Tailgaters Flout Drinking Rules

Tipsy students filled the field outside the Yale Bowl Saturday, despite fears that tightened regulations would tame the festivities.

Though rules circulated prior to the event forbade serving alcohol to minors and playing drinking games, police stood by while the guidelines went largely unheeded.

Lowell House Stein Club Secretary Bryan A. Haut ’08 said his only interaction with the law during the event occurred when one officer stopped by to comment on the cheap brand of beer he was drinking.

“I offered him one, and he said he couldn’t because he was on duty,” Haut said.

This was the first Game at Yale since Connecticut criminalized the possession of alcohol on private property by those under 21.

Yale doubled its security detail from the 2005 Game and increased the number of on-site toilets tenfold, according to a widely forwarded e-mail sent by Yale sophomore Kyle Briscoe, a member of the Calhoun College Council. In addition, Yale limited the music to one official DJ, located in the Yale tailgate area.

Ryan M. Travia, Harvard’s director of alcohol and other drug services, wrote in an e-mail that he had not received notice of any alcohol-related hospital admittances.

Students said the festivities at Yale were a marked improvement over last year’s tailgate at Harvard, where student groups and individuals were prohibited from bringing in alcohol.

“It’s a lot more fun than Harvard last year,” said Kevin Ferguson ’08, who lives in Lowell House.

Regulations this year targeted House tailgates, which fall more directly under the College’s jurisdiction, without placing restrictions on parties hosted by private organizations, such as final clubs.

Administrators had told students to expect to be searched for alcohol before entering the stadium, but forbidden liquids easily evaded security checks if they weren’t in their original bottles.

College administrators said that House Committees (HoCos) could not serve alcohol to underage drinkers, but students were rarely, if ever, asked to show identification before they filled their Solo cups.

Still, uncertainty about how strictly the universities would crack down on rule-breakers had led some HoCos to leave the booze at home.

Lowell did not bring alcohol to New Haven, and shuttered its tailgate after the first quarter.

In contrast, Mather, which hosted its tailgate with Currier, purchased eight kegs of beer, 20 gallons of spiked hot chocolate, and five gallons of jungle juice.

“The tailgate was pretty much what we could hope for, but it was a shame that there wasn’t more clarity beforehand about the rules,” said Yale sophomore Peter Martin, who serves on the Morse College Committee.

“I don’t think it harmed the tailgate too much,” he added.

Mather was the only House that operated its tailgate until the end of the Game, according to HoCo Co-Chair David J. Lokshin ’08.

Even as the HoCos closed up shop, tailgates hosted by private organizations raged on, especially in the alumni tailgate area and at the end of the field, where empty vodka bottles littered the tables sponsored by final clubs.

As Harvard’s football team crushed Yale, 37-6, outside the Yale Bowl a general sense of confusion was amplified by the failure of cell phone service.

Attendance for the Game reached 57,248—over 4,000 people more than two years ago—according to the Harvard Athletic Department.

“From what I’ve seen—and the alcohol I’ve drunk—it’s been great,” said Brenda Chu, a Yale freshman.

—Aditi Banga contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Victoria B. Kabak can be reached at vkabak@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman can be reached at nsherman@fas.harvard.edu.