Cadet Letter

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Many freshmen enrolled in the Air Force ROTC unit here at Harvard have been disgusted and bewildered by the recent methods employed in getting "one hundred percent, not ninety-nine," turnout at the annual dance on May 16. The cadets and officers running the dance have used methods which amount to blackmail. In a recent air science class a dance committee representative spoke for about ten minutes to the class and implied that he was going to give the student cadets the "inside story." Simply, the story was that if a student does not put down a dollar deposit, he will be listed as having no interest in the ROTC program and this fact will be detrimental to his being accepted into the Advanced Course. This was the tip-off straight from the Commanding Officer. This situation shows poor psychology and logic on the part of the Air Science department. Students are actually being forced to attend the dance or at least to pay for a ticket. The detachment is only a small part of the AROTC reserve organization under the Continental Air Command. If a Harvard Cadet does not know how to dance or finds his immediate funds low, he runs a rick of being removed from the program at the end of his sophomore year. This means that poor administration on a local level affects a man on a nationwide level.

The cadets have been subjected to various forms of persuasion in the past few weeks. They were first of all told that they were putting down the dollar deposit toward a $2.50 ticket and that the ticket would cost only $1.50. This sounds like cheap advertising tricks which say that an article is free if all you do is pay your postman C.O.D. In a recent class, paradoxically enough, the cadets were told that the dollar was for a reserve fund and had nothing to do with the dance finances. Furthermore, if a student did not go to the dance, his money would be set aside as if the price of the ballroom and band were directly proportional to the number of people who came to the dance. One collector even said that a refund would be given to those who did not attend the dance, but no receipts for the deposits were made.

Finally, at the last drill period, one of the squadron leaders said that the great drive for the dance was being made to further the spirit and unity of the detachment. It seems curious why the stress is placed on the dance. Isn't greater spirit cultivated with inspiring and efficient leaders? Few cadets have ever seen the Colonel of the detachment and there is little friendliness of the officers toward the students. The only time the Colonel spoke to the detachment was to announce that blues would be at Harvard next year for the basic students.

Perhaps the students who want deferments should close their eyes and remember what Herbert George Wells once said. "The professional military mind is by necessity an inferior and unimaginative mind: no man of high intellectual qualities would willingly imprison his gifts in such a calling." Name Withheld by Request.