COMMITTEE ON REGULATION OF ATHLETIC SPORTS GIVES STATEMENT OF POLICIES

In yesterday's issue of the Alumni Bulletin appears the report of the Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports, which is printed below in part. Besides a full statement of its athletic and financial policies, the report contains a copious appendix in which the Intercollegiate Conference Rules are printed, and wherein a complete account of the Harvard, Yale, and Princeton agreement is also to be found.

The report supplements the "Brief Outline" which was submitted to the President and Fellows in May.

Henry Pennypacker '88 is chairman of the Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports. The graduate members are W. J. Bingham '16, C. P. Curtis '85, C. H. Greenough '98, Dr. Alfred Worcester '78, Dr. R. I. Lee 01; while the undergraduates are represented by M. A. Cheek '26, J. J. Maher '26, and C. L. Todd '26.

"To the President and Fellows of Harvard College:

"Your Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports, being that department of the University which is charged by the President and Fellows with the supervision and the control of the athletics of the University, sensible of its responsibility to the Governing Boards, submits this statement of its policy and beliefs to supplement the "Brief Outline" which it submitted to the President and Fellows in May, 1925.

"The organization of your Committee itself is too well known to require explanation, but the system of its Graduate Advisory Committees was revised so recently (December, 1924) that a brief exposition of their position and their function may be advisable.

Each Sport Given Advisory Board

"For each of the major sports your Committee appoints annually an advisory Committee of three to five graduates with one or more associate members, in each of which the Graduate Treasurer is ex-officio a member. No head coach may, however, belong. The appointments are made by your Committee on its own discretion, but the captain or the head coach, if the latter is a Harvard man, may, for the information of your Committee, file nominations and state their reasons. These Sub-Committees have no executive powers of their own beyond routine affairs. They are, however, close to the major sport they represent, and recommendations by a majority of their regular members manifestly carry great weight with your Committee.

"It is the policy of your Committee to cultivate and encourage these Sub-Committees, to develop their advisory functions as far as possible, and to support their recommendations on any matter that does not infringe on the general policy of your Committee Insofar as their recommendations affect only the sport in which they act and conform to the general policy of your Committee and the University, your Committee believes these Sub-Committees should have the fullest discretion.

Graduate Athletics Favored

"The subject of the organization of your Committee should not be left without a word upon its relation to the University in distinction from the College. Agreements with Yale and Princeton have for some time restricted participation in intercollegiate contests to undergraduates of the College and Engineering School Although the students in the graduate schools are thus excluded from these contests, your Committee desires to express its conviction and its pride that it is a department of the whole University, charged with the responsibility of offering an opportunity for physical exercise and athletics to the whole University and not only to the undergraduates. A student in one of the graduate schools is quite as much a member of the University as is an undergraduate, and has an equal right to the opportunities for athletics afforded under your Committee by the University. This your Committee believes is a general principle with exceptions only in direct relation to the exclusion of graduate students from the intercollegiate contests. Thus, your Committee believes it is justified in preferring students and graduates of the College and Engineering School to students and graduates only of the graduate schools in the matter of seats and tickets to the intercollegiate contests from which the latter are excluded from participation Otherwise, in every respect, the opportunities provided by your Committee must be open to all members of the University.

"So much for the policy of your Committee in respect to organization. In other respects this statement of policy may be divided into matters concerning athletics itself on the one hand and its financial affairs on the other.

Seek Sound Mind in Sound Body

"On collegiate athletics in general, your Committee believes that physical exercise is an integral part of education. In these days a young man goes to college with a wider purpose than ever before. In the four years which he proposes to devote to his education he intends to develop not his mind but his whole character. A thorough and successful development of his character cannot be achieved without the amplest opportunity to exercise and to train his body. Your Committee feels that the University has charged it with the responsibility of giving all the students this opportunity and of encouraging them to take full advantage of it. It heartily appreciates the importance of its work. . . .

"Perhaps the most important aspect of the work committed to the care of your Committee is competitive athletics, for most of the voluntary physical exercises which are undertaken by the students are contests in one form or another, either between individuals or between teams. This has led from contests within the University and the College to contests with other Universities and Colleges. Therefore, a primary question of policy is the extent and character of the intercollegiate contests. Your Committee believes that intercollegiate contests are to be maintained and encouraged primarily for the purpose of exciting and sustaining an interest in the athletic contests and competitive exercises within the University. It proposes to organize and promote play in the form of a competitive sport for as many individuals as possible by encouraging a reasonable amount of intercollegiate competition. It is a most effective method and the temptations to use it too much and carry it too far are strong and many. Both the graduates and the undergraduates enjoy the spectacles which the intercollegiate contests provide, and the students who take part in these contests are willing not only to undergo many weeks of hard discipline, and often unenjoyable preparation, but also to give too much of their time and strength for the privilege of participating. Your Committee appreciates this risk of excess and declares its policy to keep the number of intercollegiate contests within reason. They should not be so many, nor made so important, as to divert the thoughts, interests, and enthusiasms of the players from the major academic purpose for which they went to Harvard. They should not be inaugurated or maintained for the purpose of entertaining the public or the graduates. Your Committee believes that the present number of intercollegiate contests in sports now established is sufficient for their primary purpose. On the other hand, your Committee believes that this suitable agreements with our chief competitors, Yale and Princeton. Although the football games have been from time to time criticized in this respect, your Committee believes that, whatever may be thought of the amount of publicity attached to them, they do not unduly interfere with the academic part of the student's education. It must be remembered that less than three hundred students in all play football, and that the University and Freshman squads together take only about eighty men away from Cambridge for less than two days in the autumn. Your Committee believes that such criticisms have been excited less by the evils of which they complain than by the undoubtedly undesirable amount of public interest in football.

Intersectional Games Disapproved

"However", intercollegiate contests have a tendency to expand and multiply into forms which your Committee does not approve. Such are intersectional championships and post season games. These are not necessary to sustain an interest in the sport and the motives are usually not really athletic. The policy of your Committee is to discourage any such contests. . . .

"Insofar as intercollegiate competitions are maintained in any sport they have certain effects upon the conduct of that sport. If our students are to compete with the students of other Universities or Colleges we must make certain that they meet their competitors as equals and with the best chance for success that we can give them. If we compete at all we must do so with an earnest effort and with a full hope for success. Anything less is demoralizing and unfitting. This means that they must be prepared by training and instruction, which will often be more rigorous and exacting than would otherwise be necessary or advisable. Whatever excess or exaggerations may have come from this cause cannot be removed without impairing our equality in the contest, in morale as well as in fact. Your Committee believes that reform should come mainly by joint action with our chief competitors. Yale and Princeton.

"Such agreements have been successfully and wisely made. The Presidents of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton met, and on January 1, 1923, agreed for their respective Universities, that "it should be the aim of each University, as far as practicable, to have the coaching of all teams done only by members of its regular staff," that "no coach shall receive for his services any money or other valuable consideration except through the University authorities," and that "while under contract no coach shall write for