Cornell University officials yesterday expressed "surprise and anger" at the joint declaration on athletic scholarship policy issued Monday by the presidents of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. The statement said that no athletic subsidies are given by the Big Three nor are any students exploited for the sake of athletics.

Officials here and at Princeton expressed surprise that Cornell officials should complain about the statement when they supposedly know about it weeks before.

Two other members of the Ivy Group, Dartmouth and Brown, said they were surprised when the statement was issued, but they expressed no anger. Pennsylvania refused to comment on either the Big Three's or Cornell's statement.

President of Cornell Beane W. Malott and Director of Athletics Robert J. Kane said they were unaware that the Big Three were going to issue a statement on athletic scholarship policy. They agreed with the policy itself, but felt that such a statement should have been made by the entire Ivy Group.

The Cornell administration's viewpoint was said to be as follows: The statement as it stands casts an unfair shadow on the athletic policies of the other schools, and the Big Three have set themselves on a pinnacle of purity. Considering the current scandal in athletics, the statement is certainly in order, but it is lamentable that it had to come so suddenly and unexpectedly, and from the Big Three only.

Cornell University Professor Frederick G. Marcham, Cornell's representative on the Ivy League eligibility committee, said yesterday that, following a meeting early in October, all Ivy Group members decided to take the problem of issuing a statement on athletics and scholarships back to their own directors. This was never done, he pointed out. At present, Cornell contemplates no further action.

W.H. McCarter, Dartmouth's director of athletics, said that "the Dartmouth practices are identical with those outlined in the press statement issued by the Big Three presidents." He said he did not know the statement existed before its release.