Griswold Says New Rule To Help Defer Law Men

Selective Service's new draft policy for law students will make it easier for them to keep out of the draft, Erwin A. Griswold, Dean of the Law School, declared yesterday. Lewis A. Toepfer, Director of Admissions, thought the plan which considers law men as undergraduates to be "the most senzible way out."

Earlier this fall Griswold had been quoted as questioning the new rule's value. At that time he stated, according to the report, that be thought it "very wrong."

Evidently, now, however, no move will be made to get Selective Service to change the new plan.

Toepfer said that if the selective service system decides to do it this way, we will just have to cooperate. The Law School has no objection to the plan."

Earlier, Major General Lewis B. Hershey, Director of Selective Service, issued a directive which said a law student working on his first law degree was to be considered an undergraduate. As an undergraduate, a law student needs a 70 on the draft test, while a graduate student needs a 75 to maintain his deferred status.

More Can Attend

The plan, Toepfer added, will make it possible for more people to attend law school. "Some law men may be drafted," he stated, "but to get drafted, a student must be in the lower quarter of his class and have a score lower than 70 on his draft test. Here this affects almost no one."

The policy of considering law students as undergraduates was formulated in late September by Hershey. Selective Service officials pointed out the wide divergence among law schools in both entrance requirements and length of course. Local boards, officials said, had difficulty deciding whether a law student was a graduate or undergraduate.

Hershey therefore decided to consider all law students as undergraduates whether they are in a seven or eight year program. However, a student who has one law degree and is on his way for a second is considered a graduate student by Selective Service.