Harvard could also, with a minimum of effort, guarantee athletes the same rent rating for four years. This would not mean free rooms; it would mean that a man could eliminate this one variable from his college budget and know just how much money would be needed beyond what he could earn in an outside job.
After all, Harvard should not need athletic scholarships to entice men to Cambridge. The University not only offers an A.B. degree of unmatched prestige value, but also has as good a range of courses as any other college, better taught than in almost any other college.
Even It Up
If we are to continue to play Ivy League football, we must broaden the personnel at Valpey's disposal. It might be nice to upset Stanford or Army or Cornell with a team playing strictly for fun, but it is not morally justifiable to ask such a team to expose itself to a steady stream of almost inevitable injuries. Such a casualty list as this year's is a direct result of playing a schedule composed exclusively of teams which are not only deeper in talent but also deeper in numbers. One group of eleven men playing against two groups of eleven men gets tired; when it gets tired, it is very likely to get hurt.
Nor is it morally justifiable to charge upwards of five dollars admission to see Harvard get walloped by a series of "big name" opponents. The Alumni, of course, are the first to shout cheat about this, and here they are right. If we are to continue with the present philosophy of scheduling, we should play five-dollar football; if we cannot play five-dollar football, we should admit it and charge $1.80 for games with teams in our class. Harvard cannot attempt to pay for its athletic program with expensive football tickets unless it produces football worth that price of admission.
The current situation neither gains prestige nor pays for the athletic program. It is unfair to customers, players, and coaches.
The Middle Course
It need not be corrected by a revision of Harvard's schedule, if some changes are made in the attitude towards athletes here. It must not be corrected by a program of athletic scholarships--that we believe most firmly has no place at Harvard. We can play respectable football by merely loosening the stranglehold that the Administration has on any move to give athletes an given chance. But the crucial concern right now is that no attempt to change the situation involve the firing of Arthur Valpey, who may not be the genius he was hailed as last year but who is certainly doing his best--and a definitely competent best--with what material he has.