Students Plan Club Party at Yale

What started as a private Harvard-Yale eve party planned by a single senior blocking group has escalated into what may be the primary social event for Harvard students during the upcoming Game weekend.

“The Takeover,” the party scheduled at New Haven night club Gotham Citi, will include an open bar from 9 to 11 p.m. and is to continue after hours from 2 to 5 a.m. at a mansion adjacent to the club.

The party began as the brainchild of senior blockmates Michael Beal, Ijah Mondesire-Crump, Kwame Owusu-Kesse, and Abdel Reid. Owusu-Kesse said the four drove to New Haven the day after they came up with the idea, in order to scout out potential nightclubs and meet with club owners.

The venue of choice, Gotham Citi, is a three-level night club located within walking distance from the Yale campus.

Since then, more students have joined in on the planning process. The core group responsible for the coordination, publicity and ticket distribution consists of 23 students representing all classes and various student organizations on campus.

“The party is for the students, by the students,” John F. Voith ’07 said. “More and more people are signing on to the idea as the days go by.”

Tickets must be reserved prior to the event and can be purchased by e-mailing TheTakeover2005@gmail.com or from members of the core planning group. Capped at 2,000, ticket sales will also determine if the club will be open to the public in addition to Harvard students.

“Rarely do you get the opportunity to party with your entire campus, and this is one of those things that everyone is going to want to partake in,” said Lisa E.J. Gordon ’06. “Harvard-Yale is always fun when it’s at Harvard. We’re going to take that same fun and bring it to Yale.”

The party was formally announced late Monday night in e-mail invitations sent out on House and major student group mailing lists.

Though planning for The Takeover began prior to the announcement of Yale’s new restrictions banning on-campus gatherings of more than 20 people during the game, the restrictions have motivated party planners to further promote the event and rally excitement for Harvard-Yale, according to Owusu-Kesse.

Beal expressed concern that Harvard students often find a dearth of pre-Game celebration options and that the new restrictions have done little to help.

“I don’t think there could’ve been another time where there was more of a need for something like this to happen,” Mondesire-Crump said.

Campus Life Fellow Justin H. Haan ’05 also noted the efforts of the party planners to bring Harvard students an accessible off-campus social event for the Game weekend.

“They’re a very enterprising group of students, and it’s amazing that they’ve thrown something together of this nature for the Harvard-Yale weekend,” Haan said. “It’s great to have things that students are aware of and invited to.”

According to Haan, the College has not planned any events for the students at New Haven, but the College Life Commission has worked to compile a list of Yale-sponsored events to be distributed to students on the buses to Yale.

Last Saturday, the New Haven police raided Toad’s Place—a significant off-campus destination for Yale students on Wednesday and Saturday nights—as a part of an ongoing investigation involving alcohol being served to underage students, according to the Yale Daily News.

One Yale sophomore said that as a result of the raid, the club will probably be stricter than usual on ID’s, just in time for Harvard-Yale weekend.

The last time Toad’s was cited for serving alcohol to minors, the club was fined and forced to shut down for a week.

But party planners say this just further highlights to the importance of the Gotham Citi party.

“There is a demand on campus for people to have fun at Harvard-Yale,” Owusu-Kesse said. “This is a great opportunity to really bring the entire student body together.”

—Staff writer Ying Wang can be reached at yingwang@fas.harvard.edu.