Students Plan Around Keg Ban

In the wake of the administration’s continued ban on kegs at this year’s Harvard-Yale Game despite student efforts for its repeal, student reaction has run the gamut from disappointment and outrage to sheer inventiveness.

A group of sophomores has gone so far as to profit off the ban, selling a limited number of engraved Game flasks to interested students.

The initial decision to ban kegs at the Game came two years ago, when administrators said excessive drinking at tailgates endangered students and Game-goers. This ban was extended to all sporting events last month, and the House Masters soon after banned kegs in the Houses the weekend of the Game.

The House Committees presented a petition urging Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 to reverse the ban, a move the Undergraduate Council endorsed last week when it passed a resolution protesting the ban.

Lewis’ first official response came in an op-ed published in The Crimson yesterday. He emphasized that there was no blanket ban on alcohol but simply on the use of kegs, which he said promotes irresponsible drinking.

But students remain unconvinced.

Eliot House Committee (HoCo) co-chair Eric Hart ’03, who presented the petition, wrote in an e-mail that he resented the “latent paternalism” and “dismissive” attitudes on the part of the administration.

“The unwillingness to seriously consider our petition on the merits of our arguments is what I find most disheartening,” he said.

But although he is dismayed, Hart said he wants to move on.

“I accept that there is nothing more that can be done here,” he said. “I sincerely hope that the administration is right” about the increased safety of a kegless Game.

Others were more blunt. Jordan W. Webb ’03, a former Winthrop HoCo co-chair, said he resigned from his post last month in response to Winthrop House Master Paul D. Hanson’s ban on kegs in Winthrop House the weekend of the Game.

“I intend to bring as much of [Master Hanson’s] questionable leadership of the House to light as possible,” Webb said. “I do not want to damage House Committee by association, and so I chose to resign and address these issues as an individual.”

Webb said he is particularly unhappy with what he sees as a lack of full and candid communication between administration and students on this issue. He said that though Hanson had reversed the keg ban last year after talking to HoCo chairs including Webb, Hanson’s decision to vote in favor of reinstating the ban came without student consultation.

“The first I heard of the House Masters unanimously deciding to ban kegs in Houses for [the weekend of the Game] was when I read it in The Crimson that morning,” Webb said.

He said he resigned that day, adding, “It’s unfortunate that a dialogue takes place only after a decision has been made and not beforehand.”

Hanson declined to comment on whether he had reversed the keg ban last year for Winthrop House, but said students should focus on more important things than “what container they drink beer out of.”

“There’s an election tomorrow and a war pending in the Middle East,” Hanson said.

But Harvard students have not let their dissatisfaction with the administration’s keg policy stop them from coming up with alternative ways to drink come Nov. 23.

“Don’t let the keg ban hold you back!” urges a website set up by several undergraduates to promote the sale of eight-ounce stainless steel flasks engraved with the slogan “HARVARD-YALE: THE GAME.”

Matt Chingos ’05, one of the students involved in selling the flasks, said there has been a brisk demand on the part of students. They have sold between 20 and 25 of the $25 flasks so far, he said.

Other students are taking more mundane steps to evade the ban.

Andre V. Moura ’03, who said he has drunk from kegs at past Games, said he will “pay a lot more for canned beer” this year.

Jeremy N. King ’04, who also said he has drunk from kegs at past Games, said he has “no really clever plans, but just because people won’t have kegs I’m sure they’ll have a wealth of other options.”

In addition, several HoCo chairs have mentioned the possibility of buying alcohol wholesale before the Game in containers other than kegs, but Leverett HoCo co-chair Michal Y. Spechler ’03 said the process would be too logistically complicated for her House to undertake.

She added that the alternative may be even less appealing to the administration.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if people drank heavily in their rooms before,” she said, “and that’s a shame.”