Muscles and Dollars: I

All sorts of things at Harvard cost a lot of money. There are, for instance, libraries, laboratories, and museums--and there is an athletic plant. The benefits of libraries, laboratories, and museums are available to students at either low or no cost. However, to derive the full benefits of the H.A.A., the student has to shell out $41.

There is no essential difference between a library or museum and an athletic plant as a service of a university. Some men undoubtedly go through Harvard without ever going inside one of its museums and without ever making more than a perfunctory pass at a place like Widener, yet they pay for these services willingly enough through their tuition. They should pay for the athletic plant in the same way in order that the policy of athletics for all can be genuinely realized.

At present many students avoid the H.A.A.'s athletic participation tickets because the $20 fee makes high-priced education still more expensive. A substantial percentage don't buy tickets to watch varsity sports because the cost for that is $21. Meanwhile the H.A.A., which depends on these charges for its income, is piling up bigger deficits each year as inflation swells its overhead. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has to underwrite this loss.

Last year $70 out of every undergraduate's tuition fee went to eradicate the H.A.A.'s $400,000 worth of red ink. But a great many students didn't have the privilege of using H.A.A. facilities or seeing games because they didn't want to pay the extra $41.

Next year the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will probably raise the tuition because it showed a deficit last year--a deficit indisputably traceable to the H.A.A. When the Faculty raises tuition it should design the hike to cover all expenses of the H.A.A. that won't be met by game receipts. This would simply be financial application of the consistently repeated policy that athletics are an integral part of education at Harvard. Because he will be supporting the H.A.A. through his tuition, the student should get all of its privileges just as he now has all the privileges of another million dollar College enterprise--the library system.

This arrangement would have two advantages over the current system of partial payment from all of the students and additional payment by some. It would make it possible for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to pay for the H.A.A. without showing a deficit. It would enable all undergraduates to use the athletic plant without additional charge. Many who now steer clear of the superb facilities because of the expense involved would use them. Athletics for all would become a reality.

In an editorial tomorrow, we will consider the possibility of including the cost of a ticket book for all games as part of the tuition in the same way the participation fee should be part of it. We will also suggest ways in which the H.A.A. can reduce its immense expenses.