Bat Club Evicted From Headquarters; Alumni Board Will Decide Its Future

The Bat Club--youngest of Harvard's 11 final clubs--is in serious financial trouble and may soon be disbanded, club officers said yesterday.

The Club was evicted from its head-quarters over the Gold Coast Valeteria last week for non-payment of rent. Sometime in the next two weeks the club's alumni board will decide whether the club, incorporated in 1951, should be permanently disbanded, Keith Hennessee '68, the club's president, said Saturday.

Rising expenses and dwindling alumni support have led to the Bat's present problems. "We haven't been going out of our way to spend money," one officer said, "but every-day costs keep going up."

According to Bat officials, the club's real problem is a lack of adequate alumni backing. When the club's deficit began to rise this year, the alumni board was not able to respond.

"Since we're so young, we don't have the rich graduate strength the other clubs have," a member said. "When we ran out of money, we had nothing to fall back on."

The Bat has also faced difficulty in attracting new members. This fall's punching season was especially discouraging, not bringing in enough new members to make up for the loss of graduating seniors and inactive members.

Officers say high club dues are to blame for membership problems. "People are willing to pay dues to join the Porcellian," one officer said, "but the Bat just doesn't have that kind of prestige to draw on."

Reports from the other clubs indicate that the financial problem is widespread. The Iroquois Club faced a crisis like the Bat's last year, but graduate backing enabled it to recover, an Iroquois said.