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For 364 days out of the year Harvard is hardly fun. Now, the Dean of Students Office is poised to make it 365.

When asked about his plans for this year’s Harvard-Yale football game, Dean of Students Thomas Dunne revealed he intends to crack down on unsanctioned events while planning a “safe” school-sponsored tailgate.

If the College continues central planning Harvard-Yale, they guarantee that the game will be less fun, less safe, and less inclusive. Quite frankly, the best thing administrators can do on that fateful Saturday is make themselves scarce and let students take the lead.

Harvard has already tried the approach Dean Dunne described — and it failed, miserably.

In 2022, the University held a highly regulated tailgate while enacting draconian restrictions on House and student-sponsored festivities. To no one’s surprise but the DSO’s, our classmates did not all quietly comply. Instead, hundreds of us flocked to an unofficial tailgate hosted by Final Clubs.

If the College follows through on Dean Dunne’s disaster plan, there’s no reason to believe this year will be any different.

Instead, to live up to its responsibility to ensure student safety and fun, the DSO is going to have to accept an inconvenient truth: Students — of all ages — will drink during Harvard-Yale. The only question is how.

Practically, every other University in America is aware of this reality, and allows students to run their own tailgates. Stop by any SEC school on a Saturday if you have any doubt.

Even Yale had the right idea at The Game last year. Harvard student organizations were allowed to purchase space at their public tailgate, hosting a successful gathering a stone’s throw from the Yale Bowl.

Harvard — and it really pains us to say this — should follow their lead.

By all means, the DSO is welcome to continue planning its pre-game festivities, replete with simple food trucks and over-21 drink tickets. They can and should supply porta potties, water coolers, and, if need be, ambulances.

But just far enough away that the music doesn’t hurt Dean Dunne’s ears, official and unofficial student organizations should be allowed to host an unofficial tailgate for themselves and guests from New Haven in a neighboring field.

We’re not calling for chaos. The University should communicate with social organizations in advance and make reasonable compromises that guarantee safety and fun.

A similar approach succeeded at the 2021 and 2023 Harvard-Brown football games. At this point, suggesting that students can’t safely shepherd one of our school’s most treasured traditions is downright disrespectful.

Harvard-Yale is the one day a year that social hierarchies break down and parties abound. The DSO cannot take that away from us.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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