The 2-S Question

Today's referendum on the relation of Selective Service to the university should offer students a chance to evaluate, if not influence, the stand taken by Harvard toward the 2-S deferment. One of the questions in the HUC-sponsored poll simply asks the undergraduate if he believes in the existence of 2-S. But the referendum's sponsors have placed greatest emphasis on whether or not Selective Service should "require the University to compute rank-in-class as a basis for a 2-S deferment." Assuming the continued existence of 2-S, the basic question is what method should be used to choose the particular students to be deferred.

The Case for Ranks

Those who favor the use of ranks point out that to discontinue them would leave only the draft exams as a criterion for deciding whether to give a student his deferment. This, they say, would be even more unfair than the present system, by which a student who fares poorly on the draft exam may rely on his grades, and vice versa. As long as student deferments exist, it is argued, as many factors as possible should go into each decision made by the local board.

It has also been suggested that total reliance on the draft exams would tend to favor students at more selective colleges like Harvard. Thus a larger percentage of students from less expensive, less rigorous universities would find themselves being inducted, and the social inequitability of the draft would become still more pronounced.

The Case Against

Opponents insist that the use of class ranks has the effect of increasing pressure and competition for grades at the expense of more relevant aspects of education. While the trend at Harvard and at universities all over the country has been to de-emphasize grades, the effect of considering them in determining deferments has been to increase their importance. Thus, it is argued, class ranks must not be sent to the draft board, even if indirectly, or students will naturally seek out easier, more familiar, and less challenging courses.

Apart from this potentially damaging effect on the student, some class rank opponents believe that the use of ranks by Selective Service means interference with university autonomy. They insist that the draft has become a major consideration in the formation of academic policy, not only at Harvard but at all universities, and that ranks must be discontinued if operations are to return to normal.

Always looming behind the question of class ranks is the issue of student deferment. It is now widely conceded that 2-S has produced an army of underprivileged, while exempting those with the means, financial as well as intellectual, to attend college and graduate school. Today's referendum does offer a chance to go on record against 2-S, and thus to add to the pressure for a vastly more equitable lottery system.

But on class ranks the choice is more complex. Pollees must decide whether student freedom and university autonomy outweigh the obvious disadvantages of relying completely on the draft exams, or whether there is some third factor that can be used as long as the student deferment continues.