To the Editor:

At the end of 2004, Payne Whitney Gym responded to vandalism of its Ping-Pong tables by removing the only workable tables. This is unfortunate for hobbyists and even worse for the Yale Table Tennis Club, which can no longer hold any practices. We, the YTTC, play competitively at other universities; table tennis is not a basement pastime to us. If this had been any other equipment, from the racquetball courts to the sauna, it would have already been fixed. Instead, the gym is demanding money from us — more than our entire budget — to replace the tables.

We may have chosen to play a sport popular mostly in Asia, but we are also Yale students choosing to play a sport popular on our own campus. The disrespect shown to our sport and to our culture by the gym has been disheartening, but I hope that Yale will choose to reflect the diverse athletic interests of its students and replace the Ping-Pong tables.

Steven Lin GRD ’05

Feb. 15, 2005