Yale Releases Relatively Lax Tailgate Rules

This year, Yale released tailgate rules for this year’s Harvard-Yale Game that, while largely unchanged from two years ago, are markedly more lax than the controversial ones issued by Harvard last year.

According to the guidelines on the Yale University Athletics Web site, each Harvard House and Yale Residential College will be allowed one oversized vehicle to be parked in a designated student tailgate parking lot. Permits for oversized vehicles without House affiliation will also be available for purchase on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Yale has also banned drinking games and “drinking paraphernalia,” but the rules allow tailgates to continue until the third quarter and do not prohibit kegs.

In 2008, rules set by Harvard and the Boston police forced tailgates to end at kickoff and prohibited kegs. Last year’s rules disquieted Yalies and some Harvard students who criticized them for being too stern, The Crimson reported at the time.

Since the Nov. 21 Game will be at New Haven, the situation is incomparable to that in Boston and Cambridge, said Yale Senior Associate Athletics Director Ryan G. Bamford.

“Yale has different challenges than Harvard. We have a different atmosphere, a residential neighborhood,” he said. “The goal is to create a safe and enjoyable atmosphere for all of our fans.”

House Committees are already planning for the Game’s tailgate.

Mather HoCo, in cooperation with Currier House, plans to rent a U-Haul truck for the tailgate and operate a shuttle service from Harvard to Yale, according to Mather HoCo Social Chair Ankur N. Agrawal ’11, who said that the rules at Yale offer greater options for tailgate programming. Agrawal is also a Crimson Design editor.

“It’s going to give us flexibility, more choices as to what kind alcohol we can bring,” he said.

Representatives from Lowell HoCo and Leverett HoCo said that their Houses have not begun planning for the event.

—Staff writer Jessie J. Jiang can be reached at jiang9@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.