Bender Says Draft Law Bound to Hurt Colleges

No matter what plan for drafting students is finally put into effect, Dean Bender stated yesterday, colleges will suffer. While he thought that the ideal system for colleges would be a draft of everyone and a completely now start, Bender said for the present he felt more favorable towards a proposal involving some deferments.

"While Harvard might not be hurt by a two year hiatus," he said, "Other colleges might." One the other hand, Bender pointed out flaws in the testing system that would be used to defer students under a deferment program. Such tests, he explained, are likely to discriminate against men who are lacking in background; they do not measure a man's intelligence so much as they do his education.

Of course, under the present score requirement for deferments, hardly any of the College's students would be drafted, Bender pointed out.

Weak Spots

President Conant's proposal for Universal Military Service, which includes no deferments, would avoid the problem of an intellectual elite being created in the nation's colleges, Bender stated. But, if U.M.S. were adopted, problems of financing schools for at least the first two years--when there would be very few men left at home--might prove insurmountable, especially for smaller schools.

"Of course," Bender said, "I would favor no deferment plan without the assurance that all the men would see service at some time."

What About R.O.T.C.?

Bender pointed out that the place of the R.O.T.C. programs, and the possibility of new V-12 systems like those of the last war, have not yet been decided on by proponents of any of the present draft plans. Such holes in the programs make it impossible for the colleges even to try to plan ahead now, he explained.

At the same time, the CRIMSON learned yesterday that the government's final draft policy will either be U.M.S. or a deferment program. M. H. Trytten, chairman of General Horshey's Advisory Committee on Selective Service, said that, in all probability the present Administration plan for Universal Training would be put back. He thought the main argument in Congress would center about Conant's and the Committee's proposals.