In an effort to improve safety and uphold drinking laws, Harvard administrators will set up a variety of stringent restrictions on alcohol at this year’s Harvard-Yale game, including banning U-Hauls entirely.

The tighter regulations come after a student almost died of alcohol poisoning in November, 2002, the last time the Harvard-Yale game was played in Cambridge.

Undergraduate Council President Matthew W. Mahan ’05 attributed the ban on U-Hauls to the Athletics Department.

“Apparently, they spent over 50,000 dollars repairing the field last time,” Mahan said.

He added that the College supported the decision following concerns about student safety.

“[The College] thinks it’s unsafe to have students dancing up on U-Hauls,” Mahan said.

Other changes proposed by the Office of Student Activities include setting up an ID Check tent where students must first secure a bracelet in order to be served alcoholic beverages, moving House Committee tailgates to Ohiri Field, which is a sizeable distance from the traditional tailgate area, and restricting keg orders to a single distributor.

But Mahan stressed that the changes were still tentative and that the Council and HoCo chairs would be working to negotiate loosening of the restrictions.

A handout issued from the Office of Student Activities and distributed to HoCo members at a University-Hall meeting last night detailed procedures to assist each house committee in their preparation for Harvard-Yale. The memo suggested that if HoCos coordinate all keg orders through United Liquors, a distributor that takes responsibility for any student-related accidents, Harvard would allow HoCos to be an exception to the keg ban.

This loophole for HoCos marks a shift from the College’s 2000 keg ban, a restriction also unanimously upheld by House Masters for the last Game held in 2002. But students emphasized that the restriction would still be in place at The Game.

“The keg ban is still in effect, but the University is willing to allow House Committees to pay an outside distributor to bring in beer trucks, which are essentially filled with kegs,” Student Affairs Committee Chair Matthew J. Glazer ’06 said. “This is currently [only] for House Committees,” he added.

Todd Van Stolk-Riley ’06, Lowell HoCo Chair, said that the administration was not willing to concede on the keg ban.

“I think they are pretty much intractable on the keg ban as a general regulation,” he said.

United Liquors would require wrist-bands issued from an ID Check tent in order to serve alcohol, according to the handout.

And while past HoCo tailgates took place in fields adjacent to the stadium, this year’s HoCo tailgate-revelry might relocate to the far-off Ohiri Fields.