Draft Rules Fueled Campus Radicalism

In 1965 the Johnson administration ended automatic student deferments, instituted Selective Service testing, and required colleges to rank students—suddenly exposing many to conscription. Campus protests spiked when material risk rose, suggesting mobilization followed policy incentives more than pure ideological shift. — It reframes student activism as responsive to concrete risk and policy design, not just ideas, informing how we interpret and forecast protest waves.