College Sees Smaller Drop In Enrollment

University officials are lowering their January estimates of a one third drop in student enrollment during the next two years.

The rapidity with which the armed services have been filling their quotas, and rumors from Washington that the President may defer up to 70 percent of the students now in college, are behind the optimism.

Dean Bender said last night, that he hesitated to prophesy definitely about college enrollment until a draft law is passed, but he did think that on the basis of present information the drop in students next year should definitely be less than a third.

Sargent Kennedy '28, Registrar, pointed out that the Army is nearing its quota faster than expected and that it probably will take far fewer students than was estimated earlier this year.

The size of the freshman class, one of the factors in the enrollment picture that was fuzziest in January, has since cleared up. Representative Carl Vinson (D-Ga.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said last week that an 18-year-old draft will almost surely not be necessary immediately because the Army should be able to fill its ranks by drawing on the 19-26 bracket. This means that incoming freshman classes would be almost untouched.

Since draft quotas are subject to fluctuations in the war and are affected by voluntary enlistments, the University is not changing any of the budgetary measures it took in February to meet a possible shrinkage in enrollment.

These measures included a 15 percent rent hike and cutbacks in secretary and lower echelon faculty personnel. Such adjustments in the University's budget will save it $500,000 or $600,000 a year. If a normal (a little over 4300) number of students registers next September, some of the planned personnel reductions will probably have to be abandoned.