House Committees Prepare For Game

Kegs and U-Hauls, banned at Harvard tailgates, will reappear in New Haven this weekend as House Committees navigate the discrepancies between Harvard and Yale’s tailgating policies.

Although Harvard students have come to expect laxer tailgating rules in New Haven, Lowell HoCo Co-Chair Margaret E. Soutter ‘12 said that Yale’s new regulations have limited the House’s plans for the Game.

“Especially since it’s not the home game this year, there is a lot of red tape you have to go through when you want to bring all this extra stuff,” Soutter said.

Because they receive their funds from Harvard, House Committees are forced to follow Harvard’s policy, which only allows beer and wine, even though Yale’s policy does not explicitly ban hard alcohol, according to Soutter.

When Harvard regulations prevented House Committees from serving hard alcohol and using kegs at last year’s tailgates, Lowell spent extra money to serve bottled beers instead.

This year, Yale’s ban on glass bottles will force Lowell to purchase kegs and canned beers, Soutter said.

The ban on glass bottles is part of a number of new tailgate guidelines released by Yale this past September.

Under the new rules, tailgate attendees are required to show IDs and wear wristbands attesting to their legal drinking age before they can be served alcohol.

This past Sunday, Yale College Council of Masters Chair Frank Keil told the Yale Daily News that residential college tailgates would be prohibited from serving alcohol at this year’s game. Monday evening, Yale administrators reversed their decision and announced that they were lifting the ban, allowing alcohol to be served to students age 21 and over.

House Committees have not let Yale’s slightly stricter rules stop them from planning creative activities for the thousands of students and alumni who will be in attendance.

Pfozheimer House will serve gallons of chili made from a student recipe, Dunster House will pass out leis and punch at its luau-themed tailgate, and Mather House’s “Crunk Clock” will announce every fifteen minutes that it is “Crunk Time.”

While “Crunk Time” has at past tailgates indicated that those present should drink, Mather HoCo Chair Andrew F. Iannone ’12 wrote in an email that this year it will be “more of a time to announce Mather’s presence” by blowing whistles and shouting Mather House chants.

Unlike Harvard, where administrators mandated that all tailgating activities end before kickoff, Yale does not require tailgates to shut down until the third quarter, which House Committee chairs called more conducive to a social atmosphere.

“I think, from what I hear, that people are going to be much more festive and merrier down there. People are excited to go down,” said incoming Kirkland HoCo Co-Chair Cynthia Wu ’13, who is also an inactive Crimson photography editor. “Go Kirkland, and go Harvard.”

—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.