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SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 
THE STUDENTS’ ARMY TRAINING CORPS 
In a letter from the War Department ad- 
dressed to the colleges of the United States, 
August 28, 1918, the general plans under 
which the Students’ Army Training Corps 
will operate this year were outlined. Among 
the most important statements were the fol- 
lowing: 
1. All young men, who were planning to go to 
school this fall, should carry out their plans and 
do so. Hach should go to the college of his choice, 
matriculate and enter as a regular student. He 
will, of course, also register with his local board on 
the registration day set by the President. As soon 
as possible after registration day, probably on or 
about October first, opportunity will be given for 
all the regularly-enrolled students to be inducted 
into the Students’ Army Training Corps at the 
schools where they are in attendance. Thus the 
Corps will be organized by voluntary induction 
under the Selective Service Act, instead of by en- 
listment as previously contemplated. 
The student, by voluntary induction, becomes a 
soldier in the United States Army, uniformed, sub- 
ject to military discipline and with the pay of a 
private. They will simultaneously be placed on 
full active duty and contracts will be made as soon 
as possible, with the colleges for the housing, sub- 
sistence and instruction of the student soldiers. 
2. Officers, uniforms, rifles and such other equip- 
ment as may be available will be furnished by the 
War Department, as previously announced. 
3. The student-soldiers will be given military 
instruction under officers of the Army and will be 
kept under observation and test to determine their 
qualification as officer-candidates, and technical ex- 
perts such as engineers, chemists and doctors. 
After a certain period, the men will be selected 
according to their performance, and assigned to 
military duty in one of the following ways: 
(a) He may be transferred to a central officers’ 
training camp. 
(b) He may be transferred to a non-commis- 
sioned officers’ training school. 
(c) He may be assigned to the school where he 
is enrolled for further intensive work in a specified 
line for a limited specified time. 
(d) He may be assigned to the vocational train- 
ing section of the corps for technician training of 
military value. 
(e) He may be transferred to a cantonment for 
duty with troops as a private. 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Vou. XLVITI. No, 1238 
4, Similar sorting and reassignment of the men 
will be made at periodical intervals, as the re- 
quirements of the service demand. It can not be 
now definitely stated how long a particular student 
will remain at college. This will depend on the re- 
quirements of the mobilization and the age group 
to which he belongs. In order to keep the unit at 
adequate strength, men will be admitted from sec- 
ondary schools or transferred from Depot Brigades 
as the need may require. 
5. No units of the Students’ Army Training 
Corps will, for the present, be established at sec- 
ondary schools, but it is hoped to provide at an 
early date for the extension of military instruction 
in such schools. The secondary schools are urged 
to intensify their instruction so that young men 
seventeen and eighteen years old may be qualified 
to enter college as promptly as possible. 
6. There will be both a collegiate section and 
vocational section of the Students’ Army Train- 
ing Corps. Young men of draft age of grammar 
school education will be given opportunity to enter 
the vocational section of the corps. At present 
about 27,500 men are called for this section each 
month. Application for voluntary induction into 
the vocational section should be made to the local 
board and an effort will be made to accommodate 
as many as possible of those who volunteer for - 
this training. 
Men in the vocational section will be rated and 
tested by the standard Army methods and those 
who are found to possess the requisite qualifica- 
tions may be assigned to further training in the 
collegiate section. 
7. In view of the comparatively short time dur- 
ing which most of the student-soldiers will remain 
in college and the exacting military duties await- 
ing them, academic instruction must necessarily be 
modified along lines of direct military value. The 
War Department will prescribe or suggest such 
modifications. The schedule of purely military in- 
struction will not preclude effective academic work. 
It will vary to some extent in accordance with the 
type of academic instruction, e. g., will be less in a 
medical school than in a college of liberal arts. 
8. The primary purpose of the Students’ Army 
Training Corps is to utilize the executive and teach- 
ing personnel and the physical equipment of the 
colleges to assist in the training of our new armies. 
This imposes great responsibilities on the colleges 
and at the same time creates an exceptional oppor- 
tunity for service. The colleges are asked to de- 
vote the whole energy and educational power of the 
institution to the phases and lines of training de- 
