THE TWO PERIOD RULE.

A sub-committee of the Student Council is now engaged, at the suggestion of the Athletic Committee, in preparing a substitute for the two season rule which is now in force. The ineffectiveness of that rule in its failure to prevent some cases of over-athleticism, and the injustice which it works to our teams in other cases by putting unnecessary restraint on able athletes, have long made it the target of reasonable attack.

The chief faults of the existing rule are its inelasticity and the arbitrariness of its classifications. For instance, no exceptions are made in the case of an unusually versatile athlete who wishes to occupy the interval between football and rowing, with competition in swimming and wrestling. In regard to classification it is theoretically and also practically possible for men to be on both the baseball and track teams in one season.

It was not the intention of the men who made the rule to perpetrate such absurdities. They intended to keep students from over-exertion in athletics, and incidentally, by keeping the balance even on one side, to bring athletic pursuits into proper swing with studies. That they missed this aim in part, the trial of the rule has shown.

The Student Council is trying to make a new rule, based on a classification of sports according to the time and exertion which each demands. The idea is that combinations of sports from the three or four groups into which all sports are divided, will be more just, and will be less of a hindrance to some of the minor teams. It is very likely that cases will hereafter arise which such a rule will not cover, but it has seemed to many that this method will come very close to meeting the requirements of the case.