Money-Starved Band Signals University for Financial Aid

Threatened by crumbling alumni and Athletic Association support, the Band yesterday applied for financial aid from the University. No student organization has ever yet been granted such aid.

The request came after Dean Watson had vetoed another possible source of income by forbidding private company sponsoring and financing of the Band's proposed South American tour. He explained that University rules prohibited letting "any company benefit by using Harvard's name."

Manager Joseph J. Borgatti, Jr. '45 had cited two firms that were willing to underwrite the tour, pay for plane fare, and let the Band keep the profits. The companies, whose names are confidential, include a soft-drink concern and an international food distributor.

Borgatti told Dean Watson that trips to Princeton and Cornell would be cancelled next year unless money was received from some new source. He explained that alumni assistance was waning fast and that HAA support had already fallen from $2000 in 1946 to $700 last year.

No money at all can be expected from the debt-ridden HAA next year, Borgatti told the CRIMSON.

Dean Watson promised that the Band's application for money would be given official consideration as soon as Borgatti drew up a definite proposal.

"All of us are vitally concerned with the Band's finances," he said. "We're going to do everything in our power to help them get money. But that doesn't mean the University has any funds for them."