College V-1 Program Receives Naval Department's Approval

The University announced last night that the Navy Department had approved its application for a V-1 program at Harvard. This program will soon be put into effect here, and full details will shortly be released. Under the new plan, men between the ages of 17 and 19 will have a chance to complete two or more years of college at their own expense before being called to active service.

Designed to expand the procurement and training of prospective Naval Reserve officers, the V-1 program will permit students of pursue a normal college course, but with emphasis on such subjects as mathematics, physics, English composition, and American history. Special attention will also be given to physical conditioning.

Naval ROTC students and "civilian" undergraduates enrolled in this new college program will both be members of V-1, but under slightly different conditions. ROTC men will have uniforms and will pursue a course in naval science in addition to their regular work. The others will merely follow a conventional scientific program and will have no active connection with the Navy. Men in both groups, however, will be enlisted as apprentice seamen.

Navy Gives Examinations

On the basis of an examination given by the Navy at the end of the third college term, a certain proportion of these college V-1 students will be chosen for officer training programs under the air-corps (V-5) and deck and engineering (V-7) plans. Examination failure means transfer to active duty under a special Navy rating.

The new plan closely followed an ROTC move inducting into the V-1 status as many NROTC students as had volunteered. These men were automatically put on inactive duty as apprentice seamen.

When the NROTC finished its inductions yesterday, Navy instructors were freed from the fear that men who had

been trained one and two years for Naval Reserve duty would suddenly be snatched up by draft boards. The new plan automatically makes V-1 men ineligible for Selective Service, and makes possible the regular-cruise during war-time on which the men assume active duty. The draft status of those enlisting in the University V-1 program is assumed to be the same as that of NROTC members.

V-1 Leads to Commission

Upon completion of the course under V-1 status, qualified NROTC students will be commissioned and their enlistment status terminated. Those men who fail to qualify for commissions will be transferred to whatever rating they are fitted to fill, or, if they wish, they will be discharged from the Service.

Although the new V-1 program for civilian students is open only to Freshmen and Sophomores, the NROTC has signed up V-1 volunteers from the Junior as well as Sophomore and Freshman classes. Exact figures on the number of men accepted were not made available, although some estimates placed the number at approximately 100