CHARGING THE H.A.A. BATTERY

In yesterday's editorial it was suggested that the H. A. A. lacked undergraduate support, that if it wished its coffers full again, it must take action. There have been a number of attempts to capture student interest, not one of which can be described as a dazzling success. There is, for instance, a Minor Sports Council, comprised of minor sports captains and managers. It met once this year, once last year, and failed to meet the year before. There is an undergraduate athletic committee, a merger of major and minor sports, organized last fall. The results of its first meeting are expected in a few days. There is an intramural athletic committee, a branch of which was finally stirred into action by the Student Council and sent to Yale to inspect its house sports system.

This intricate hierarchy, topped by a supreme council, the Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports, is dead or dying in most of its branches. Many might be lopped off, and the trunk--the student body--would never realize its loss. It is obvious that revitalization is imperative.

The place to start is at the top. At present student representation on the chief committee consists of three major sport men appointed by the H.A.A. Because of the administrative details which concern this Committee, the H.A.A. should retain this right, but of its quota should select at least one minor sports representative.

One plan to broaden its base may be easily applied. Two additional members might well be chosen by the Student Council from its own ranks. Neither should be a member of a University athletic team.

As members of the Student Council these men would be representatives of the entire student body, not merely of a special section of it, as the present Committee members are. Again, as members of the Student Council the two new committeemen would be able to refer directly to their co-workers general athletic viewpoints and questions which may be expected to be brought first to the attention of the Student Council by undergraduates.

The declining interest in organized sports may be overcome if the Quincy Street Bureaucracy takes a running broad jump in an effort to meet students halfway. With Student Council membership the H.A.A. will rediscover general participation in its problems and platforms. The undergraduate in whose name the Athletic Association annually collects and expends vast sums deserves to be represented. With the Student Council behind it, student opinion as a force in athletics may be re-energized and brought to that degree of vitality which it must have in a University which prides itself on a spirit of amateurism.