Griswold Hits Draft Rule on Law Students

Erwin A. Griswold, Dean of the Law School yesterday branded as, "very wrong" General Lewis B. Hershey's recent ruling which, for the purposes of Selective Service, cubby-holes all Law students as undergraduates. Conceding that so far the ruling has had little effect on the Law School, he nevertheless protested. "We will do everything to prevent Law students from being discriminated against."

With this statement Griswold reflected the opinions of many of the Law School Faculty; it was the idea of Law students not being considered graduate students rather than the possible effects of the ruling which disturbed them. "It's a slur against the profession," said Wesley E. Bevins, assistant dean of the Law School.

Actually the chief effect of the Hershey ruling on the Law School would be that blanket graduate deferment would no longer apply, and, like undergraduates, Law students would have to depend on their draft boards to be redeferred at the end of each year. With undergraduate status, however, a 70 on the draft test is all that would be required for deferment rather than the graduate score of 75.

Griswold said that he has made inquiries as to the effects of the new ruling, but that there has been "very little evidence of any difference" in the position of most students at Law School.