A MINOR CRISIS II

If minor sports at Harvard are going to be kept on a basis that is satisfactory to the undergraduates that participate in them, ways and means will have to be found to finance them. The present solution of a reduced budget is at best a temporary one, since the standard of coaching is bound to suffer in the long run as well as the interest shown in the sports themselves. A compulsory participation ticket costing the Freshmen ten dollars would redistribute the financial burden more equally and satisfactorily among the college, since at present the Yardlings pay nothing for the privilege of using the University's athletic facilities.

As regards these sports Harvard must avoid any attitude that smacks of "keeping up with the Joneses", but at the same time it is unfair to men who are sincerely interested in doing serious athletic work to let them train under inferior coaches and with second rate equipment. Although the coaching is excellent at the present time, the college is in great danger of losing its best men merely because it has had to cut their salaries, and rely on graduate student assistance. If the salaries that Harvard pays its coaches are substantially lower than those offered by other Universities, we can not expect to keep the best men in Cambridge.

If Harvard allows its minor sports to suffer, while the hallowed trio of football, baseball and hockey continue to have full schedules, trips away and the best coaches obtainable, it then lays itself open to serious charges of "commercialism" and going "big time". Under the present set-up the boy who is a good wrestler or fencer, but didn't come to Harvard to play football, is being slighted.

Whenever a question of raising money from undergraduates comes up, the perennial difficulty is how to collect the levy in the most painless fashion. There are many Freshmen who have their funds very carefully budgeted, and ten dollars would be an undeniable hardship for them. In the case of those holding scholarships, some compromise could be worked out by which to avoid this extra burden on those seeking an education under difficult circumstances.

For the money must undeniably be raised, and it should come from the Freshmen who at present contribute nothing to the support of athletic facilities which they use three times a week. This redistribution of the financial burden among the undergraduates would save the minor sports from a most unsatisfactory situation.