The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-11-25
Address Issued To Alumni On
Position Regarding EIigi-
biIity of Athletes
LIBERAL SPIRIT HAS
AL WAYS GOVERNED THEM
But In Case of Conflict With Academic
Efficiency the School Work Must
Be Maintained at All
Hazards.

Tuscaloosa November "a (Special)-The
council of the faculty of the University
of Alabama has issued a statement to
the alumni of the institution. in which
is set forth the faculty's attitude toward
athletics at the university. The state
ment reads as follows:
November a. 1909
The Alumni of the University of Ala
bama:
Conference.-The criticism to which the
faculty of the university is being sub
jected because of Its having denied to its
football captain the privilege of par
tictpating in certain collegiate contests
seems to us fraught with the possibility OF
SO much injury to the institution we all
love and serve, that we feel 1t incumbent
upon US to issue in the name of the fac
uty, this public statement in explana-
tton and Justification of our position.
About two years ago Dean Palmer.
when on the eve of resigning his position
in our faculty to accept the presidency OF
Montevallo, recommended that the uni
versity require at least two additional
examinations, assigning as his reason the
frequently expressed dissatisfaction of
parents at having to walt from September
until Christmas before receiving reports
faculty, convinced of the wisdom of this
recommendation, and furthermore finding
upon investigation that either monthly or
lnid-term examinations were given at
most Institutions similar to ours, decided
to hold an additional examination near
the middle of each half year. the first
during the last week of October. the sec
ond during the last week of February.
These examinations were thus instituted
t..f f,,u.k for. 1ar,, IL.
purposes and entirely without reference to
their possible use as a test of athletic
| eligibility. The propriety of holding such
| preliminary examinations would seem to
| be sufficiently obvious. As a result OF
(, those recently hed reports have beer
| sent TO the parents OF all students in the
academic and engineering departments
| giving detailed Information relative to
| their class standing; and in the case OF
| a number of delinquent students special
letters have been written, asking the CO.
operation Of parents in urging upon their
sons the duty of putting forth every eff
| fort to remove all deficiencies by the close
| of the current half year.
| We have said that when these exaniin-
atoms we're first decided upon there was
no thought of making of them as a
means of regulating intercollegiate ath-
| letics. In confirmation of this statement
/ ballseason thereafter no attempt was made
to apply any scholastic test to members
of the football team. In the course of the
year. however, the father of one of the
most prominent members of our team Sc
verely criticised the authorities of the uni
versity for permitting his son to play
football while failing In his academic
work and made special request that he
should not be allowed to play baseball in
the spring unless his scholarship during
the baseball season was altogether salts
factory The justice OF this criticism
seemed to us so manifest that the fac
ulty determined to adopt for the future a
! scholastic requirement for athletic eligibil-
ity which would apply not only to the
baseball team, but to the football candi-
dates as well.
Such a regulation is recommended by
the s. I. A A. in the following resolu-
tion: Resolved. That the faculties of the
colleges represented in this association be
requested to establish proper scholarship
requirements to which members of the
athletic teams must attain"
The rule governing athletics was ac-
| cordingly amended as to read as fol-
| follows;
Athletics are encouraged for the reason
that when properly regulated they tend
TO promote both the physical and the
moral we'll being of the students and to
foster wholesome college spirit. In or
der, however. to prevent the possibility of
a students devoting himself to athletics
TO the serious neglect of his academic
work the faculty has adopted the follow
ing regulation: No student shall be per-
mitted to take part in any intercollegiate
athletic contest who has more than two
conditions or failures recorded against
him on the books of the registrar or
who is doing unsatisfactory work In more
than one study at the time of such con-
test"
| Furthermore. since the Glee club is per-
mitted to be absent from the university
| for several days each year. this rule gov
| erning candidates for athletic teams was
| applied also to all students who desired
/ the privilege of travelling with this club
| Last year the faculty likewise considered
| the advisability of extending the rule to
our dramatic organization. the Black
friars. In view, however. of the strictly in
tellectual character of the work done
by this club. and in view of the further
fact that during the entire two years of
It's existence, 1t had been absent from the
university but two working days, ii
seemed best not to bring the Blackfriars
under the operation of this rule. How
ever. the professor who acts as director
OF the club has of his own motion invari-
ably applied the rule, and has required
all delinquent students to make up their
deficiencies as a condition of retaining
membership in the cast
The rule thus originated and extended
has been enforced with strictness and
impartiality from that day to this No
exception has ever been made, and each
year members of the football team OF the
baseball team and OF the Glee club have
been denied the privilege OF travelling or
OF participating in intercollegiate con-
tests until by special examination they
had removed u sufficient number OF con-
dtions to make them once more eligible
In the opinion of the faculty the rule has
served most excellent purpose both I'm
helping to purify athletics and in secur-
ing from the members of these organixa
tions q degree of proficiency in scholar
ship which otherwise we could not have
hoped to obtain.
The charge most frequently and per-
sistenty urged against this rule is that
II is unusual and unreasonable; that no
other institution In our association has