The Draft Dilemma

Last month's abolishing of most automatic draft deferments for graduate students is likely to result in reduced enrollments for both the Tuck School and Thayer School next year. The Medical School will not be affected, since the newest Selective Service directive leaves intact the present deferment of students in "medicine, dentistry, and the allied medical specialties."

Students who have completed two or more years of graduate study by June 1968 will continue in a deferred draft status. The new ruling will place in the draft pool students who are now in their first year of graduate work and also students completing their undergraduate courses this year and planning to go on to graduate studies next fall. Deferments for undergraduates in good academic standing will continue under the new Selective Service guidelines.

Dean Myron Tribus of Thayer School and Associate Dean John W. Hennessey Jr. of Tuck School joined in the dismay and concern expressed by educators all over the country when the revised draft policy was announced in Washington last month. Dean Tribus said that Dartmouth's engineering school faces a probable drop of at least 20% in enrollment next year. Thayer's regular two-year program could be seriously crippled, he said, and the uncertainties in planning for graduate programs will be greatly increased.

Dean Hennessey said that Tuck School faces the prospect of a second-year class at least 30% smaller than at present. He also mentioned the possibility of having to admit more first-year students than usual in order to get a class of normal size, but he insisted that Tuck School would in no circumstances lower its admissions standards for the sake of increased enrollment.

Deans Tribus and Hennessey both took strong exception to any idea in Washington that graduate study was a way of avoiding the draft. On a nationwide basis, there may be a certain amount of such student maneuvering, they admitted, but it is too minor to provide any logical basis for overall Selective Service policy.

The relatively small graduate programs offered by departments in the College of Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth will also be affected by the new draft directive, but not to the extent expected by the Tuck and Thayer Schools.