In an effort to warn college students about the possibility of a military draft, the non-profit organization MoveOn Student Action is printing advertisements concerning the issue in 150 campus papers.

"Military experts agree that the military is overstretched," Project Director Ben Brandzel said.

"It failed to meet the recruitment goal for the first time," he added.

He said that the goal of the campaign is to inform students that a military draft would be a very real possibility if President George W. Bush were re-elected.

"It's such a serious issue that could affect all of our lives," Brandzel said. "The election is the first moment of choice that we face as a country to decide whether we move toward or away from the draft."

MoveOn Student Action, which is a branch of MoveOn.org Voter Fund, began the nationwide "Feel a Draft?" campaign a few months ago to demand a plan for ending the war in Iraq and avoiding the draft.

By placing advertisements in major campus papers, the organization expects to reach 1.2 million students in battleground states.

The advertisement says army recruiters are unable to meet their quotas, re-enlistments are dropping and soldiers are being forced to stay beyond their contracted time.

However, College Republicans Chairman Andy Banducci said that Bush has firmly stated the draft will not be necessary.

"If we need more troops, we'll do what we have to do. That might mean we move some of the troops around, but the draft is absolutely 100 percent out of the question," Banducci said.

"It's detrimental to have a draft because it spends so much money on training. This is not a military that is struggling for manpower right now," he added.

Banducci also said that he thinks the purpose of the campaign is to scare college students into voting for Sen. John Kerry at the polls Tuesday on Election Day.

"I think this is just an example of partisan positioning by scaring people into thinking they have to serve," he said. "It's one of the dirtiest tactics."

MoveOn Student Action ran its first advertisement in The New York Times on Oct. 18.

The advertisement was in the form of a letter to Bush, which was signed by more than 64,000 students who submitted their names online at MoveOnStudent
Action.org.

Brandzel said that the petition has already been submitted to Bush, but there are still more students who are continuing to sign it every day.

College Democrats President Megan Green said that she does not think it is unreasonable for students to be concerned about the possibility of a military draft being implemented after the election.

"Most students are aware of what's going on and that we really do need more troops over in Iraq," she said. "And if we need more troops, it's going to be our generation that gets called to duty."

But Glenn Thompson, Centre County Republican Committee chairman, pointed to recent legislation to show it is neither the Bush administration nor the Republican Party this is threatening the draft.

On Oct. 5, the U.S. House of Representatives defeated a bill that would have made it mandatory for all young people ages 18 to 26 to commit two years of military service by a landslide 402-2 vote.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., proposed the bill in the House as a way to make sure that people of all economic backgrounds can be equally called for war.

In conjunction with the House bill, a twin bill proposing a military draft still sits in the armed forces committee of the U.S. Senate.

Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., proposed that bill in the Senate in January 2003.

However, because Hollings is retiring after next week's elections, the Senate bill is unlikely to reach a hearing because it will die when its sponsor retires.

"I think what MoveOn.org is counting on is if someone sees or reads it often enough, they'll believe it to be the truth," Thompson said.

"If I were a college student, I'd be insulted that they'd think I'd be stupid enough to not know the facts about the draft and the legislation that's been carried out in the past couple of weeks," he added.