The Problem of the Band

One thing that two years of football since the war have made obvious is that the Band is a fine organization. It has increased in size, skill, and repertoire over its prewar equivalent.

But the Band, like many other student organizations, has run afoul of the money problem, and has finally been reduced to asking the University for help. With an eye to recent tuition and room rent rises, and a steadily increasing cost scale, the Faculty Committee on Student Activities has decided that now is not the time to begin subsidies to student organizations.

The Committee, instead of flatly refusing the request for funds, made a significant suggestion: that a well-run, professionally-organized advertising campaign could prove dignified enough to satisfy University protocol and at the same time extremely appealing.

In their eagerness to attack the situation, Band officials have over stepped the bounds of propriety in charging the administration with unreasoning opposition. These students would do better to follow the methods of the Glee Club, which by careful and enlightened management has attained a healthy and independent status.

Careful exploitation of the Faculty suggestion, plus Yard concerts this spring and even room-to-room canvassing for trip money next term, can provide at least the minimum $10,000 estimated as necessary for normal operation in the fall. In the advertising campaign must lie the hope of raising enough for an eventual trip abroad.

The Glee Club is not the only University group that has thrived on its own; there is no reason why the Band cannot do likewise. More thought to long-range problems and less misdirected agitation are the first of the necessary steps.