Council to Debate Access To Business School's Gym

In an effort to relieve overcrowding at the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC), members of the Undergraduate Council plan to call on Harvard Business School to open its new athletic facility to undergraduates.

At a general meeting Monday, council members will vote on a proposal urging the Business School to admit students from the College and from Harvard's other graduate schools to Shad Hall, now only open to Business School students, for a yearly fee of $65.

The resolution also urges Harvard's other graduate schools to send similar letters.

The $18 million gymnasium, which opened last September, boasts a jogging track, five squash courts, four racquetball courts and three basketball courts, as well as a sauna, whirlpool and other fitness equipment.

Robert C. Rhew '92, chair of the council's services committee, said that his committee favored an annual fee of $65 because that is the amount graduate students must pay to use the MAC.

"That was the approximate price we used to charge students [at other graduate schools]," Rhew said at an executive board meeting this week. "I think that's a fair price to charge undergraduates to use Shad Hall."

Currently the MAC is open free of charge to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff because the athletic department has not finished negotiating the price of staff membership with the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), according to a MAC employee.

Part of the collective bargaining agreement reached between the University and HUCTW this summer called for Harvard employees to have access to athletic facilities.

Fee Questioned

Some students interviewed this week said they supported the intent of the resolution, but questioned the idea of having to pay a fee to use Shad Hall.

"I think they're going in the right direction," said Eli Karsh '91. But Karsh, who said he would not buy a membership, said he felt that students' having to pay a fee was wrong. "I think that's heinous," he said. "It's an awful crime."