Three Gifts Add Nearly $300,000 To Athletic Fund

Three gifts totalling nearly $300,000, for endowment of Harvard athletics, have been received by the Program for Harvard College. When added to already existing funds, they bring the total athletic endowment to nearly $1,000,000.

A gift of $90,000 from Kidder, Peabody & Co. was made in memory of their late partner, Edwin Sibley Webster, Jr. An additional $195,000 has been given anonymously, in two gifts, for the athletic endowment. These gifts have been added to the previously existing sum of $700,000. The Program is seeking to add $2,000,000 to the H.A.A. endowment.

The fund aims to assure continued support both for varsity teams and for the program of "athletics-for-all." This program puts more than half of the student body into team sports each year.

According to Donald Felt, Assistant Director of Athletics, the funds have not yet been specifically allocated. He said, however, that one of the anonymous donors has suggested that a part of the money be used to insure the continuation of Harvard's participation in the Oxford-Cambridge track meet every four years.

Felt declared that among the most pressing needs of the athletic department are reconstruction of badly irregular surfaces on the intramural playing fields, and renovation of the tennis courts. He said that the addition of the eighth House will create a need for expansion of playing areas.

Felt indicated that the athletic department hopes to be able to add the money to the endowment rather than spending it as capital on improvements. This arrangement will be possible only if the department is granted a sufficiently large budget from University funds proper. Use of the funds for present needs rather than for permanent endowment would leave the department in the same uncertain predicament in the future that it faced before the recent gifts. The final decision on allocation of the new funds rests with the Corporation, which will act on a budget proposed jointly by Dean Bundy and the Faculty Committee on Athletics