Bat Club May Fold Wings If Alumni Refuse to Help

After a long series of financial problems, the Bat Club is nearing a crisis. Unless it gets immediate, unexpected help from its Alumni Board, the Bat will have to disband permanently, club president Keith C. Hennessee '68 said Monday.

Last month the Bat was evicted from its clubhouse above the Gold Coast Valeteria, and since then it has sold all its furniture to pay off its debts.

"We're in the clear now," Hennessee said. "We've paid off all our debts, but unless we get some money in a hurry to run the club with, we're going to have to quit."

Hennessee met with Alumni representatives Tuesday afternoon to ask for an emergency grant from the Alumni Building Fund. The Alumni Board has not officially announced its decision yet, but "it will probably turn down the request," an Alumni member said last night.

The basic problem is that the Alumni constitution prohibits the club from using Building Fund money for operating expenses, an alumnus said.

"We've saved up this money so that someday we can give the club a new building," Robert W. Laird '52 said last night. "It's entirely separate from the club's expenses. They're supposed to take care of themselves."

"We want the club to keep going," another Alumni member said, "but we're just not willing to bite into capital."

Long suffering from waning prestige, the Bat's real troubles began this Fall after an unsuccessful punching season, Michael H. Abelon '68 said yesterday. "We spent a lot of money, but we couldn't get enough members," Abelon said. "Then it turned into a vicious cycle--the less money we had, the harder it was to attract members."

Alumni contributors also began to dwindle in the Fall, and by February the club couldn't keep up its rent payments. "Then we decided we had to sell everything just so we could pay what we owed," Hennessee said.

Many club members are pessimistic about the immediate outlook. "It's easy to understand why the Alumni won't give us any money," one said. "There's no guarantee we wouldn't end up in just the same place next year."