Editors Note: This is the first of a series of articles about the college man and the draft.
“From The President of the United States to …
“Greetings:
“You are hereby ordered for induction into the armed forces of the United States and to report at … on … for forwarding to an armed forces induction station.”
These words appear on all selection services draft notices. The males on this campus, unless they have arranged for a deferment, have “a 99 percent chance” of reading those words on a draft notice of their own before they graduate, said Charles F. Liesenfelt, assistant to the recorder, who works in the University’s Selective Service Certification Office.
The men on campus are all too aware of the basic requirements of selective service: all males between 18 and 26 who are able must serve six years in the armed forces.
This also applies to aliens who intend to live in the U.S. permanently, as on a student visa.
Men are required to register with their local draft board within five days of their 18th birthday. From then on they must report changes such as in address, marital status, job, etc. to the board.
They are also required to carry a registration card at all times. The penalty for being found without this card can be a $10,000 fine, up to five years in prison, or both.
Theoretically, a policeman can stop a man on the street and ask him for his registration card. If he doesn’t have it, he’s in trouble. This is rarely, if ever, done now, according to Liesenfelt.
Each month the draft boards must provide a certain number of men for the draft. Liesenfelt, who serves on one of the 200 Minnesota draft boards, said that until recently Minnesota boards have been averaging two men a month each.
This number is about to rise, because many men are leaving the army soon and a correspondingly large number of draftees will be needed to fill the gap.
When selecting men to fill its quota, each board chooses the oldest I-A classifications on its roll first. This keeps the age distribution among the draft boards about the same, Liesenfelt said. Right now the average draft age is 22 or 23.
This age is due to drop in the next six months, however, as a result of President John F. Kennedy’s order not to draft married men as long as enough single men are available. Liesenfelt expects the new draft age to level off at about 20 or 21.
If it gets lower than that, we will have to give fewer deferments or else go back to drafting married men, he said. “We figure the mothers of the country will squawk more than the wives will.”
Students May Avoid the Draft
Buzz Menold
Editors Note: This is the third of a series of articles about the college man and the draft.
Students, take heart. Some of you can avoid the draft.
Some men, such as those in the natural sciences and engineering fields who take post-graduation jobs which their draft board considers to be “in the national interest,” may be deferred as long as they hold that job.
Thus it’s possible for a student who remains so employed until he passes the legal age of draft eligibility to avoid induction altogether.
A student still in school can elude the draft, too.
All he has to do is apply for student deferment in the Selective Service Certification Office, 102 Morrill Hall.
Filling out the application does not assure exemption, but in practice a deferment is almost always granted.
A student deferment (Class I-S) postpones the student’s draft eligibility for one year and is usually easy to renew. A student who qualifies can continue getting deferments to the Ph.D. level.
To qualify, a man must be a full-time student progressing toward completion of his course of study in the normal period of time.
Since a student deferment is such a quick and easy answer to a college student’s worries about the draft interrupting his education, one would suppose most students would be Class I-S. But such is not the case.
According to Charles F. Liesenfelt, assistant to the recorder, who works in the Selective Service Certification Office, only five or 6,000 of the 19,000 men on campus have student deferments.
This is because most freshman and sophomores think the time for worrying about their military obligations is several years away, he said. Consequently, they don’t bother to get a deferment.
Other students think they can “sneak by” the draft. These individuals usually realize their mistake when they receive their induction notices.
It is possible for a student to obtain a Class I-S deferment during the 10-day appeal period he is allowed after receiving his induction notice, Liesenfelt said, but waiting that long could be risky.
If his application is delayed in the mails, he will be drafted before his deferment goes through, and once in the Army, there is no getting out.
The student may also be inducted during the summer when he is not a full-time student.
