Peace Corps Opening Drive Monday, Will Not Require Three-Hour Exam

With 30 returned volunteers and three top Washington staff members as bait, the Peace Corps will open a ten-day recruiting drive at Harvard and Radcliffe on Monday.

The drive will try to enroll seniors and graduate students for service this summer and juniors for the Corps' Advanced Training Program.

The Corps will not require the three-hour Peace Corps Placement Test of any Harvard or Radcliffe applicant this year, because previous scores have been consistently high. Instead it will ask interested students meet with returned volunteers who are studying in Harvard graduate Schools.

Not for Evaluation

Gary D. Bergthold 1G, who will be in charge of recruiting, said yesterday that the meetings are not a substitute for the test in evaluating application. "They are just a way of exchanging information, of letting interested students learn about the Corps from other students who have already served." Bergthold said. "We want to talk about the projects that the Corps will be starting this summer," he continued, "and to find out if an applicant has specific job and area preferences."

Peace Corps Director of Selection Al Carp, in Cambridge Thursday to brief the recruiters, said that over 90 per cent of the Harvard and Radcliffe students who apply and who are medically qualified will be invited to training. Of those about 85 per cent will be asked to train for the country or region that they request. That Peace Corps invitation, Carp said, is not a guarantee that a student will be sent overseas; he noted that one in six trainees fail the training program.

Revolution or Imperialism?

Harris Wofford, Associate Director of the Corps for Planning and Research, and Frank Mankiewicz, Regional Director of Latin America, will participate in a panel discussion Wednesday night in Sanders. Joining them will be moderator John Kenneth Galbraith. Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, and student representatives from Harvard political organizations. Together they will attempt to decide if the Peace Corps' work is revolutionary, imperialistic, or wasteful.

Returned volunteers will man booths, answer questions, and hand out applications daily in libraries and Harkness Commons, and will eat dinner in all the Houses one evening next week.

The Corps' chief psychiatrist. Dr. Joseph T. English, will meet with students from the Divinity School on Thursday to propose that they take a "citizen sabbatical," combining service in the Peace Corps with their studies.

Advanced Training

In addition, there will be a special meeting for juniors on Thursday to discuss the Advanced Training Program. The Corps hopes to have a nationwide total of 1000 juniors training for eight to ten weeks this summer. They will continue working on their own next year, then train several more weeks after graduation before going abroad.

An added fillip will be an hour-long movie, to be shown Monday and Thursday nights. It portrays the life and work of 15 Volunteers in India.