HUC Endorses College Referendum To Poll Students on Class Standing

The Harvard Undergraduate Council voted last night to submit the question of the use of rank-in-class by the Selective Service System to a college-wide referendum a week from today.

The results of the HUC questionnaires, which will be distributed in the Houses, will be given to the Faculty as an indicator of student opinion on the University's present policy of cooperating with Selective Service regulations that require the tabulation of class ranking.

The poll will also elicit student views on the equity of student deferments in general, the possibility of the substitution of a lottery for the present draft system, and the use of the Selective Service Qualification Test as a partial factor in granting student deferments.

In related action, the HUC voted to sponsor a "symposium on the draft." Plans for an open discussion of the draft and its relation to University policy are still indefinite, but HUC President Gregory B. Craig '67 said that he hoped that the discussion would allow "representative students and faculty to air their views on all sides of the question."

Craig also said that "there was a good possibility" that an ad hoc student-faculty committee would be created this fall to discuss the University's compliance with Selective Service requests for student rankings. This committee would report to the Committee on Educational Policy, which in turn would make a policy recommendation to the full Faculty.

It is probable, however, that the most the Faculty could do would be to approve a resolution declaring that it disagreed with Selective Service regulations as presently constituted. Dean Ford has stated that the University will not disobey any federal laws or procedures with regard to the draft.

More Pressure

The effect of such action by Harvard, and other universities, would be to put additional pressure on the President's commission to study the present system of conscription to recommend to the President and Congress changes in the Selective Service Act, which dictates the procedure in current use.

Last night's action was an outgrowth of a movement last spring by SDS and others to place the University's policy on Selective Service under close student scrutiny.

It was also learned that the Radcliffe Government Association will submit a modified version of the HUC poll to Cliffies to get their opinions for Faculty consideration.