AN OBJECTIONABLE RULE

The regulation which keeps members of the graduate schools out of University athletics has so many advantages that it should on no account be abolished, but an exception to it should be made for the sake of men who qualify for their degrees in three years. Such men may wish to enter one of the graduate departments in their fourth year at Cambridge, but if they do so they are debarred from playing on the University teams. In other College activities they are considered Seniors, while as regards athletics they are treated as graduates. On the other hand, if the pressure is strong enough, they stay for another year in the College to retain their eligibility. Of course, it can be said that this fourth year in College is as advantageous from an educational stand-point as the other three, but the fact remains that most men who remain for this reason are inclined to take easy courses and get through with the least amount of labor possible. It is a case of choosing the lesser of two evils. To do away with the difficulty some provision should be made by which men who are socially Seniors would be eligible to play on the University teams although they were entered in one of the professional schools.

Our adversaries may feel that this step is proposed in order to get more winning teams, but this is not the case, as is shown by the fact that practically no good athletes prefer to discard their sports for professional studies. It is simply felt that such a harmful rule should be changed into a better one. The desire to be fair to our opponents has been carried too far, and a regulation has been made which is unfair to the more diligent of our own undergraduates.