BALANCING THE ATHLETIC BUDGET

"When gate receipts fall off to the extent to which they declined last fall, either the Corporation should allow us to assess the students for the use of our buildings and equipment or should aid us from the general funds of the University." This statement in Mr. Bingham's first report to President Conant reveals the state of mind to which a prolonged and relentless budgetary deflation has brought the officials of the Athletic Association. Coached virtually in the terms of an ultimatum, it is a declaration that the B.A.A. has reached the end of its rope, that the process of cutting and cutting and then cutting some more, can go no further, that from this point on it is up to the Corporation to say how the athletic budget shall be balanced.

Few can fail to sympathize with Mr. Bingham. Faced with a sharp drop in revenues last year, he cut expenses far below what would once have been considered a bare minimum, yet managed to maintain essentially a full program. Through it all, he has resisted all pressure to countenance the commercialization of Harvard sport. In comparison with other athletic directors, his conception of the place of athletics in a college has been the opitome of sanity. In justification of his present demand for new sources of income, he can point to the undoubted economics already effected. He can call attention to the tremendous load carried by the H.A.A. in the form of an expensive plant and a parasitic physical education program. He can show how other colleges have curtailed their athletic programs while at the same time allowing what according to Harvard standards seem gross extravagances.

Yet when all this is granted, he has not proved his case. There are, as he says, but two new sources of income which might be tapped; a grant from the Corporation or a student tax. That the Corporation would ever be justified in taking money from the University's unrestricted funds to support an athletic program is, to say the least, a dubious proposition. That it is likely to do any such thing at a time when it claims there is not enough money to keep the library open evenings, it is impossible to believe. So we are reduced to the alternative of charging each student a uniform fee for the use of the athletic facilities, whether he takes advantage of them or not. There is no reason in the nature of things why the student should not pay the cost of his participation in athletics. The only question is whether such payment should be exacted so long as there exists such a lucrative source of income as football gate receipts. The position of the football team as the goose that lays the golden eggs for the rest of the athletic program to live on, is a peculiarly American phenomenon, not unaccompanied by evils of its own. But so long as the phenomenon exists, to even its present extent, it is difficult to approve any rise in the already dangerously high level of student expenses at Harvard.

Judging by preliminary estimates, the receipts from the football season will fall more than $50,000 below the amount budgeted for. The officials of he H.A.A. do not believe that this amount can be lopped off the year's expenses without seriously curtailing the program. The CRIMSON believes that it can be done.

The first and most obvious economy that can be made is in the amount and type of coaching. There is no need, for example of six coaches for the varsity football team or of three for the swimmers. The suggestion for supplanting some of the paid coaches by amateurs should be seriously taken up. There is no reason why teams should be sent on lengthy trips outside New England. There is no reason why a kindly athletic association should buy every piece of clothing and equipment for members of certain teams while others like the tennis players furnish their own. There is no need to keep the Weld boathouse open all winter with employees paid merely to repair the shells. There is no reason why athletes should not pay for their own trophies and sweaters at the end of the season. There is no reason why the crew should enjoy a two-week's sojourn at Red Top every spring.

It is quite possible that the athletic officials of the old school might reluctantly consent to measures such as these purely as an emergency expedient. Their acceptance as a part of the ordinary scheme of things will involve an entirely new conception of the place of athletics in a college, and of the proper conduct, standards, and atmosphere of varsity contests.