Can I just say, I was a lot happier when I wasn't thinking about this stuff?!
Maybe they meant to send the cadets since it was supposed to be a non-crisis, and they seem like they've nearly graduated, plus they had some crew who were more experienced (or at least I assume so, since people like Sulu and Chekov are called by military ranks from the start, instead of Cadet like Uhura and Kirk), so they figured they could send them first of all while they recalled everyone else? Since it didn't seem to take them long to get to Vulcan but a recall of everyone else would have taken longer, since I assume they can't beam everyone from around Earth.
Re: Not a die-hard fan, really, but I've seen most of TOS and read a lot of the novels
Maybe they meant to send the cadets since it was supposed to be a non-crisis, and they seem like they've nearly graduated, plus they had some crew who were more experienced (or at least I assume so, since people like Sulu and Chekov are called by military ranks from the start, instead of Cadet like Uhura and Kirk), so they figured they could send them first of all while they recalled everyone else? Since it didn't seem to take them long to get to Vulcan but a recall of everyone else would have taken longer, since I assume they can't beam everyone from around Earth.