Sports Departments Tighten Up

True love never runs smooth--or so the song goes. And in the first four years of marriage, Harvard and Radcliffe have had their problems ironing out the details of the union.

This week the two colleges ironed out one of those difficulties--the problem of what to do with Radcliffe athletics--by joining together the Harvard and the Radcliffe athletic departments. The offspring, a single athletic department, will control intercollegiate and intramural athletics for both men and women in the University.

The union of the two departments into one came in the form of a letter from Robert E. Kaufmann '62, assistant to Dean Rosovsky for Financial Affairs, to Harvard director of athletics Robert B. Watson '37.

Writing on behalf of Rosovsky, Kaufmann's letter instructed Watson to "raise questions and develop answers to problems that currently exist in athletics which have tended to prevent equal opportunity and access for men and women at all levels of athletic endeavor." The letter came in preparation for control of both athletic departments by Watson.

Watson, who said two weeks ago that he was expecting such a letter empowering him to administrate over both departments, this week characteristically refused to comment on the matter until it had been officially released.

But others in the Harvard-Radcliffe athletic community confirmed the official merger and indicated that steps are already being taken to implement the Kaufmann directive.

It would seem that the week's activity has smoothed out another marital problem for Harvard and Radcliffe.