The Mail DRAFT'S IMPACT

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The article in Tuesday's CRIMSON about the effects of the draft on career planning take so more optimistic point of view of the overall situation than I do. Four hundred eighty-eight men or 43 per cent of the Class of 1968 reported to us that they felt that their immediate post-graduation plans bad been in some measure affected by the draft: 297 men or 27 per cent of the Class of 1969, responding to a slightly differently phrased question, indicated that they believed that their plans had been distorted by the draft. I cannot myself feel complacent when over a quarter of a graduating class indicates that the draft has seriously affected their planning, especially when one rejects that perhaps as much as half of a college class is ineligible for the draft because of medical reasons. To say the graduates are "overcoming nagging draft fears" seems to me to give a misleading summation of the attitudes to the draft of many draft-eligible members of recent senior classes.

The article, in mentioning deferments possibly available to graduating seniors, may mislead some about the ease with which those deferments are obtained. There are no deferments for graduate study in science in schools of arts and sciences, or for any other discipline in those schools. While the number of men going into teaching has risen to 138, deferments for these positions are not in fact automatic. Further, while the number of men taking jobs on graduation has also risen, probably only a very small proportion of these are being deferred for so doing. The policy on occupational deferments varies from board to board.

From the point of view of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, one of the most important effects of the draft has been to reduce the proportion of the class entering graduate schools of arts and sciences from 28 per cent in 1967 to 12 per cent in 1969. In the long run more men may eventually be able to go to graduate school of arts and sciences but for the time being this area has been one of the most profoundly affected by the draft. I doubt, however, that graduate and professional schools, generally, are changing their admissions policy sin favor of women because of the draft, although omnibus. The ETAOIN N.....N of the draft, although some may have found that in practice they can be more certain of their enrollments when their classes include a high proportion of those people who are not eligible for military service, specifically women, the physically deferred, veterans, those over twenty-six, etc.

Long-range planning is also affected by the draft: 166 men or 15 per cent of the Class of 1968 indicated that they were not certain about their long-range career plans, as compared with 92 or 8 per cent of the Class of 1967. The data in this area are not yet available for the Class of 1969.