H.A.A. Deficit Triples in 1950-1951; Modified Athletic Policies Expected

Drops in football receipts were a major factor in causing athletic deficits to climb an estimated 209 percent during the year 1950-51, the Crimson learned yesterday. Next year they are expected to jump an additional 68 percent.

Besides decreased football revenues, constantly growing upkeep costs on the athletic plant are behind the heavy losses. The deficit for the past year was almost double that predicted. Overestimation of gate receipts from football, it is understood, were partly responsible for the huge discrepancy between the expected and actual deficit of the H.A.A.

Customarily the H.A.A. estimates it earns 75 percent of its annual overhead (about $1,100,000) through football but in the past several years such hopes have been proven over-optimistic.

The budgeted loss for 1951-52, $403,264, is a pessimistic estimate, Administration officials indicated.

So astronomical has the price of athletics at Harvard become that it now costs the University almost $100 per undergraduate (one sixth of the tuition) to keep its program up.

One result of the continuing losses has been the unofficial but actual transition of the H.A.A. from a distinct division of the University administration to merely a department of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. This change is indirectly noted by a recent Alumni Bulletin article which emphasized that Provost Buck as Dean of the Faculty, not the Director of Athletics, is responsible for athletic deficits.

Limit to Costs

While the Administration has accepted the College "athletics-for-all" program as an educational responsibility it has also indicated that there is a limit to the amount of costs it can absorb.

The ills which are plaguing Harvard athletics are also harassing colleges all over the nation, especially in the Ivy League, it was pointed out.