NOBODY CARES BUT YOU

The questionnaire which will be laid before all undergraduates at noon today by the Student Council Athletic Committee places before those most concerned a major part in deciding on the future of Harvard athletics. Undergraduates should not take lightly the task of answering it, since the results of their answers will not be lightly considered.

The questionnaire implies striking changes but those who are close to the matter know that the advisability of striking changes is being considered in all quarters. The present situation, as demonstrated of this fall, was far from ideal. Prospects for an improvement in the next few years look increasingly dark. By dealing with intra-mural athletics the Committee seems, perhaps, to side-step the more pressing problem of big time Varsity football, but a second's thought will show how inextricably tied up the question of House, or intra-mural, athletics is with the rest of the program. Gate receipts, gate receipts, and receipts again spell doom or a vigorius existence for all sports, minor or major.

Aside from the financial difficulties foreshadowed by another drop in receipts this fall, and by last year's curtailment of minor sports, the hypocrisy and bad feeling which professionalism imposes and its resulting wear and tear on nerves and morals has given rise to much thought on possible alternatives or modifications of the present intercollegiate set up. The intra-mural scheme is one of these alternatives and it is this system which is up for consideration today. Does it work? Should it work better? Is there another system which would solve the problem more satisfactorily? Is it the logical solution of the conflict between gate receipts and a full athletic program? If so, how rapidly should the system be brought to fruition?

These are questions highly complex. There is probably no one answer to the great fuss which has been stirred up about big time athletic competition, particularly football. The accusations, the organization and the values it involves will probably leave their mark on the American educational system for some time to come. Even though a more fully developed intra-mural system seems, one of the most promising solutions yet tried, the status quo is firmly entrenched. Whatever the solution one aspect of the question, is today before the student body: as Harvard was the first to build a vast stadium with its money guzzling and money producing propensities, let us hope that she may be among the first to solve the problems which have ensued.