New rules for student tailgating

Mark Zurolo ’01MFA

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In the wake of a fatal parking-lot crash outside last November's Yale-Harvard football game, the university has announced new restrictions on student tailgate parties at the Yale Bowl.

In the accident, a student bringing supplies to a fraternity tailgate party apparently lost control of a U-Haul truck and drove into three women, killing one, a visitor from Massachusetts who was not affiliated with either university. The cause is not yet known, but it did not appear to involve alcohol. (For more, see the January/February cover story.)

Nonetheless, the new rules—announced by Yale vice president Linda Koch Lorimer '77JD in a January 19 e-mail—focus on both trucks and beer kegs. Kegs are now banned at all "university athletic events or functions," Lorimer writes, adding: "This policy is consistent with practices at many other universities, including Princeton and Harvard." Also banned are "box trucks" and other big commercial vehicles, "unless driven by a pre-approved authorized vendor." Perhaps recognizing that parties and active parking areas are not an ideal mix, Yale will also create a "vehicle-free" area for student tailgating.

Finally, the start of the game will now end the party in the student area, where revelers have often stayed till halftime or avoided the game altogether. "At kickoff … all students and guests will be required to leave the student tailgating area," Lorimer writes; "we hope they will enter the stadium to watch the game."