HAA Faces $400,000 Deficit in '52; Losses for This Year Up $225,000

The H.A.A. is expecting a $400,000 deficit during 1951-52, it was reported yesterday. The estimated deficit this year will be $335,000--up more than $225,000 from 1949-50's total of $108,000.

In the latest Alumni Bulletin, issued yesterday, the Administration reports that it is budgeting for an athletic loss of $403,264 in the year starting July 1. "A continuing deficit for the athletic department is expected because of the cost of the athletics-for-all program," the Bulletin said.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (the College and G.S.A.S.) absorbs all H.A.A. deficits in its budget, since the Athletic Association no longer a separate branch of the University.

Provost Buck told the Bulletin, "I want to emphasize that the director of athletics is an educational officer and not a representative of the entertainment business."

"Harvard athletics," the semi-official Bulletin notes, "are not to be dependent upon football gate receipts or the profits of any sport . . . The new director of athletics will not be responsible for 'balancing the budget' . . . Obviously, however, there is a limit to what Harvard can afford in this direction, but within reasonable bounds the director of athletics has as his duty the building of a good program . . . "

"To the close alumni observer of the Harvard scene it does not seem likely that the appointment of Tom Bolles means an abrupt shift in Harvard policy," the Bulletin continues. "Quite the opposite, in fact. Harvard is instead moving more and more in the direction of integrating athletics with the educational program of the College.

"The heart of Harvard's athletic policy has long been the athletics-for-all program. No matter how much the sports-writers try to tell the public that this or that action at Harvard means that the College is, or is not, 'going big time,' there is no responsible administrator, or graduate for that matter, who would disagree with Bill Bingham's contention that 'a college athlete is a student who, while getting an education, considers athletics an integral part of college life.'

"Intercollegiate athletics are part of the College's athletic policy--but not the end-all. Both President Conant and Provost Buck have several times asserted Harvard's intention to continue participation in intercollegiate competition against comparable teams. They have emphasized that Harvard wants athletes as well as scholars, because both contribute to Harvard life.

"Although these statements have been interpreted in various ways they really go back to the old problem of 'balance in the College,' and the solution of this problem is, in turn, dependent upon "a well-integrated admissions program.' In such a program athletes have their part as much as good students or leaders in extracurricular affairs." The following are the deficits that the H.A.A. has shown since the war: 1945-46  $153,262.23 1946-47  91,160.07 1947-48  100,967.71 1948-49  123,706.41 1949-50  108,258.55 1950-51 (estimated)  335,000.00 1951-52 (budgeted)  408,264.00