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T
MARCH I. 1971
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
MERCER CLUSTER
Mastering the draft
Copyright 1970 by John Striker & Andrew Shapiro
Since President Nixon seeks
extension of the draft now. it is
more useful to consider his
reforms proposed for the near
future, rather than the volun
teer at -ny he'dreams about for
the distant future. The
President's reforms are con
tained in his request for draft
extension, Senate Bill No. 427.
Chief among the reforms is
abolition of the II-S deferment.
The II-S would not be phased
out for men who were enrolled
in college as of Arpil 22. 1970.
They would remain eligible for
deferment under current II -S
rules.
As for students who enrolled
after April 22. 1970. their future
was predicted by Dr. Curtis W-.
The Conservative View
Deserves More Courtesy
Mercer University students
and faculty greeted. Insight
lecturer. James J. Kilpatrick
with a sense of careless
abandon which was frightening.
Mr. Kilpatrick who was billed
as the conservative to balance
the scale in the raging battle
with the public over con
troversial leftist speakers,
spoke to an extremely sparse
audience.
That audience became even
sparser as the speech
progressed and by the time the
question and answer session
was over. I doubt you could
have filled one tenth of the
chapel with the students
remaining.
The same students walked out
of Mr. Kilpatrick's speech that
remained for the entire
program when Saul Alinsky and
recently Bernadette Devlin
spoke Vet, they would not give
Mr. Kilpatrick the courtesy to
listen to his views.
In the luncheon which follows
every insight speaker, a small
number of students found their
way upstairs to enjoy further
questioning of the Token
Conservative.
The controversy has raged
ever since the insight series for
this year was proposed that
there wer^-*po many radical
speakers and much of the
Macon public has been under
the impression that students at
Mercer only wanted to hear
those communist and socialist
ideas.
However, the administration
has defended the series saying
tha^all we wanted was a free
exchange of ideas on both sides
of the coin.
by Chuck Jackson
In his report to the trustees.
President Harris, elaborately
spoke up for the Insight Series
and the free exchange of ideas
on the college campus, (that
report appeared vn last week’s
“N Cluster.
I sincerely doubt that last
week's turnout and poor han
dling of Mr. Kilpatrick is an
indication of what the com
munity fears, that the students
do only want to hear one side of
the question and are not willing
to let the opposition speak
They are willing to let them
speak, but not willing to listen.
I make no judgement on
where the fault lies for the poor
reception \ afforded Mr.
Kilpatrick: whether*
from improper publicity or lack
of student willingness.
1 genuinely hope that the
dose-minded members of the
Macon community, as we have
often called them, do not prove
us to be close-minded, but on the
other end on the spectrum.
ROTC?
Reprinted from The West Georgian, February 12, 1971.
Recently the Board of
Regents voted to authorize the
establishment of an Air Force
ROTC unit at Valdosta State
College. The unit will be
established in September and
'plans are already underway for
its operation.
The fact that the very
existence of ROTC is definitely
a sore point with students at
colleges where units have been
for a number of years, is just
one of the reasons the WEST
GEORGIAN strongly disap
proves'of the Regents’ action.
In the first place, we believe
that the military* has no place on
campus, and it seems strange to
us that Valdosta' gets ROTC
when everyone else is getting
rid of U.
We feel too. that ROTC is
alien to the world of the average
student. It has nothing to do
with either academic or
Tarr, Director ol selective
Service, in recent testimony
before the Senate Armed
Services Committee: "A young
man enrolling. . . after April 22.
. would be eligible for call
when his local board reach** j
his random selection number,
with the understanding that he
be permitted to complete the
semester, term or quarter in
which he then was enrolled.”
His induction might thus be
postponed-but not cancelled
and then reordered sub
sequently
The end of the present can
cellation procedure is
foreseeable, because Senate
Bill 427 would also abolish the
I—S (C) deferment. That
deferment is currently
available and acts to cancel an
induction order received by a
fulltime student who is making
satisfactory progress.
“There is no question in my
mind," Dr. Tarr testified, “that
the spirit of inquiry and the
enthusiasm for scholarship on
college campuses would be
enhanced greatly if the com
pulsion imposed by un
dergraduate student defer
ments were eliminated.”
Dr Tarr based his opinion
upon six years' experience as
President of Lawrence College
<1963-09): "I have talked with
countless numbers of young
people during, my years as a
college president who would
have gained a great deal per
sonally by interrupting their
college work to take time to
understand their purpose in
study and how better they might
orient their lives. But whenever
I asked why they did not choose
to take time for this reap
praisal. consistently young men
reported that they felt bound to
continue college work so that
they might avoid induction."
Senate BUI 427 would also
phase out exemptions for
divinity school students (CLass
I+D>. Should Congress grant
President Nixon tl e authority
he desires, "It is his intention,"
according to Dr Tarr, “to
continue all exemptions to
divinity students enrolled prior
to January 28. 1971. but not to
authorize new ones."
So, if you are planning on a
IV-D exemption, but you were
not enrolled in a divinity school
prior to last January 28. your
plans may fall through with the
passage of Senate Bill 427.
The Bill is also designed to
plug up a loophole opened by the
Supreme Court’s decision in
United States v.Toussie (March
2, 1970.) Under Tourssie the
statute of limitations bars
prosecution of a young man for
failing to register for the draft
within 5 days after his 18th
birthday, if no prose^tuion has
been initiated within 5 years
after the alleged crime, i.e.,
before the young man reaches
the age of 23 years and 5 days.
The Toussie rule would be
repealed by Senate Bill 427. The
government could prosecyte for
refusal to register up unUl the
refuser’s 31st birthday
Senate Bill 427 also proposes
that the President be given’
authority to substitute a
"uniform national call" for the
present haphazard quota
system under which draft
boards call different lottery
numbers at different times.
“Under the present law,” the
President complained last
April, "a man with sequence
number 185 may be called up by
one draft board while a man
with a lower number in a dif
ferent draft board is not
called."
educational activities
According to a column by
Valdosta State’s president. Dr
J. Walter Martin, which ap
peared in the college’s Feb. 2
paper, “Military has always ^
been an important part of
American life and will continue
to be so in the future " We
assume ROTC has been sanc
tioned for these reasons
We vehemently oppose tiie
heavy military burdens
currently resting on the
shoulders of America’s young
men. We regret that the
military has such a tremendous
role in our society, and with
others of our generation look for
the eventual demise of its
existence.
Finally, we believe that
ROTC is just another step
toward increasing the grip that
the military now holds on
America.
amDSTTSDS
JOHNNY TURNER
Editor
The Pacesetter of the Seventies"
DON NOTTINGHAM
Business Manager
MKMtC*
Mr Michael'Cass. Advisor
Executive Editors.'
Tom Cauthorn. Bill Dayton
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Assistant Editor Ed Fisher
Advertising Manager Bryant
Durham
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thews
Sports Editor Tom Robinson
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Jordan. Raymond Williams.
Entertainment Suzanne Jones
Editor
Photography Joe Cook. Bob
Johnson. Wayne Jonson
Pervaiz Peter
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