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Sports will be first and foremost at Colby July 23-26, but in the classroom, not just on the playing fields. This summer's Colby Alumni College will explore the topic "Sports and Leisure: Mirror of American Culture." Americans have been reluctant to take sport and play seriously, notes Richard J. Moss, the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History. Deeply rooted in our past lies the Protestant Ethic, which celebrates work while casting a suspicious eye on sport and play. According to Moss, as the 20th century draws to a close, Americans of all types have come to realize that sport and leisure are no longer marginal, no longer to be ignored as secondary to "harder" issues in the worlds of politics and economics. We now realize that many of the basic conflicts in American life are most explosively presented on the American playing field. Today most Americans understand that issues of race and gender are often played out most compellingly in the world of sport, he says. Perhaps more important, says Moss, issues of inclusion and exclusion that define class relations in America are most clearly seen and understood when the issue is access to leisure. The discussion of these issues and others has become an important part of American public life. The College invites alumni and parents to come to Mayflower Hill to take part. "One of the honored traditions of the liberal arts has always been mens sana in corpore sana—a sound mind in a sound body," said Charles Bassett, Lee Family Professor of American Studies and English and "brevet" dean of Alumni College. "This summer we will see the way that sports and leisure fit the liberal arts and are a mirror of the United States. . . . Come back and breathe deeply with us . . . "
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