Graduate Students Called As Draft Shortage Grows

An increasing number of Harvard students are being affected by the shortage of people eligible for the draft.

In the last few days a small number of graduate students received notices to report for pre-induction physicals, and several undergraduates have apparently been classified 1-A.

At least four graduate students from Tulsa, Okla., and Baltimore, Md., have been asked to report for physicals in the month of November. The students were told that the local draft boards were having difficulty in finding enough men to fill their quotas, and had decided to draft students who had already earned at least one college degree.

The students have been informed that induction will follow shortly after the physicals.

According to the graduate students they will not even be able to finish the academic year. They were told by their local boards that they were not entitled to 1-S classification which would let them finish the year, since they had once held 2-S deferments.

At the same time several undergraduates have received notification that they have been classified 1-A. However, it has not been possible to determine whether these classifications are final, or whether the students will be able to regain 2-S.

A spokesman for the Massachusetts State Selection Board said in a telephone interview yesterday that he found it hard to imagine that students who are pursuing a full-time course of study, progressing regularly, and passing their courses would not be deferred."

He said that Massachusetts has no intention of reclassifying students at this time. He noted, however, that in December local borads will begin calling up married men who have no children as the result of a nationwide directive.