'Harvard State' No More

For one Saturday each year, Harvard students unite to spend a day in revelry, drinking and partying in the name of school pride.

This year, however, a set of new regulations threaten to stifle The Game—not the football competition between Harvard and Yale, but the tailgate that has often defined the day for students.

Tailgate has traditionally been a time for Harvard to come together, says Adam Kalamchi ’05, Kirkland House Committee (HoCo) chair.

“I think it’s definitely less about the football game, and more that everyone at Harvard, for one weekend, does something as a single community, pretending that we’re at ‘Harvard State,’ not Harvard,” says Kalamchi.

But at tomorrow’s tailgate students will be grounded, deprived of their traditional U-Haul roof dance floors. And those of legal drinking age will be sporting a new accessory: a wristband.

As the University expands across the Charles River, Harvard has come under the scrutiny of the Boston Police Department (BPD), which is intent on strictly enforcing drinking rules at The Game’s tailgate as it does at other local colleges’ events.

The U-Hauls have been banned by the athletic department, still sour from shelling out about $50,000 to fix fields torn up by the vehicles following 2002’s Game, according to Undergraduate Council President Matthew W. Mahan ’05.

While Harvard and Yale undergraduates recognize that their colleges and student leaders are working to make the event as enjoyable as it was in the past, some say that the new administrative oversight has dampened The Game’s appeal.

“Basically, it kind of blows,” Quincy HoCo chair Sean N. Karamchandani ’04-’05 says of the new restrictions. “We’re asking for two days out of the whole year where we can be a regular school. Let’s party hard and have a good time.”

THE REAL GAME

Yale senior Katie E. McKeegan calls The Game “more than just football.”

“Some of my favorite college memories are from last year’s tailgate, simply sitting on top of a van with my friends, sipping beer and watching the crowd,” she writes in an e-mail.

“Here, at Yale, I think that celebration is allowed to happen to its fullest,” McKeegan writes. “It looks like at Harvard that celebration is going to be stunted and twisted into unnecessary conflicts and subterfuge. That’s not the way I wanted my last Game to be.”

Yale junior Philip A. Levin also stressed the importance of the tailgate over football.

“Let’s be serious here—we’re playing Ivy League football. It’s not anything students really want to watch. People are there to tailgate, people are there to be in that environment,” says Levin, who is the social activities committee co-chair for Saybrook College, one of Yale’s dorms.

At Branford College, another Yale dorm, junior Terelle L. Hairston says that the restrictions have deterred students from trekking north to Harvard this year.

“Quite a few students have indicated to the Branford College Council that they are significantly less interested in attending the game and/or virtually not interested in visiting the tailgate,” Hairston, who is vice president of Branford, writes in an e-mail.

But vice president of Yale’s student government, the Yale College Council (YCC), Chancellor A. Carlisle says he expects the same turnout from Yale as in years past. Despite the changes, he says, Yale students are still foregoing some of their week-long Thanksgiving Break—which starts today—to attend The Game.

“I think the attendance should be on par, and some colleges have had to get extra buses for this year’s game,” says Carlisle.

Tomorrow Ohiri Field will be packed with tailgates hosted by Harvard and Yale student groups. The council has provided 90 spots for Harvard groups including HoCos, out of 150 available spaces on the student tailgate.

Planning the tailgates under the new regulations has been a chore, especially for Yale student leaders who say that it has been hard to find out how to comply.

“I think the hardest part has been the lack of communication between the colleges,” Yale junior Matthew E. Kennard says. “Trying to plan around the regulations that have been put out is a challenge that both Harvard and Yale students share.”

The restrictions have also presented logistical difficulties for Harvard HoCos in planning their tailgates.

“A lot of complications arose because HoCos are paying for centralized alcohol,” Cabot HoCo chair Edward J. Reed ’05 says. “We’ll have some alcohol, but not as much as years past, because we dropped $450 for the beer truck.”

In a bill passed by the Undergraduate Council on Sunday, each HoCo was asked to contribute $450 to pay for a centralized system of distributing beer. This system includes a serving station at the center and two sanctioned beer trucks at opposite ends of Ohiri Field, where the undergraduate tailgate will be held tomorrow, according to Mahan. The council will contribute $2,000, and the College is giving more than $20,000. Yale has agreed to pay $2,000 for the tailgate as well.

While Mahan would not disclose the exact amount of beer being provided by the trucks, he reassured HoCo chairs in a meeting last week that the council planned to purchase more alcohol from their new alcohol distributor, secured after United Liquors withdrew from negotiations in late October.

HOPS AND SCHNAPPS

Aside from the communal beer, HoCo can purchase their own alcohol for their tailgates as well. But since the 2002 Game, kegs have been banned from Harvard’s tailgate, and beer balls—a smaller alternative to kegs—will also be prohibited from Ohiri Field this year. Any kegs present tomorrow will be part of the centralized beer distribution.

Transporting HoCo-specific alcohol is another challenge, says Kalamchi. With a U-Haul ban in place, about 20 Kirkland residents will have to carry liquor across the river tomorrow, he says.

Massachusetts state law stipulates that a person or a vehicle cannot transport more than one gallon of pure alcohol by volume, which is slightly more than one keg of beer.

Because of central beer distribution, Adams has opted to bring other beverages instead, says Joshua A. Barro ’05, Adams HoCo co-chair.

“We will have appetizers served with hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps as well as cider,” he says.

Some Houses are staying tight-lipped about their plans for tomorrow.

“We will be reversing a recent disturbing trend in the environmental conditions surrounding Harvard-Yale,” Lowell HoCo chair Todd van Stolk-Riley ’06 says. Van Stolk-Riley would not disclose further details about Lowell’s tailgate.

And Mather HoCo is “working to ensure a fun experience within the rules,” Darren S. Morris ’05, the House’s co-chair, writes in an e-mail. A Mather-Open e-mail from HoCo secretary Hana R. Alberts ’06, also a Crimson editor, said there was a “top secret construction project underway.”

The alcohol restrictions, specifically the keg ban, have raised concerns among some Yale students.

Levin says that restrictions on alcohol may persuade students to substitute hard liquor for beer, and drink excessively.

“People find the rules absolutely ridiculous because they don’t address what Harvard is trying to address,” says Levin, who is the social activities committee co-chair for Saybrook College.

McKeegan agrees, pointing out that underage drinkers are now more focused on finding ways to subvert the system.

“Those under 21 who are going are now focused on alcohol in a way [they] were not before the regulations. Now I’m hearing about all kinds of elaborate plans, most of which involve hard alcohol without even mixers,” McKeegan writes in an e-mail. “That’s a recipe for disaster.”

BE MY GUEST?

Most alumni will have to pay $10, if they want to tailgate at all.

To offset costs, the College is charging alumni, graduate students and guests $10 to enter the general tailgate area on Ohiri Field. As of yesterday at 5 p.m., 950 tickets had been sold and the alumni association has reserved 200 additional tickets. Tailgate tickets can be purchased at the Harvard Box Office.

While alumni classes were given the option of renting a tent on the intramural fields and hiring Crimson Catering if they wanted their own tailgates, few opted to do so because of the high costs, says Zachary A Corker ’04, special assistant to dean for social programming. Corker says the classes of 2002, 2003 and 2004 chose not to hold their own tailgates.

HLCentral, an unofficial Harvard Law School social group, is planning to tailgate on Soldier’s Field, a general admissions area. College student groups have been warned against relying on finding a place on the general admissions area because of limited number of available spaces, fewer than in years past, says Corker.

According to Carlisle, the Yale College Council allocated several spots to graduate student groups and graduate schools, including their divinity school, on their tailgate area on Ohiri Field.

—Staff writer Margaret W. Ho can be reached at mwho@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Joshua P. Rogers can be reached at jprogers@fas.harvard.edu.