ABOLISH INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

With the announcement by the H.A.A. that they would no longer purchase individual medals for members of championship House athletic teams, a seemingly difficult problem faced the various House committees. Apparently the winning athletes wanted awards, they had been getting them in the past and expected to keep on receiving them. But few House treasuries had money to spend on medals.

A plan emanated from Lowell House which would have a central pool set up, into which each House would pay thirty dollars, and out of which medals for all champion teams would be bought. Kirkland, Adams, Winthrop, and Eliot subscribed tentatively, remembering that the awards for any winning squad such as football or squash would amount to approximately thirty dollars, and that, since expenditure is directly proportionate to glory, for any House to win more than two championships would be financially disustrous. But the project went down to defeat because of the insolvency of Dunster and the non-cooperation of Leverett.

There is one way out of the difficulty. If the athletic accomplishments of each House are faithfully recorded on a permanent trophy in each sport, individual awards can be done away with. The natural instinct for competion, the desire to gain recognition for the House should be more potent inducements to participation in the inter-House program than the hope of receiving an individual medal. Such trinkets as the jewelers of the Square offer each fall to catch the eye of the callow Freshman have no firmly established place in the life of the Harvard man. They are baubles born to blush unseen, to waste their brilliance in the bureau drawer. As such, they might be disposed with as adjuncts of our inter-House program. Before the custom becomes too firmly entrenched in the tradition of the system, it should be rooted out.