Keep Athletics Facilities Open to All

I'm writing to call attention to the fact that the tennis and track facilities at Soldier's Field will, by the beginning of spring break, have been closed in the evenings to recreational users (i.e., all users other than college teams) for a total of 24 out of a possible 59 weekdays since these facilities reopened after Christmas.

Many Harvard alumni, faculty, staff, graduate students and others hold cards that entitle them to recreational use. In past years, the facilities have generally been open for such use after 6:30 p.m. This winter the number of evening blackout dates has been radically increased, with no explanation.

I'm not questioning the principle of absolute priority for college athletes. That's who the facilities were built for. But as long as the Athletic Department is charging a fee for participation cards, it's accepting the fact that recreational users are a constituency too. Perhaps it might find ways, through careful scheduling, to accommodate the college without so frequently banishing the rest of us. It might collect all the blackout times and dates on a single notice (something that's never been done). It might even leave copies of such a notice, regularly updated, where we could pick them up. Then we could stop pinning pencils and notebooks to our jogging shorts.

A month ago I wrote the Director of Athletics on this subject, but received no reply. Robert Campbell