Rutgers Officials May Apply For Ivy League Membership

Rutgers University--which started intercollegiate football against Princeton--will probably petition the eight Ivy League colleges to become a member of the Ivy Athletic Group.

Rutgers alumni, undergraduates and administrators have proposed the move, which has been discussed informally by alumni and backed strongly by the Rutgers student newspaper.

Eugene Beyer, president of the Rutgers Alumni Association, said yesterday he will ask the next meeting of the Association's Executive Committee to petition for membership in the Ivy Group.

"I think proper steps should be taken to make application to join," Beyer said.

The Ivy Group, made an official organization last summer, is composed of eight colleges--Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Pennsylvania, Brown, and Dartmouth--which have made joint athletic policies and joint scheduling agreements to play each other as often as possible.

President Backs Move

Rutgers president Lewis Webster Jones said yesterday, "Rutgers has all the fine academic attributes and traditions of the Ivy League universities. It also has a great athletic tradition. It is my hope that we shall continue in the direction of increasing competition with Ivy League teams.

At the same time, the school's student council voted unanimously to have the university administration petition for Ivy admittance.

George Witte, a senior council member who proposed the motion, told the council that Rutgers had everything to gain and nothing to lose by such a petition.

"Accoptance into the Ivy League would be no more than we deserve," William Miller, a member of the Rutgers Board of Trustees, claimed. Membership in the League has meaning beyond the football field. It means a responsibility to conduct oneself in a thoroughly dignified manner, both on and off the field."