The Student and National Defense

Princeton University has begun its 195^th year, prepared to play its part in the present emergency and, within the limits of national necessity, to continue to seek to provide, in the words of Milton, “a generous education which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war.”

Student enrollment is normal. Our financial house is in order. Morale is high. And as we face a year of great uncertainty we can take heart from our accomplishments during the difficult year just past. The year 1940-41, in spite of its emotional stresses and strains, was marked by an extraordinary record of student achievement in all fields, by a substantial beginning of important University contributions to National Defense, and by advances in Princeton’s long-range program.

During a year when youth was under strong temptation to indulge in petty behavior as a drug in anxious moments, our students pursued with commendable fidelity the serious purpose which brough them to Princeton. Disciplinary cases were at low ebb. Scholastic mortality during the whole year represented 3.2 per cent of the total enrollment — the lowest it has been since 1933. The proportion of senior winning honors at graduation (38 per cent) was higher than a year ago (35 per cent). Participation in intramural athletics was general. In intercollegiate competition undergraduate teams established an all-time record for victories and at the same time conducted themselves with so fine a regard for the traditions of sportsmanship that the University on several occasions received the commendation of officials and spectators.

This stability was not in any way the result of an indifference to the national crisis. Topics chosen by students for their independent study reflected their interest in National Defense. Seniors in chemistry, for example, engaged in experiments on synthetic rubber, plastics, and improved motor oils. Seniors in psychology investigated the effects of war on racial and national stereotypes and the effects of authoritarian training on religious conservatism and radicalism. Thesis subjects chosen by graduate students in architecture included a coastal patrol base, an airplane factory, planning for workers in a defense industry.

For our students the adoption of the Selective Service and Training Act by Congress was the most important single event of the year. The University proceeded immediately to cooperate with the local authorities by conducting with the aid of faculty and administrative officers the registration of all students over twenty-one on the national registration day, October 16, 1940. A similar arrangement was made on the second registration day, July 1, 1941, for students in attendance at the Summer Session. The Department of Health and Physical Education greatly relieved overburdened medical staffs of local boards by giving physical examinations to student registrants. In order to allay any suspicion of collusion, all students found unfit for military service were referred to the chief examiner of the local board for reexamination.

To help its students in their new problems, the University appointed a Faculty Committee on National Defense Information. This committee advised registrants on various questions connected with selective service, was in constant touch with local boards about the status of individual undergraduates and with various branches of the armed forces regarding opportunities for undergraduates to train for commissions.

In view of the fact that the Selective Service Act went into effect after the beginning of the academic year, the Congress gave college students and colleges a period of grace in which to adapt themselves to the new situation by permitting deferment of all college students until the end of the academic year. This group deferment expired on July 1. Thereafter students were subject to call in the normal way.

Despite losses by induction or enlistment during the summer, total student enrollment at the beginning of the year was normal, 2,699 for all divisions as compared with 2,695 last year. Enrollment of graduate students dropped 11 per cent, 302 to 267. Undergraduate enrollment was 2,432 as compared with 2,393 last year, an increase of 39.

SELECTIVE SERVICE

As of July 1, 1941, the number of undergraduates subject to call, exclusive of seniors just graduated, was 300 (seniors and juniors in the advanced course of the R.O.T.C. were not required to register). During the summer jus past 30 of these were inducted or enlisted in the armed forces. This loss in enrollment was compensated for by fewer withdrawals for normal reasons and by a slightly larger freshman class. The new freshman class numbers 684 — 28 more than a year ago. This small increase involved no lowering of standards whatsoever. It was largely a result of the fact that a number of candidates sixteen and seventeen years old who would normally have deferred admission for a year, elected to enter college immediately in order to complete their college course before being called to service.

It is estimated that under existing selective service regulations, the University is likely to lose during the coming year by induction or enlistment not more than 100 of the 270 undergraduates now subject to call. A good many of these will probably be able to complete the first term, since the selective service regulations permit a 60-day postponement of induction “where unusual individual hardship will otherwise result.” The estimate of 100 is based on the expectation that the order numbers of some will not come up during the year and that others will be given occupational deferment. National Headquarters of the Selective Service System has advised local boards that a student may be granted occupational deferment if he is in training for an activity which is essential to National Defense and if he is found to be a “necessary man.” It has recommended occupational deferment for students in engineering, physics, chemistry, and medicine. The University has therefore supported claims for deferment of students in these fields, and in a few individual cases in other fields where in its judgment the deferment of the student is clearly in the interests of National Defense. Believing that the cause of national unity would be poorly served by preferential treatment of college students as such, the University has declined to support a student’s claim (other than for sixty-day postponement of induction) if such claim rested solely on the individual’s convenience.

Our undergraduates are prepared to serve their country, but they have a natural desire to serve where it will count most. They realize that the threat we face today is “total war” in which there is greater need than ever before in our history for highly trained men. They are anxious, therefore, to get as much education as they can before being called, and that when their part in national defense is assigned, they be given a chance to use the educational advantages they possess.

Twenty seniors who are subject to call within the near future are now working overtime in an effort to write their senior theses and prepare for special comprehensive examinations in February so that they may earn their degrees before leaving for service. By special faculty resolution such men, provided they compelte their course requirements for the first term and receive satisfactory grades in their theses and comprehensive examinations, will be granted their degrees without being held for the normal course requirements of the second term.

DEFENSE TRAINING

The University is making every effort to provide for undergraduates, particularly for those who will be subject to call this year or next, specialized training for their most useful participation in national defense.

We are, for example, giving again introductory and advanced pilot-training programs under the C.A.A. which provide a valuable introduction for later training in the Army or Navy Air Corps as well as for commercial aviation. Thirty undergraduates are taking the introductory course and fifteen the advanced course this term and it is expected that an equal number of students will take these courses the second term.

The School of Engineering instituted this autumn a special evening course in elementary electrical engineering and radio for students in departments other than engineering. This course has been designed to provide training for sub-professional positions in defense industries and for work in the Signal Corps. The Department of Astronomy is arranging to give a special course in navigation and meteorology designed to only to give those who wish it a useful background for the Navy but also to give those who cannot pass the more rigid examinations for aviation pilots an introductory training which will help them qualify as navigators in the Army or Navy Air Corps or in commercial aviation. Special sections in freshman mathematics are being arranged for juniors and seniors who look forward to applying for Navy commissions and who lack the necessary prerequisites. The work of these sections will be modified to meet more specifically the requirements and the needs of the Navy.

This was originally published in the November 7, 1941 issue of PAW.