Highacres Collegian
MRS. BODENSTEIN
RECEIVES GIFT
(Mrs. Bodenstein pictured above
receiving gift.)
Lia Ciotola and Bonnie Bangor
representing the Highacres student
body, presented Mrs. Elizabeth
Bodenstein with a Sylvania Porta
ble television set, as a going away
gift. Mrs. Bodenstein is going to
the Geisinger Medical Center for an
operation on her hip which will take
her away from the Campus for Spring
Term. A card was sighed by all the
students involved and also given
to Mrs. Bodenstein. The presenta
tion took place before Mr. Harold
Aurand’s March Bth TGIF discus
sion. It was presented to make Mrs.
Bodenstein’s hospital stay more
comfortable and as a reminder of
the students.
Mrs. Bodenstein said: “Itshowed
your faith in me as your friend and
teacher. You see, teaching is
largely an act of faith. There are
no immediate results and one just
has to go on, sometimes in doubt,
sometimes lacking in the feeling of
achievement. Now with this won
derful gift from all of you, with
this demonstration of your faith in
me, you have restored my faith,
thus enabling me to continue to
work with you and serve you better.
Thank you all again for your loving
kindness.”
DRAFT LAWS AGAIN
QUESTIONED
The present draft laws are un
fair, but the discontinuance of de
ferments to graduate students
should not generate alarm. What
should be alarming is the fact that
deferments of this type were ever
granted, and that deferments are
still granted to undergraduate stu
dents. The present method of grant
ing deferments is a system of un
fair discrimination against those
who decided against entering col
lege. It is hard to find adequate
justification for granting a defer
ment to almost anyone who occupies
a classroom seat and drafting most
of those who do not. Why should a
boy who neglected his studies be
cause he loved to toy and monkey
with machines become a toy soldier
caught in the machinery of guer
rilla warfare? How ironical that he
should be maliciously disfigured
by the violent blows of a sharp
machete while his “peers”, his
“equals”, are taking fencing les
sons, watching Combat or safely
reading a book in the “Democra
tic” country.
The present deferment system
parallels the situation that existed
during the civil war, when a small
sum of money could buy a substi
tute for a man who did not want to
serve his country. Today’s sys
tem is even worse for it is the
school’s bursar who receives the
money, not the substitute drafter.
Whether the Vietnamese war is
necessary to preserve national
security is immaterial when ex
emptions are considered. Who is
to say which youth is more im
portant, the eighteen yejar oid
munitions plant worker Or the
eighteen year old college student
with an undecided major. , If the
draft keeps draining the economy
of its common laborer, how effec-
tive or important will the future
engineers and future leaders be?
What outstanding conditions
warrant coddling the students by
excluding him from serving his
country? Will bullets penetrate
deeper into his flesh than into the
body of those presently in the Ar
my? Wi l l he miss a fraternity party?
The. only fair solution is that
of inducting all men immediately
following their eighteenth birthday.
This action would not frustrate
education. The desire for educat
ion would not be quenched after
two years of military service. If it
should be, then the thirst was nev
er very great.
The complaint now, should not
be “Why are graduate students
deferments discontinued?”, but
rather “Why should the undemo
cratic practice of undergraduate
exemptions continue?
COLLEGIAN STAFF
Editor-in-Chief Lia Ciotola
Assistant Editors— John Gallagher
Greg Wolfe
Jeff Mason
Joan Sole/
Mike Hager
IStudent Affairs Editor-
Sports Editor-
Circulation Editor-
Photographer—
Robert Fogarty
Bonnie Bangor
Mary Stalgaitis
Roseann Puhak
Rosemary Sochka
Pat McElwee
Miss Susan Goodman
Reporters-
Advisor-
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