Page 17 - 1914 February - To Dragma

130 TO PRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

its suburbs on Tuesday and Thursday nights for handball, basket
ball, swimming, bowling or gymnasium work.

This work continued until the Gymnasium closed in May, and
the Committee, elated at its success, at once began to work out its
plans on a larger scale. The first step was to carry all of its acti-
vities out of doors, and to keep them there until the winter weather
set in. To this end it advertised summer tennis on the Barnard courts,
Saturday afternoon hockey and baseball on the campus, and even
made arrangements for outdoor horseback riding in a very informal
way.

A l l of this took place last year, and served as an introduction
to the committee's present work, which is by far the most popular
college enterprise ever undertaken.

Its plans for indoor evening work at Thompson Gymnasium
proved so popular during the winter of 1913 that the Committee
decided, during the present winter, to abandon its work in connec-
tion with the general extension evenings, which were open to all,
and to arrange instead an evening which should be open exclusively
to a closed group of college alumnae. A t first it was planned to in-
clude only Barnard alumnae, but the Committee was quick to see
the attractiveness of establishing a big intercollegiate alumnae ath-
letic center, and then and there decided to work out its plans alojig
intercollegiate lines.

Thompson Gymnasium authorities were again appealed to, and
again responded with great enthusiasm, and finally the Alumnae
Committee on Athletics was able to announce that for a fee of five
dollars per member, the gymnasium would be open on Monday
evenings, from November to the beginning of April, exclusively
to college graduates who wanted to come there for basket ball,
bowling, gymnastics, handball and swimming. Dancing—esthetic
and folk—was also added, and has proved to be the greatest at-
traction of all.

The response to this announcement was overwhelming, and in a
very few days the Chairman was swamped with applications for
membership. • People wanted to join because of the chance for ex-
ercise in congenial company ; because they wanted the opportunity
to meet alumnae from other colleges, and most of all because they
wanted a place where, after working hours, they could get away
from business into another atmosphere, and relax. Applications
were received from almost five hundred alumnae, but lack of accom-
modations made it necessary to restrict the number of members to
110, admitted on a strictly "first come, first served" basis. The