Athenaeum Hears Grid Policies Hit

Austen Lake, Boston Record sports columnist, blamed "organized apathy" on the part of students and an athletic policy controlled by "Wall Street alumni favorable toward crew" for part of the plight of the football team at last night's meeting of the Athenaeum.

After hearing him, the Athenaeum debated and defeated the resolution "that the University should use all necessary methods to obtain a winning football team."

Maintaining that "seventy-five percent of the major American colleges are hypocritical about their football programs," Lake said the College should not play teams with large-scale recruiting policies.

He indicated University favoritism towards crew while attacking the recent agreement to cancel spring football practice. "The crew doesn't row until March, yet they have fall practice. That's a big hunk of hypocrisy in the Harvard program."

Defending the resolution, Walter Gilbert '53 said the College had "cruelly subverted its great tradition of winning football. We subsidize scholars. Why not buy football players?" Gilbert said.

Laval Robillard '53 replied that "football is very definitely not part of the college curriculum." Robert Langston '53 contrasted football in terms of the "ethical idea of a university" and the "aesthetic beauty of a good football team," and decided in favor of the present football setup.

It was the second meeting of the newly-formed Athenaeum.