A New Varsity Club

Undergraduates have every reason to be confused and dismayed by the Provost's announcement that the University plans to spend over $250,000 on a new varsity club. For years they have requested an expansion of tutorial, a hockey rink, more scholarships and financial aid, a theater. They have been told repeatedly, "There are no funds, but these items come first when there are." Now, Allston B23urr '89 has left the University an unrestricted gift of $1,500,000. Leaping over all priorities, the Corporation has decided to erect a club house on Mount Auburn Street, so that training tables which it cannot now support may be nearer the Houses.

Mr. Burr indicated interest in the project, yet a dance at his gifts and services to the University shows that his interest was not restricted to the varsity club. True, he gave money for the present quarters. But he also headed the committee to raise money for Memorial Church and gave substantially to it, served as an Overseer and as President of the Alumni Association. He once told the CRIMSON that he only wanted to serve the University's most pressing needs. A new varsity club does not fall in his category. To spend so sizeable an amount in such a direction is an outrage.

We protest such an extravagant and indirect expenditure to attract athletes to the University. If the money must be spent on athletics, let it be used to endow the HAA and take the burden of the annual deficit off the Faculty. Spend it on a hockey rink or resumption of the training table, but not on his.