The presidents of NESCAC, despite the clearly expressed wishes of their student-athletes and coaches have voted to keep deserving teams out of NCAA competition, therefore cheapening it by their absence.

Apparently, President Harward and others took notice of our protest, yet nearly half of his colleagues did not, insisting that NESCAC post-season play would end.

If they did not notice that this idea is unwelcome before, perhaps they will now. This Sunday, students from Bates and the rest of the NESCAC schools will gather at Amherst College to try discuss a unified strategy to fight this plan. Some of the students from Bates do not even play a sport, yet they are going to speak for those of us who do.

A similar meeting for coaches and athletic directors is planned at Middlebury.

Everyone seems to hate this plan, which is usually a good sign, except that everyone is on the same side. How is it that 10,000 student-athletes and coaches are being outvoted by 5 college presidents?

Nobody is asking that the NESCAC schools lower their academic standards, in fact, we insist that they do not. But students come to these institutions looking to excel in all areas. How can we ask them to stop short of attainable success simply because it is on a playing field, not in the library.

Keeping deserving teams out of NCAA competition that they have earned the right to be in goes against everything that the NESCAC schools stand for. All we are asking is to be allowed to do our best in whatever we do. Please let us.