Leave 'Em Go

A final pronouncement that could either make or break: the Harvard Rugby Club will be made by the Faculty Committee on Athletics Monday, when it reconsiders its "almost unanimous" decision of Nov. 7 to forbid the rugby club to take any spring training trips next April. If the committee scals last month's decision, the Rugby Club will in effect be left as a wheel without an axle.

The club's annual spring trip is the highlight of the year, and determines to a great degree the success of the team during the season. The club not only gains valuable pre-season training, but it also has a chance to bring together all of its members scattered throughout the University for a solid week to establish camaraderie and unified team spirit. Because the spring trip is so essential to the club, which is not subsidized by the University, its members have traditionally financed their own way.

While the club was in Bermuda last spring, seven team members were blamed for about $2,000 in damage done to the two houses in which they stayed. In view of this ungentlemanly conduct, the Faculty committee has labeled the club unfit to represent the University. The Administration's position is understandable, but it should not take the form of throwing out the whole barrel because of a few bad apples.

None of the seven players involved in the Bermuda incident played on the team this fall. As Dean Watson has pointed out, many players on this year's squad never went to Bermuda. Also, most of the seven players were seniors in the College who have since graduated. Shortly after the incident, these players proved themselves not completely irresponsible and immature by paying all of the reparation fees.

Last weekend the rugby club won four straight games and made the finals in the 26-team Eastern Rugby Union tournament in New York, proving that it will be one of the best teams in the East next spring. With hopes high, and with many talented, eager undergraduates on its squad, the club has appealed to the committee for favorable reconsideration of its ban.

This year the team has a chance to take probably its best spring trip ever, at almost no cost to its members. UCLA has invited the Crimson fifteen to Los Angeles over spring recess, and has promised to pay $2,000 for traveling expenses, and additional money to cover local transportation, room, and board expenses. During the proposed trip, Harvard would play four games with West Coast teams, including UCLA in the Rose Bowl, and San Diego State in San Diego. Last spring Dartmouth went to UCLA as a result of a similar invitation. The trip was such a booming success that, as one Dartmouth player said to a Harvard club official last Saturday, "Rugby is just as popular as baseball at Dartmouth now." The trip for Harvard comes at a time when an extra boost for the club could make rugby at the University the success that it almost has been in the past.

It will be unfortunate if this year's team will be unable to take a spring trip because of the behavior of seven individuals from last year's team. If the Faculty Committee rescinds its ban, of course, it will be up to the Rugby Club to measure up to the trust placed in it.