The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 7, 1968 Page: 1 of 8
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Post-election stringency
Graduate deans fear spring semester draft call increase
By SUSIE SCHMIDT
College Press Service
WASHINGTON (CPS)—Al-
though the nation's graduate
schools did not face the 70 per-
cent reduction in fall enroll-
ment some predicted last year
because of the draft, the sec-
ond semester crunch may hurt
them badly.
Most universities were taken
by surprise this fall, when the
25-50 per cent of their stu-
dents expecting to be drafted
returned to school after all.
Some universities, which had
accepted more graduate stu-
dents than they could handle
in order to make up for the
draft's toll, have been faced
with money and housing short-
ages — and too many students.
They had failed to calculate
this fall's election and its
ramifications on the draft in
their estimates last spring.
Lower calls
If February, when the Selec-
tive Service System announced
that graduate students would
no longer be deferred "in the
national interest," both uni-
versities and the government
predicted that schools might
lose up to 70 per cent .of their
first-year students. They fore-
cast a great increase in female
and middle-aged graduate stu-
dents.
Selective Service officials
predicted that students would
make up as much as 90 per
cent of the draft call-ups in
many states. The Defense De-
partment said 63 per cent of
the 240,000 draftees predicted
for 1969 would be students.
Students made up 3.8 per cent
this year.
But the crunch failed to mat-
erialize this fall. For one thing,
draft calls beginning in July
were drastically lower than
those for previous months. And
they will stay that way until
January when the elections are
well over.
18-Month cycles
How much calls will rise will
depend on the manpower needs
of the armed forces, the status
of the Vietnam war, and the
mood of the new President. But
they are sure to rise at least
a little, according to Mrs. Betty
Vetter, an official of the Sci-
entific Manpower Commission,
a private research agency in
Washington.
Her prediction is based on
the fact that draft calls for
the last few years have run
in 18-month cycles; the high
point of the latest cycle is due
in January 1969.
Whatever the increase, it is
sure to hit students harder next
semester; under present draft
regulations, the oldest eligible
males are first to go, and grad-
uate students newly classified
1-A are perfect targets. Those
who> receive induction notices
during the present school term
are allowed to stay in school
to finish the term, but. must
then report for induction.
But despite the fact that total
graduate enrollment has
changed very little in numbers,
the edict has not been without
effect.
Law schools hit
Graduate schools at several
universities have reported drops
in eni'ollment from one to 20
per cent. Professional schools
seem harder hit than most. At
Valparaiso University, 25 of 150
students enrolled in the Law
School didn't register in Sep-
tember. Lehigh University re-
ports a 13 per cent decrease in
enrollment.
And at many schools, grad-
uate departments found that
women and older (over-26) men
made up larger portions of
their enrollees than ever be-
fore. Some schools claimed that
their students are of lower
ability than they would have
been before the draft.
Such intangible evidence as
decline in graduate schoool
quality is, of course, almost im-
possible to document. More ob-
vious and evident, though, is a
decline in morale among grad-
uate students. Young men faced
with the prospect of beinjL
drafted have always been bur-
dened with an overwhelming
anxiety few other people ex-
perience. And graduate stu-
dents this year, knowing they
are sitting atop the proverbial
powder keg and may get the
letter any day, are unusually
nervous and fearful.
5th-Year programs
Universities, which opposed
the move to end graduate de-
ferments, are reacting to their
students' concern in many ways.
Several heavily graduate uni-
versities, among them Mas-
sachusetts Institute of Techno-
logy, have announced that stu-
dents whose education is inter-
rupted by the draft—either for
two years of service or for a
jail sentence for resistance—
will later be able to resume
their degree work where they
left off, and will stand a good
chance of having their fellow-
ships renewed.
Several schools are also in-
vestigating new degree pro-
grams like Rice's five-year en-
gineering program, in which
the student is classed an under-
graduate for five years.
The institutions are under-
standably vexed. Many of them
—like their students—concur-
red with the 1967 recommenda-
tions of the President's Com-
mission on the Draft. The Com-
mission's report suggested a
two-pronged attack on the
draft's present inequities and
injustices: abolition of student
deferments and reversal of the
present oldest-first system so
that 19-year-olds would be
drafted first — preferably by
lottery.
Feeling effects
Fairness and equity required
that both those steps be taken;
if they had been, the draft,
unfairness to the poor and un-
educated would have been parti-
ally corrected, and at the same
time education and technical
skills would have been sup-
ported.
As it ha p p e n e d, policy-
makers decided, to implement
only part of the recommenda-
tions, hoping that their move
would be popular with those
voters who consider that stu-
dents are un-American and
would at the same time be
lauded as needed reform.
Now the results of their at-
tack on "pointy-headed intel-
lectuals" will be felt, not only
by the schools—which cannot
help but be weakened—and the
Army, which is discovering that
it doesn't like "uppity students"
in its ranks anyway, but by
those elements in the nation
which depend on educated (and
reasonably contented) men and
women for existence in growth.
the rice thresher
volume 56, number 10
Houston Film Festival will present
rice university, houston, texas
thursday, november 7, 1968
array of local, underground flicks
The Houston Film Coopera-
tive, in association with Baker
College, will present the first
annual Houston Film Festival
this Saturday in Hamman Hall.
This festival will be the first
in which locally-made films
will be shown as a group.
The films will be shown in
two categories. 8mm and Super
8 entries will be screened be-
ginning at 2 pm. 16mm films
will be shown at 7:30.
First, second, and third place
cash prizes and honorable men-
tion awards will be presented
at the end of the program.
' The sponsor of the festival,
the Houston Film and Media
Cooperative, is an organiza-
tion of Houston-area film-
makers who are in the pro-
cess of setting up cooperative
editing and production facili-
ties. These facilities will be
made available to area film-
makers for their work.
One spokesman for the Co-
operative is Bob Carver of
Panel to discuss
subject of man's
inherent violence
A United Nations Association
panel will discuss the topic,
"Is Violence Inherent in Man?"
next Thursday, Nov. 14, at 8
pm in the Chemistry Lecture
'"Hall.
Panel members include the
Rev. William D. Steele, col-
umnist for the Texas Catholic
Herald; Dr. Dale Johnson,
chairman of the Department of
Psychology of the Un iversity
of Houston; and-Mrs. Warren
A. Beman, graduate student in
behavioral sciences at Rice. J.
Kent Hackelman of KTRH will
moderate.
Baker College, who last year
produced a short entitled "The
Undergraduate," which premi-
ered last spring.
In addition to the film festi-
val, the cooperative intends to
present underground films
from all over the world in the
new filmmakers' Cinematheque,
located at the corner of Mc-
Gowen and Bagby downtown.
Festival officials Ron Webb
and Jim Bulnes expect to have
several hours of good movies
for presentation Saturday. They
anticipate that Houston's first
true film festival will draw a'
capacity crowd.
Newly-appointed lunar science head
named as Rice geology professor
WILLIAM W. RUBEY
To Geology post
William W. Rubey, who last
week was named Director of the
Lunar Science Institute by the
National Academy of Sciences,
has been appointed an Adjunct
Professor of Geology at Rice.
Professor Rubey's appoint-
ment at Rice is effective Sept.l,
1969. In addition to his new
duties at Rice and the Lunar
S c i e n c e Institute, the dis-
tinguised educator will continue
his half-time Professorship of
Geology and Geophysics it Uni-
versity of California, Los An-
geles.
Formation of the Lunar Sci-
ence Institute was announced by
ACE "Student Life" query revised
Washington (CPS)—A survey distributed only when mailed follow-up surveys are con-
earlier this fall to approximately 300,000 entering ducted in later years.
college freshmen by the American Council on "Since the ACE research program is aimed at
Education has been questioned by the National discovering the effects of different college envir-
Student Association because of possible problems onments on students from different backgrounds,
of security. this capability of following the progress of the
The Office of Research of the ACE, headed individual student over time is essential to valid-
by Alexander Astin, author of "The College En- ity of the study," Astin said.
vironment" and other studies of student life, has Safeguards
agreed to revise the survey form and procedures In a letter to NSA President Powell, and in
for its 1969 administration gs a result of discus- another to the ACLU, the ACE Office of Re-
sions with NSA President Bob Powell. search explained what traditional and new safe-
The questionnaire is distributed for the ACE guards are provided against improper use of the
by about 300 colleges and universities. Students data by anyone or for any purpose other than
are told that completion of the form is entirely scientific, behavioral research.
voluntary and that any "objectionable" item may National summaries of the results are pub-
be skipped. The ACE has agreed to stress this lished each year and are carefully studied by
fact on the form itself as well as in the general many college leaders for their implications for
directions. instructional and other programs.
Elimination The data gathered by the ACE are similar to
The American Civil Liberties Union was asked those gathered in NSA research projects, such as
for assistance and advice, and an ACLU repre- NSA studies of drug usage by students.
sentative made suggestions to ensure even more ' Accessible to researchers
strict confidentiality of the data. These sugges- An ACE spokesman pointed out that identi-
tions have been accepted by the ACE, including fying information is not accessible to anyone
the elimination of the student's social security outside of the ACE Office of Research.
number. The research data created by this project is
In response to questions about confidentiality accessible to the NSA's research workers as well
of the data, Astin explained that the identifying as to other legitimate research centers,
information for each student has always been Dr. Astin pointed out that the overwhelming
separated entirely from the data and locked in majority of students in the sample of colleges
a physically separate file. This file is unlocked and universities complete the form voluntarily.
President Lyndon B. Johnson
in Houston March 1, 1968. It
will be housed in the old West
Mansion, a Clear Lake Land-
mark owned by Rice, adjacent
to t lie Manned Spacecraft Cen-
ter.
Lunar exploration
Professor Rubey, a member
of the National Academy of
Sciences, has contributed funda-
mental research in the fields of
structural geology, sedimenta-
tion and geochemistry during
his career as scientist and edu-
cator.
Befor joining the UCLA fac-
ulty in 1960, Professor Rubey
was a staff member of the U.S.
Geological Survey for 38 years.
Chief objective of the Insti-
tute, established with a grant
to the National Academy of
Sciences from NASA, is to pro-
vide a base for academic sci-
entists participating in the
lunar exploration p r o g r a m,
working in the Lunar Receiving
Laboratory, or using other fac-
ilities of the Manned Space-
craft Center devoted to study
of the moon.
Scientific management
As Director of the Institute,
Professor Rubey will he respon-
sible for its day-to-day scientif-
ic management. A national
board of governors, appointed
by the president of the National
Academy of Sciences, will es-
tablish policy and review opera-
tions at stated meetings.
All managerial responsibili-
ties for the Institute will be
subcontracted to Rice.
Present plans call for a staff
of about six professional per-
sons (including the director and
an administrative officer), ade-
quate library, secretarial and
custodial staff, and office space
to accommodate 10 or 12 visit-
ing scientists as the program
gets underway.
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Bahler, Dennis. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 7, 1968, newspaper, November 7, 1968; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245040/m1/1/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.