One-Time Losers

The freshman may think that the major contests of the Harvard football season take place in the Stadium. Upperclassmen know that the really exciting, hard-fought engagements have been fought before the games even began, when they tried to get their tickets. This year could be different. Once the undergraduate masters the detail work and bookkeeping his new booklet requires of him, the coupon booklet system should facilitate distribution considerably.

But the H.A.A. won't give itself a chance to be nice. The Bolyston St. boys announce on the cover of the booklet that they will never, never replace it is "lost, stolen, or mislaid." While both Frank O. Lunden and Thomas D. Bolles concede that they would like to replace lost books, they say they don't know how. They ask advice and seem predisposed to listen to the Undergraduate Athletic Council, which meets for the first time next Monday.

Obviously students should be responsible about ticket booklets, but the loss of one should not cost a student free ticket privileges for the entire year. Since entry to athletic events still requires presentation of a bursar's card, possibilities for swindle are limited. It might not be disastrous if a few unauthorized persons watched a Harvard game anyway. One simple expedient might be to make the forgetful student pay for his ticket to one game before he could get a new booklet and have his free ticket privilege restored. If the booklet were lost again, severer penalties might be called for. But applications have to be filed each Wednesday, and an early remedy to this unnecessarily harsh rule is in order.