Yale Bans Kegs, Restricts U-Hauls at Tailgates

Yale University announced a stricter set of tailgating regulations Thursday. The new guidelines, which include a ban on kegs and a requirement that student tailgates end at kick-off, are the outcome of an examination of tailgating rules spurred by the death of a 30-year-old woman at the most recent Harvard-Yale football game.

The new guidelines prohibit “oversized vehicles” such as U-Haul trucks unless driven by a pre-approved vendor and also forbid all vehicles from the student section of the tailgate, University Vice President and Secretary Linda K. Lorimer wrote in an email to the Yale community.

The new policies are the product of a two-month review of Yale tailgating prompted by the fatal accident in November. A Yale student driving a U-Haul struck and killed Nancy Barry, a resident of Salem, Mass., and injured two other tailgate attendees.

The New Haven Police Department investigation into the incident is ongoing, according to the Yale Daily News.

The shorter time for tailgate parties and the ban on U-Hauls and kegs bring Yale’s regulations in line with those put in place for the 2010 Harvard-Yale game held in Boston. According to Lorimer’s email, administrators looked to peer institutions like Harvard and Princeton when drafting the new policy.

Over the past decade, tailgating regulations have become stricter at Harvard—which first banned kegs in 2002—while usually remaining unchanged at Yale. But even before November’s accident, Yale began to tighten its tailgating policies, banning glass bottles and requiring tailgate attendees to show IDs and wear wristbands attesting to their legal drinking age at the most recent Game.

Former Lowell House Committee Co-Chair Margaret E. Soutter ’12 said that she expected policy changes following the tragic accident.

“I’d be surprised if they hadn’t made some serious changes given the gravity of what happened,” she said.

Given that Harvard has had more stringent rules than Yale in the past, Soutter said, “If anything, it will even the playing field in term of the fun-ness at Harvard and Yale.”

In her email, Lorimer wrote that the review committee at Yale will next examine “Yale’s tailgating logistics, including parking, traffic control, [and] crowd control.”

Harvard administrators review their tailgating policies annually. Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson Jeff Neal said in December that Harvard had not decided whether to conduct a more intensive review in response to the fatality.

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