Dec. 19

A Modest Proposal on the Draft and Higher Education

It is indeed a rare and wonderful thing when the interests of seemingly disparate institutions coalesce and the members thereof can join forces to advance a hitherto unrealized common cause. But such is the opportunity that the officials of the Bush administration and we in the academy find ourselves facing today.

The Department of Defense finds itself desperately short of troops with which to sustain what promises to be a long and increasingly unpopular, inconclusive war in Iraq. The Department of Education finds itself suddenly alarmed by the relatively low percentage of Americans pursuing postsecondary education compared to the rate of participation in other countries. American colleges and universities find themselves bucking the current demographic trend such that some of them are lowering standards as they compete for fewer and fewer students.

The answer to all these problems, it seems to me, is as simple as remembering back to the last time we were fighting an unpopular war far away for reasons we couldn’t quite understand, the 1960s. Colleges and universities were bursting at the seams with more students than they could handle, and the sky seemed to be the limit for the expansion of programs and the hiring of new faculty members. What did we have going for us then in the American academy that we don’t have now? We had a Selective Service System — a draft — that until 1971 featured a calculated system of deferments for college and graduate school.

We need to restore that system today — the most significant refinement being that, in keeping with today’s more enlightened sensibility, today’s draft would extend to young women as well as men. The advantages would be obvious and undeniable.

The Department of Defense would have more than enough fresh troops with which to “stay the course.” This should satisfy the critics on the right and the left who would use the current exhaustion of the all-volunteer military as an excuse to “cut and run.” The number of college deferments would remain relatively low compared to the number of young people available, especially if we made deferment contingent upon maintaining a passing grade-point average. We could even make deferment contingent on enrolling in programs that lend themselves to the kinds of assessment approved of by the Spellings commission — if those classics and philosophy departments want to hold on to their students, they’ll come around to believe everything can be measured in tests or your post-graduation income.

Patriotic appeals and current threat levels notwithstanding, the prospect of being drawn into a shooting war in Iraq or Afghanistan, or even Iran, will continue to appeal to a limited spectrum of American youth. Matriculation and retention rates in American colleges and universities, then, are likely to soar, thereby alleviating one concern of the Secretary of Education and her Commission. We are also likely to see a war dividend in terms of increased accountability, as students and faculty alike face a clear and present incentive to assess and document student learning. (Obviously, the deferments would only be granted to those enrolled at places whose accreditors endorsed the commission’s approach.)

The sudden surplus of applicants, moreover, will force colleges to become more selective. This will greatly reduce, or even obviate, the need for remedial courses. And it will help ensure that graduates do not exhibit the sort of deficiencies in basic skills likewise noted as one of our national embarrassments in the Higher Education Commission’s recent report.

Carefully considered, in fact, this scheme would seem to present no serious disadvantages, unless it be urged that the liberal sentiments and ideals associated with higher education are incongruous with the prosecution of a war. To date, however, we have witnessed remarkably little dissent and protest directed toward the war from academic quarters. It is therefore safe to assume that we in the academy have outgrown our narrow principles and that we’re not likely to suffer the sort of paroxysms that tore campuses apart during the Vietnam era.

As for myself, I have nothing to gain or lose in proposing this scheme. I already served in Vietnam, I am within five years of retirement, and my one child is finished with college and beyond draft age. My only objective is to do my part, as a loyal American, to help the President out of a tight spot and to point the way toward a brave new era of academic and governmental cooperation.

Edward F. Palm is dean of social sciences and humanities at Olympic College, in Bremerton, Wash.

Comments

that amazing modest proposal

Professor Palm , your proposal is so eloquently made that I am completely persuaded. I only want to add to it as I join with you in spreading your message. Realizing that many of the Reserves who were activated for Iraq were not precisely youths, nor men either (a friend told me a woman in her office, age 54, was called up), I wonder if the draft age you remember from the 60’s would be appropriate for the New Millennium. After all, Education is for Everyone. Why would we not want post-college educated draftees for their highly trained services, and again, why not senior citizens for their experience and wisdom. No one has more wisdom than a professor. (I know from personal experience.) Let’s get started on this. I am actually receiving social security bnefits as I write this, but I am thinking that your proposal could, if morre widely applied, benefit the social security system too—put retirees to some use after all. Help us to see the world and be all we can be.

antique professor, at 6:35 am EST on December 19, 2006

Return of the Draft

The most logical and sensible approach to dealing with the War in Iraq and college enrollment I have read. Those in power who can really do something should take this proposal seriously.

Joe L. McCormick, at 6:35 am EST on December 19, 2006

Increase college enrollments and help the president “stay the course” by drafting men and women into “a long and increasingly unpopular, inconclusive war.” Hmm, what’s wrong with this picture?

Bob Schenck, at 7:05 am EST on December 19, 2006

Good reasoning

This is an admirable proposal but one more condition is necessary to make it work in perpetuity: avoid peace at all costs, maintaining a constant state of war. This suggests such policies as never negotiating; taking pre-emptive stands; spending the country to a point of “in blood so deep that to turn back now would be to go twice o’er"; ignoring treaties and international bodies; ignoring all evidence and advisors, etc. A constant threat or actual presence of war would be the ultimate assurance of scaring people into going to and staying in college. And you could still send them off to your fabricated wars when they graduated and their deferments expired! I love this idea.

Swift Fan, at 8:05 am EST on December 19, 2006

What an admirable approach. I volunteered to serve my contry by joining ROTC when I was in college in the ’70s and still serve today after 27 years. While this approach may seem extreme to some — I think Americans should be concerned about who and how many of our young people are willing to serve their country and participate as citizens in their government. As a sociology major I saw the benefit 30 years ago of having dvierse young people serving in the military. No one can deny that the U.S. military as a profession enjoys the admiration of the American people — it’s just a shame that so few are willing to participate to maintain the heritage of a citizen soldier. As for supporting colleges -the educators of the institutions where I received my advanced education were always complimentary of the veterans in their classes — presumably because our real world expereince and discipline provided us with motivation and seriousness in our educational endeavors. This approach contributes to the building of our society.

Julie Manta, COL at US Army War College, at 8:40 am EST on December 19, 2006

No deferment

If we ever do have a draft again (a not unlikely scenario at the way the Iraq war is going), there won’t be any deferments. The problem with deferments for college is that they then allow the educated upper class to avoid service, therefore eliminating the so-called “citizen soldier". I also disagree that an increase in accountability is necessarily bad. The public, spending billions of dollars annually on higher education, deserves some assurance that their money is being well spent.

Jeremy, at 8:55 am EST on December 19, 2006

Saeva indignatio

What is striking about the conversation so far is that some have read Jonathan Swift and some appear not to know the model of the “Modest Proposal” from which the author is working. Or, perhaps to keep the balls in the air and the wit a-flying, they pretend not to. . .

Dean Rich, Dean at Bethel University, at 9:10 am EST on December 19, 2006

OKay, Except No War Making, Deterrent Only

A wonderful proposal except adults are learners too. The numbers of adult learners,(25 and older) is increasing. Another thing, wouldn’t this make us want to keep in a war making status? How can we wiggle this proposal to help prevent Capitol Hill hawks at bay? I don’t want anyone else to make their family a Gold Star one.

Gold Star Brother & Family, Life Member at Veterans of Foreign Wars, at 9:16 am EST on December 19, 2006

What a bright future you present!

Forcing our kids to make a choice between enlisting in the military or going to college is not a characteristic of a free society. And allowing the Federal government (DoE) to determine how colleges and universities operate doesn’t seem like a very good option either.

This argument seems based on the premise that we should continue sending our soldiers (sons & daughters) to fight and die in an extremely unpopular war that has no clear goal or end in sight. I have an alternative idea that would appeal to both Dems and Reps and be more in line with both party’s traditional ideals. By withdrawing from Iraq we could use the obscene amount of taxpayer dollars we spend fighting the war to decrease our national debt, boost economic development, and support higher educational attainment. In addition, The Department of Education would not have to become a law enforcement agency with the charge of making sure students aren’t just wasting time in college to avoid the war.

With this plan we uphold the Republican tradition of a smaller, less intrusive Federal government. We would also be better able to support fiscally sound practices like budget reduction and economic development. The Dems would be able to uphold their vision of greater government support for social issues like increasing access to higher education and making college more affordable.

As a society, we should spend our tax dollars on things we value. If one realistically believes we could win this war — and that by winning we could deliver peace and democracy to the Middle East and dramatically improve our lives in the United States — then continue to send people to die for that cause at the expense of priorities within our own borders.

Paul Atkinson, at 10:45 am EST on December 19, 2006

as long as...

I’ve already said this...if the draft is reinstated, I want to see Bush’s daughters out there with my 22 year old son. No more hiding in the National Guards (although of late that hasn’t saved anyone) or higher education; everyone treated equally regardless of race, SES, gender, education, and any thing else you can think of. But, if anyone of you think that will happen (equal treatment) I have some land I would like to sell you....

Jody, at 11:05 am EST on December 19, 2006

Smashing Idea

A concomitant benefit would be the restoration of war protest activities to Vietnam Era proportions—a different army, perhaps, than envisioned, but equally well motivated.

Moira, at 11:05 am EST on December 19, 2006

a modest addition

Dean Rich is correct, of course. The purpose of the essay is to spark thought and response, not to actually be implemented, as the Swift reference indicates. Juxtaposing the two needs, however, does raise an interesting contrast between the amount of money we spend training military recruits, even during peacetime, and the amount we grudgingly release to help middle and lower income students afford college. One of the interesting results of my research with veterans of past wars was that they did not realize that their education benefits, and pretty much only those benefits, expired. With post-2000 job losses in so many major industries, many veterans needed and wanted more education, but could not afford it. What could a single week’s costs in Iraq do for a whole generation of Pell Grant recepients?

HL, WPU, at 11:55 am EST on December 19, 2006

Comment/hint about my own piece

Jonathan Swift, thous shouldst be living at this hour!—Edward F. Palm

Ed Palm, Dean at Olympic College, at 11:55 am EST on December 19, 2006

Right in spite of himself

Despite his obvious ironical intentions and attempts to achieve Swift’s satirical goal of promoting saeva indignatio in his readers about the possibility of a reinstitution of the draft, Dean Palm’s proposal is (alas, for him perhaps!) sensible, just and wise.

Another ironical benefit of reinstitution of the draft might be to bring out the mauvaise foi of an older generation of draft-dodgers, cowards or meretricious anti-war vets (a la Kerry) itching to recapture the leftist “romance” of campus and urban anti-war protest and of passive-aggressive and seething hostility to our military (i.e., of the recently defeated law profs’ fight against implementation of the Solomon Amendment or of the San Francisco city administrators’ lunatic action in ending the junior ROTC programme in city schools).

So, Dean Palm, an ironical “thanks” to you. . . and two cheers,

Dr JA, Life VFW member

Jacques Albert, at 6:55 am EST on December 20, 2006

Reinstituting the draft would create another large government bureaucracy that would spent ten times as much time trying to catch the evaders than it would to recruit citizens interested in doing an appropriate job for the military. Universal service for all would be an unmanagable and unjustifiable waste of taxpayer funds to gain little, if any, benefits. Case in point, adjudicated community service. Almost as many correctional officers are needed as are miscreants punished by picking up the trash. Make military service as rewarding financially as other professions such as the police and fire departments. Pay more for remote assignments. The big construction firms that do business in Iraq don’t have problems getting employees to work in these areas. But they have to pay a premium to these people.

Doug Cooper, at 6:00 pm EST on December 20, 2006

Wouldn’t it be cheaper, more cost-effective, and somewhat more humane simply to improve the Iraqi standard of living and reduce the number of violent actors by bringing all the angry young men and women over here and giving them a high-quality American education?

After all, we already import low paid workers to do jobs Americans don’t want to do. If Americans don’t want to go to college, damnit, we’ll just have to import more college students.

Benjamin W., Enormous State University, at 6:25 am EST on December 22, 2006

draft

This debate reminds me of the Stephen Colbert Report. So many of you take so much at face value. I hope this article gets the author a spot on the administrations cabinet, they’re as literal as the rest of you.

Joe D’Alessandro, at 7:15 pm EST on December 22, 2006

Considered metaphorically it could be said that Swift’s modest proposal has become the way of the world. I think this proposal is equally prescient.

Lee Robertson, at 2:45 pm EST on December 24, 2006

A nice thought, but completely unfeasible. A draft would be political suicide for too many politicians. I’m not a student of history, but from my understanding, the public backlash against Iraq has been astronomical compared to the pre-draft backlash against Vietnam. A draft today would be too much of a political gamble for too many politicians.

Andrey Fedorov, Student at Rutgers University, at 4:05 pm EST on December 27, 2006

Reactions scary

It scares me that of 12—15 reactions to this piece, only two or three recognized the satire which is made obvious by the title alone. Don’t let E.D. Hirsch near this web site. He’ll have us all put back in elementary school.

Steve Rose, Professor at Simpson College, at 8:15 pm EST on December 28, 2006

Or

Or, we could forgo the necessity of the draft and just eat the children of our poor. Those who do not want their children to be eaten must have enough money to pay for university tuition.

This is more in line with Swiftian thought anyways...

Writing Instructor, at 4:06 pm EDT on April 16, 2007

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