H.arvard W.ithout A.lcohol

Standing in the Harvard-Yale tailgate, I was struck by the feeling that the event was less of a party and more of a “de-beer-iterized zone.” Hordes of police looked over the students standing ankle-deep in muck and surrounded by the Great Wall of Porta-Potties (undoubtedly erected to keep out the Mongolians, ie. undergraduates, with their public-urination ways).

An air of oppression emanated from the police who watched with a mixture of amusement and disdain at the pathetically sober freshmen and the sheer disdain of having to sacrifice a Saturday for this.

Under their constant gaze, a black-market slowly emerged of minors who traded money, foods, or maybe the odd sexual favor for precious beer. I have no doubt that had the tailgate continued through the fourth quarter, a currency of cigarettes would have evolved.

Through natural selection, a host of natural enemies have evolved: think the lion and water-buffalo, the cobra and the mongoose, and the police officer and the college student. When each meet, violence typically occurs: The mongoose enters a death-tango with the cobra. The University of California, Los Angeles policeman tasers students in the library. This is nature. However, as human beings, we have the ability to overcome nature’s imperatives through the use of civilizing institutions like mutual respect, and porta-potties. The tailgate didn’t achieve much, but the peaceful existence of a high concentration of police and students was a kind of success.

The police action eliminated debauchery, but only through overkill. In preparing for the 2008 Harvard-Yale, the Boston Police Department (BPD) needs to learn to negotiate instead of dictate. Students should be able to have more than one unticketed entrance. Individuals should be permitted to bring in a limited amount of personal alcohol. The University should be authorized to supply beer without third-party vendors. The tailgate should be allowed to continue until after the game. These are reasonable compromises. In return, the student body should renew its pledge to forego rioting and other acts of extreme stupidity. This year, Harvard students kept their end of the deal; now it’s the BPD’s turn. The BPD needs to remember that they bring order to promote, not infringe upon, individual liberty.

The police crackdown was nowhere near akin to the 1969 police storming of University Hall or other events of police brutality across the nation. However, changes and compromises need to be made. Although students and police might never agree on noise, alcohol, and public decency laws, a middle ground can be found, so that a Lion King-like “Circle of Life” equilibrium can be reached. And in the vast Serengeti of the Charles River, the lions and water-buffalo can once again be at peace…



Steven T. Cupps ’09, a Crimson editorial editor, is an anthropology and economics concentrator in Lowell House.