UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
LAWRENCE

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION January Lb; 1942.

Dear Dr. Allen:

I fully appreciate Mr. Mott's position in the matter
of wanting more people to take equitation. It is true that costs
are going up and that several riders have been lost due to enlist-
ment in one or another of the branches of our armed service. Mr.
Mott is naturally interested in more income. However, this problem
must be considered in the light of what is best for the physical
education department, the student body and the University.

When the plan to rearrange our physical education
courses was started, it came through the Chancellor at the instigation
of Mr, Mott, who had talked to the Chancellor about getting some increased
revenues in order to keep operating. Mr. Mott told me that the Chanc-
ellor had agreed to try to get something done to aid equitation and
thought that getting rid of + semester courses and putting equitation

-on the basis of two full semesters, one elementary, the other advanced,
was a solution. I was consequently surprised to see the changed
physical education program come out of this suggestion, not reorganized
on a semester basis, but the bookkeeping merely moved from the registr-
ar's office to the physical education office. (This undoubtedly is a
good move but did not get rid of + semester céurses.) Equitation was
lucky to come through this procedure without losing ground instead of
getting the increased time.

At a time when we are leaning more and more toward an
ideal of physical fitness, it seems to me that more equitation is
justified from a physical fitness angle, particularly for girls. If
we are not to have required physical training, surely the enrollment
and participation in all activities classes, which can in any way
increase or insure the health and physical well being of the students,
should be encouraged.

_. Whether this is an opportune time to reopen the matter
in light of the most recent reorganization, I am as yet not familiar
enough with college procedures to know. It may be that from a pro-
fessional angle we would not be justified in introducing a further +
semester of horsemanship now,: although this, like many of our other

skills course, is a subject in which one can never get too proficient.

My attitude is, to sum it up, that the increased amount
of time devoted to equitation is justified from a physical fitness angle