About two or three years ago, an ad came out with the blaring headline, “10% of this years Bais Yaakov seniors will NEVER get married!”
There was then a huge outcry about who asked them to play god (lashon chol here, no capital and no hyphen necessary) and decide who won’t get married. They can say they don’t understand how the math will work, but who are they to be poseach peh l’satan and proclaim who will be single?!?! In addition, why throw a line out there that could lead some to being meya’esh prematurely.
A couple of weeks later there was a retraction printed in Yated and Modia. It went something like, “We never really meant such a shtarkeh proclamation. We just want to draw attention to what we think is a budding problem.”
They think going over the top is a way to get their message across. Just like getting 60 roshei yeshiva to sign a letter saying that they think it is a good idea to redt shidduchim to older girls, and people shouldn’t get a complex about going with a shidduch where the kallah is a bit older. They then use the signatures of those people to announce and push policies that forbid 19 year olds to date.
Every other initiative they dream up already has the imprimatur of the roshei yeshiva who signed the initial letter, so therefore everything else has their backing as well. I have spoken to one signer on those letters, to mekuravim of two others, and to one other person who is well recognized and is on the caliber if not higher than many or most of the signers, yet he was asked to sign and declined. They NEVER meant to make radical changes and restrictions against anyone dating. Only to promote people redting to those who seemed to get neglected. AS a matter of fact, I remember the week the original letter came out, an engagement was announced between the 22 year old son of one signer to the 19 year old granddaughter of another.