Get Out and Vote

Only an undercurrent of student objection has been heard so far to the doctrine of forced credits for work of an academic nature done in the armed forces. Surveys have shown that a significant number of undergraduates is being affected adversely by the ruling, but few have expressed their disapproval by any more concrete step than commenting on a poll; even fewer by making the effort to file a petition with the Dean's office for relaxation of the ukase.

The Student Council's action yesterday in setting itself up as a center for student complaints about the forced credits policy may provide the entering wedge for a move to revise the situation. Dean Hanford, the executor of the policy, has himself called for expression of student opinion on the subject, with a view toward possible change.

Dean Hanford's defense of the ruling as it stands revolves around two points: (1) that there are not really many legitimate cases which have not been treated favorably, and (2) that a change in the rule now would freeze out "100 or so" new men who could otherwise enter in February.

If the undergraduate body will respond to the Council's request for consolidated complaints, the Administration's defense may be shattered. That there are legitimate student objections is apparent; if enough of them can be registered, Mr. Hanford's first objection will dissolve. And in the process of examining those complaints, the Faculty and Administrative Board may be made to realize that the commitment to give these men who are already in the College a real Harvard education may take precedence over the desire to give a few more men a chance for that education on a different--and lower--level.