Sports on the Cuff

Medieval surgeons and barbers believed in the equation, corpus sanum=mens sana. This thought did not die with the Renaissance, for it is perpetuated today in Harvard athletics. Every year, in the belief that intellectual superiority and athletic interest go hand in hand, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences pours hundreds of thousands of dollars into the undergraduate sports program.

Yet this sports program, vast as it may be, includes no more than half the students in regular activity. For many undergraduates, athletic participation consists of watching a few football and baseball games, playing squash once or twice, and glancing over House Manager's notices. By not joining activities, this group of students helps to subsidize, in effect, a large share of the athletic program.

Since participation is not one hundred per cent, and never could reach that figure, the H.A.A. has an obligation to keep the Faculty's subsidy as low as possible. "Operating expense," as the subsidy is euphemistically called, reached $666,621.55 last year. Unless careful precautions are taken, this deficit, with rising costs and declining income, will mount much higher.

Eliminating certain sports, although an easy panacea to the cost problem, is not an equitable solution. "Minor" sports represent the interests of a definite part of the undergraduate body--and just because the amount of interest is now low, this does not preclude a future increase in interest. Last June, the H.A.A. dropped lacrosse and golf as varsity sports, and reduced support for club-teams in sailing, skiing, rifle, and pistol--a savings of $15,000 annually (about the salary of a full professor).

Further economies still can be effected throughout the entire H.A.A. For example, sweatshirts, baseballs, and other pieces of equipment often are "lost" by players during the season. Airline transportation to rained-out baseball games is an avoidable expense. Two encouraging moves in this direction were the across-the-board slash in all teams' budgets last June and reports written this year by varsity captains suggesting new economies.

The most logical move for the H.A.A is to make athletics self-supporting through endowment earnings. In the last two years, endowment of varsity squads has more than doubled, going from $632,145 to $1,412,145. The Program for Harvard College has allotted $2 million for athletics; some $1 million has been already given for this purpose. Eventually, endowment income could make a Faculty appropriation unnecessary.

If athletics are to remain the province of less than the entire student body, they must become as nearly self-supporting as possible. After all, subsidy is a nasty word, and an expensive burden for many students.