ATHLETICS FOR ALL

There can be no other sane reaction than unqualified approval of the joint agreement of the Harvard, Yale and Princeton Athletic Committees to increase their athletic revenues by raising the price of football tickets. Most significant of the new attitude toward sport is the avowed intention to apply the resultant increase in funds "solely to maintenance and development of general athletic facilities and not to increasing the budgets of intercollegiate athletic teams." The idea of "athletics for all" has recently come noticeably to the fore in theory; here is a definite step toward putting this theory into practice.

The University administration has in the past expected athletics to be self-supporting and not infringe upon resources which the University applies to general educational purposes. The Athletic Association has thus been forced to go upon a basis of rigid economy. The "athletics for all" policy has accordingly suffered, not through lack of interest, but through lack of funds. The Athletic Committee has had no alternative but to decide that "increased annual revenue for athletic purposes should be secured through sources of direct athletic revenue."

The usefulness of the $85,000 estimated as the annual increase in revenue is self-evident. The method adopted, although it may be decried as commercialism, is in reality nothing of the sort. It does not involve the general public, because the games for which there is a public sale are not effected. It is merely Harvard's method of raising through Harvard graduates the funds to be used for the most neglected phase of the University's proper function, which is the development of the complete man.

The Athletic Committee can only be applauded for its appreciation of the University's needs and its choice of means to meet them. This step may be a force in influencing the University administration to adopt an equally sane attitude toward athletics for all. The recent appointment of Mr. Bingham as Director of Athletics with a seat on the Faculty has given grounds for the hope that this attitude is already taking shape, that the day will come when athletics will be regarded as a department of the University on the same footing as the departments of History, Philosophy, and Fine Arts, and its needs considered on the same basis. When that day comes, the physical development of the entire student body will no longer be limited by the extent of the ingenuity of the Athletic Association in augmenting its gate receipts.