, Louis Kampf, Barbara Kessel, John McDermott, and Roberta Salper.
Initially NUC attempted to maintain roles as both an educational institutional organization and a broader “movement” organization. Local chapters sponsored anti-Vietnam war and anti-imperialism rallies while members also attended professional conferences to influence curriculum and and influence educational policy. By October 1969, NUC had 60 chapters, and in 1970 it attempted to expand into community colleges and secondary schools. At its peak NUC had approximately 1500 members, but there were fewer than 300 by 1972. Noteworthy among the caucuses of the organization was the Women's Caucus, which provided a forum for discussion and confrontation of sexism in education and provided support for women's studies programs, day care facilities, and non-discriminatory hiring practices.
NUC held meetings of its national committee four times a year, and in addition held annual conventions in June. It was at the last of these conventions, in 1972, that NUC disbanded as an organization, having suffered from declines in the numbers of members and chapters and internal debates over the appropriate scale and scope of the organization.
