Harvard Explained

On a rare bright day this spring, Alice C. Hwang ‘06 went to Harvard Yard to toss a frisbee with her roommate. Within moments, she found herself being tossed out of the Yard. “The security guards came over and said we couldn’t play frisbee in the Yard,” remembers Hwang, who is on a club Frisbee team. “It was annoying, because there isn’t that much field space this side of the river to toss.”

According to page 309 of the Student Handbook, “Students are requested not to engage on College property in any games that might annoy others, cause damage, or injure passersby.” This vague prohibition has come to encompass football, frisbee and other throwing games, as well as skateboarding, rollerblading and bicycling.

Zachary M. Gingo, a Harvard Yard Operations manager, says the ban is “based on complaints from faculty, staff, and people who get hit on the head while walking through the Yard.” Students engaging in such wayward amusement will be asked to leave the Yard. “If we see folks playing in the Yard, we send Crimson security guards to ask them to move on. But it’s not a punishable offense,” Gingo says.

Security guards will usually ask students to take their frisbees or footballs to the lawns in front of the Science Center. The river and Cambridge Common are also popular alternatives for students who have been redirected, although security officer Chuck Marren cautions students against Cambridge Common. “Be careful over there,” Marren says. “There’s a lot of riff-raff over there, a lot of hypodermics laying around. You know, actually, don’t even go over there.”

Hwang and friends remain skeptical of the prohibition and its enforcement. “Sometimes on the really, really gorgeous days people will be playing football or wiffle ball. They enforce it really inconsistently,” Hwang says. “I think we should be allowed to do college things on our college field.”