PLAYERS GIVE LESS TIME TO ATHLETICS THAN MANAGERS DO

After spending several months in making the most thorough study of athletic conditions undertaken at the University, a special committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has submitted to the Faculty a detailed report which shows that the players on athletic teams have a fairly good average record in scholarship and attendance, but that the team managers and candidates for managerships not only give to athletics twice as much time as the players, but have a much lower scholarship standard and cut their classes more often.

The committee which drew up the report was appointed by President Lowell last October under a vote of the Faculty that "an investigation should be made of the question whether the present methods of conducting certain athletic sports make unreasonable demands upon the time of the students".

Professor Chester N. Greenough '98, was chairman of the committee, and the other members were Dean L. B. R. Briggs '75, Regent Matthew Luce '91, Professor Julian L. Coolidge '95, Dean Henry A. Yeomans '00, Dr. Roger I. Lee '02, and Professor Edmund E. Day. Messrs. Briggs and Yeomans and Dr. Lee are also the Faculty members of the regular Athletic Committee to which the report has been referred by the Faculty for consideration.

The principal findings of the committee, based on statistical information and submitted after conferences with players, managers and Athletic officials, may be summed up as follows:

1. Players on major teams at the University are only very slightly below the average in scholarship. While they get on the average only half as many A's as men not taking part in athletics, they get nearly as many B's, only slightly more D's and about the same proportion of E's.

2. The grades of managers, on the other hand, make a much poorer showing. "In 1919-20", says the report, "the managers obtained no A's, had only about one-third the proportion of B's obtained by non-participants, had nearly twice the proportion of D's and almost three times the proportion of E's. . . . The scholarship of managers and candidates for managerships was strikingly inferior to that both of players and of students not participating in the major sports".

3. The frequency with which players cut classes is only very slightly above the average, and the report says: "In view of the fact that members of athletic teams are necessarily absent from Cambridge for some of the more important contests, it is clear that the players, while about the University, attend their courses fully as regularly as students not participating in the major sports. The records at this point are quite consistent with the contention of the players that they are under constant pressure from coaches and managers not to cut courses".

Managers Cut Frequently

4. Apparently no such pressure is felt by the managers. While the average non-athletic upper-classman has 30 unexcused cuts a year, and the average player 32, the average manager has 42.

5. Freshmen, as a class, cut only about three-quarters as much as upper-classmen.

6. Athletes and managers avoid afternoon courses more than other under graduates, but the committee adds that on the whole "there is so little undergraduate instruction given after 2.30 that athletic practice would not seem to interfere seriously with the wise choice of courses", except perhaps in regard to laboratory courses.

The report analyzes the amount of time spent on various athletic activities, both by players and managers, revealing the fact that "as a group, managers and candidates for managerships seem to give to athletics at least twice as much time as the players". The system of athletic organization at the University is also described in detail.

The committee records "Its appreciation of the marked good will shown by the leaders of Harvard athletics with whom it has conferred. The committee is confident", concludes the report, "that the same spirit of co-operation will be shown toward any proposals which the Faculty may be disposed to make for the improvement of Harvard athletics"