TOO MANY COOKS

In the expansion of the University it is important that control of the component parts keep pace with the growth of the whole body, or clumsy, lack of efficiency will result. This at present is unavoidably true of the administration of Hemenway Gymnasium. The rest of the athletic establishment of the University are in the hands of the Harvard Athletic Association, and the schedules, handling of equipment, and direction of the various sports are all determined in its offices. Hemenway Gymnasium alone, inadequate as it is for present purposes, stands apart under the management of the Department of Physical Education. This was well enough when the Gymnasium was being used purely and simply for setting up exercises. But now, with the tremendous growth of minor sports, many of them, like basketball, using Hemenway exclusively, for contests as well as for practice, it is a case where the machine has got beyond the control of the operator.

Basketball, wrestling, and the other minor sports using Hemenway, under present conditions have to serve two masters. Their schedules, their source of supplies, are in the hands of the Athletic Association; their equipment and field of action controlled by the Department of Physical Education. That the two systems should often conflict is inevitable. Orders in one department have to be countermanded by the other and frequently loss of time and waste of energy result from the roundabout process of procuring and transferring equipment.

Without detracting in the least from the work accomplished by the Department of Physical Education, it is not too much to say that it is loaded down with more than it can handle. Limit its duties to its own specific field, place the administration of Hemenway in the hands of the Athletic Association, and both horns of the dilemma will be removed at once.