Alcohol To Be Off-Limits at Future Harvard-Yale Game Tailgate Parties

Alcohol kegs will be banned at tailgate parties and inside the Harvard Stadium during the next Harvard-Yale Game played at Harvard, said Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68.

"Not only were there a couple of incidents in which students could easily have died [at this year's Game], but police were so tied up handling alcohol issues that their capacity to deal with other safety issues was impaired," Lewis wrote in an e-mail message.

The ban will apply only to kegs and not to other types of containers like cans or bottles, Lewis said.

Lewis said he expects the decision, supported unanimously by the House Masters and the Athletic Committee, to result in two major changes at the next home Game.

First, no one will be allowed to bring kegs into the area surrounding The Stadium complex and the parking lots.

Second, pre-game parties will be moved from the Harvard Business School parking lot to Soldiers Field, in part to "help [the police] monitor and control activities."

Master of Quincy House Michael Shinagel said there would also be a recommendation that Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth '71 "contact his counterpart at Yale to consider a similar policy."

Shinagel added that student conduct at this year's Game was a major factor in the Masters' decision to support the ban.

"There were really so many kegs and so many people, many of whom were underage and drinking to excess, many of whom were endangering their lives, that the Masters had to take this seriously," he said.

Several students said they thought the keg ban was illogical and would be counterproductive.

Seth D. Familian '01, the organizer of this year's Eliot House tailgate who runs the House Stein Club, said emphasis should be placed on responsible drinking rather than on keg restrictions.

"At the end of the day I think alcohol consumption at games like the Harvard-Yale Game is inevitable," he said. "If you want to get technical, [danger] doesn't come from drinking beer, it comes from drinking hard alcohol...if you're going to crack down, I don't know if beer from kegs is the real issue."

Incoming Eliot House Committee President Emily R. Murphy '03 said banning kegs would permanently change the nature of the Harvard-Yale Game.

"Part of the reason so many people come out for The Game is because it turns into a social thing," she said. "Banning kegs will kill a lot of the spirit that comes out during The Game--banning kegs would basically equal no tailgate."

While no official data was available regarding the number of students admitted to the hospital for alcohol-related incidents, Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) Sergeant Bill Chipman said the behavior of Game-goers this year was "extraordinarily difficult."

"There were some concerns, problems with Yale students and alumni as well as Harvard [students and alumni]," Chipman said. "In general, I think you'd find over the history of college campuses that banning kegs does have a [positive] effect."

HUPD spokesperson Peggy A. McNamara was unavailable for comment.

--Staff writer Juliet J. Chung can be reached at jchung@fas.harvard.edu.