Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-03
PRESIDENT TAKES
COMPLETE CONTROL
To Rule Through Committee.
Coaches on Faculty to Be
Paid Accordingly.
BY EDWARD ]. NEIL.
February {:
IL Im Tho nntirn nALn1nfir

PHILADELPHIA, February
- P).-The entire athletic
/ structure at the University
of Pennsylvania will be re-
organized upon a basis of SIM
plicity and "under-emphasis" in
the most drastic single upheavaI
of Eastern intercollegiate sports
history.
Control and management Of
athletics have been taken over
completely by Thomas S. Gates.
president of the university, and
his board of trustees. while the
sports themselves will be given
back to the students. The present
all-powerful council on athletics,
composed of alumni, students and
faculty, will be abolished.
Spring and preseason training in
foot ball, training camps, training Ia
bles, dormitories for athletes, and
scholarships beyond those won in the
classroom, have been wiped out. In all
sports coaches will be made members
of the faculty and will receive the sal
aries of faculty members.
Build" Varsity Men.
intercollegiate competition will be
| toStered with natural rivals on a year.
round basis through the whole range
of teams IN each sport. 1ntra-mural
athletics will be stressed, every student
will be urged to take part in some
sport, and the development of proficient
athletes under this system will tend to
lessen the necessity for dependence
upon enrolment of star athletes as
basis for varsity teams"
In 23-page bulletin published today
President Gates announced these
changes and accepted the report of an
investigating committee.
One departments physical education
will control the entire athletic scheme
| of things at the university in the flu
ture. 1t will be administered by dean
responsible to the president and the
trustees. Three divisions of the depart
ment-student health, physical instruc-
ton and intercollegiate athletics-win
be in charge of directors.
E. Leroy Mercer, Penn graduate Of
the class of 1918 and director of ath-
leticS at Swarthmore since 1914, will
head the new department.
The committee found that abolition
of gate receipts would not furnish a
| cure for abuses, but suggested that
gifts and subscriptions from alumni
and friends, emitting donors to prefer
entail treatment in the allotment Of
seats, might be one means OF meeting
| expenses so that less and less reliance
need be placed upon the familiar sys-
tenn of public purchase of tickets. Such
| result would unquestionabIy tend to
add to the wholesome character Of
| publicly played athletic contests"
What is Expected.
The results expected from the changes
were outlined as follows:
1.-THE best remedy for unsatisfactory
conditions-the way to meet 'overem-
phasiS Enthusiastically the pro-
vision of proper organization, manned
by officers understanding and respon-
sive to the needs of the students and
to the education requirements Of the
university
THE steps which have been taken
should produce a new era at the Uni
verSity of Pennsylvania so far as con-
Germs the physical life of the student.
In adopting this policy our purpose is
to revive the old loyalty and interest
of the student body, the alumni and
the citizens of the City of Philadelphia
in their university, its welfare and its
activities; to encourage and make pro-
vision for more extensive student par
ticipation in and enjoyment of ath-
let1cs, to develop to the fullest extent
wholesome, natural intercollegiate rival
rieS and relationships, and, above all,
to make the very best possible provision
for the spiritual and physical wellbeing
OF every student committed to our
charge"