Slight Effect on Graduate Schools by Probable Draft Deferment Changes

A probable stiffening of draft deferment rules will have little effect here, Dean Rogers of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences said yesterday.

The new rule, which may go into effect next fall, according to an announcement Saturday by Arthur S. Flemming, director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, would require a higher grade than the present minimum of 75 on the deferment test for college students or a higher rank than merely the top half of a graduating college class.

Undergraduates will not be affected, Flemming said. They must still score 70 on the deferment test, or rank in the top half of their class their freshman year, the top two-thirds their sophomore year, and the top three-quarters their junior year to be deferred for the next two semesters.

"Our students are a very highly selected group," said Rogers. "It's our basic policy to require that a man must have an honors record to be admitted. He can certainly meet any raised standards."

Rogers emphasized that new regulations would actually affect the student only until the end of his first year in graduate school. From then on, the school issues a statement saying that the student is enrolled and pursuing a satisfactory program.

Even during the recent fighting in Korea, the University's graduate schools lost very few men to the draft, according to Rogers.