1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THB SCROLL. 463That college undergraduates, who see nothing beyond thenext athletic victory, and the means to that immediate end,should strain the amateur rules in an effort to get a winningteam, is not surprising; but it is amazing to find alumnistricken with the same myopia. The Harvard Bulletin, anorgan of the graduates who are interested in athletics, issolemnly arguing that if a man is a real, bona-fide studentin a college, there is certainly no moral reason why he shouldnot receive his expenses for playing baseball in the summer,if he wants to do it, and then play on his college team afterwards."This is an interesting case of mental confusion.There is no moral resaon why a student should not play on aprofessional nine and receive $5,000 for his services; butthere is every reason why men who are professionals shouldbe kept off college amateur teams. The Bulletin itself admitsthat to draw the line between the "real professional" and theman who receives only a "nominal sum" is difficult; and theexperience of the Brown University Athletic Board provesthat to make the distinction is impossible. There must be ahard and fast rule or none. Yet a team open to professionalsis sure to become professional. The genuine amateurs will becrowded off, and college athletics will no longer have theslightest reason for existence.—New York Evening Post.The students living in the University of Pennsylvania dormitorieshave united in a protest against an increase in rents.The university authorities raised the rents last year because ofthe coal strike, but promised to reduce them this year. Insteadthey have raised them, and there is prospect of anotherraise soon. The tenants threaten to leave the dormitoriesnext year if the rents are not reduced. They claim that withthe increased rents only the wealthy students will be able tolive at the dormitories.The University of Pennsylvania has issued a Spanish editionof its catalogue, to be distributed among South Americanschools.