It’s 40 degrees outside, and your ice-cold beer can is stuck to the hand you can no longer feel. You’re not sure you can wait in that porta-potty line again, so you sneak behind a UHaul. The music is blaring, the hot chocolate is spiked, you’re surrounded by all of your best friends, and, most importantly, Harvard is crushing Yale.
Harvard-Yale weekend is one of the only times when College students get together in one place and let it all hang out. Traditionally, the Ohiri Field debauch-fest known as the tailgate has been the focal point of the weekend.
But with new restrictions against underage drinking, some students fear that this year’s tailgate will be lacking. Appropriately wary, student leaders are putting their reinstated UHaul privileges to creative use and considering a weekend full of crowd-pleasing events.
MOOSE VS. CHICKEN
In years past, the combination of binge drinking and some old-school rivalry has made for some memorable Harvard-Yale tailgate highlights.
“My favorite memory of the last home Harvard-Yale game was the Dunster House mascot getting in a fight with a Yale mascot,” says Samantha H. Fink ’07, Dunster House Committee (HoCo) co-chair. “Someone in a moose suit tackled someone in a chicken suit.”
Indeed, many students think that traditionally, the tailgate is one of the biggest all-together-now parties of the year.
“The tailgate represents an anomaly within the Harvard social life,” says President of the Black Students Association Jason C.B. Lee ’08. “It’s a time where we’re all together, we’re all unified in a common celebration of being undergraduate students at Harvard.”
But with all that unity (and all that beer), things got a little out of hand the last time Harvard hosted the Game.
In 2004, the alcohol (and urine) flowed so freely that Captain William Evans of the Boston Police Department famously said to The Crimson, “I was embarrassed to be a policeman on that field seeing what I had to see.”
The result is a panoply of restrictions structured by the Boston Police Department and the deans of the College. While Campus Life Fellow John T. Drake ’06 says that the final restrictions have yet to be determined, it seems likely that outside alcohol will be banned at Ohiri field, and with Beverage Authorization Teams dishing out wristbands, those under 21 might have to go through this Game sober.
A CAMPUS DIVIDED?
Along with other campus leaders, Adams HoCo Co-Chair Rachel E. Haurwitz ’07 is concerned about the potential fragmentation of the weekend’s social atmosphere.
“The fact that student organizations are looking to do their own thing Saturday morning before the official tailgate makes me afraid attendance will be lower,” she says. “It really feels like a Harvard community usually, and I just hope that happens again this year.”
Lee agrees, and is also worried that the tailgates might lose their luster. “People enjoyed the last tailgate and are worried they’re going to have less fun.”
Students’ concerns have been taken into account by the administration. Drake heads the Harvard-Yale Student Advisory Committee, which brainstormed ideas for how to make the tailgate just as much fun for students as it always has been.
“The commission is doing their best to work within the rules to get the students what they want,” Drake says, “and we hope that students get creative with their tailgates to make the party as excellent as possible.”
At the tailgate itself, there are plenty of other diversions planned in lieu of the usual underage drinking.
In contrast to the typical greasy burgers-and-hotdogs fare, Lee says he is “considering different catering options and different types of food to bring to the tailgate to get people to come out.”
Dunster House is looking to get people psyched for the tailgate by posting the stats and photos of players who reside in the House, accompanied by a giant moose-shaped cake, says Fink.
72 HOURS TO RAGE
Beyond the few hours spent at the tailgate, student organizations are re-envisioning Harvard-Yale as an entire weekend of unique events.
“Usually, it’s just the morning of the game that people go crazy,” Haurwitz says. “This year, the HoCos are working together such that we’re being social Thursday through Saturday, not just Saturday morning.”
The administration likes this idea, too. “We’re working on planning things from Thursday right through Saturday,” says Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71. “The tailgate is a small part of the weekend.”
But with the Game looming just three weeks away, the issue of the final tailgate restrictions remains unresolved. And although University Hall and student leaders alike are paying lip-service to the idea of a Harvard-Yale weekend full of events, few concrete plans have yet emerged.
Amid some campus skepticism, Lee looks on the bright side.
“Harvard-Yale is still Harvard-Yale,” he says. “We’re going to do what we do and we’re going to have a great time regardless. Don’t let one policy stop the show.”
And, even if all else fails, at least we don’t go to Yale.
