The End Is Upon Us

Yale has banned drinking games at the Harvard-Yale game tailgate.

One of my favorite things about going to Yale was the general coolness of the administration. Yale has a shopping period where you get ten days to go to whatever classes you like -- you don't even register for classes until the end. That way, students can see which classes are truly good and which look good on paper and stink in person. It's an administrative nightmare I'm sure, but it makes for a better educational experience. Booze, while not explicitly funded by the school, was often paid for by giving money to key "party suites" to hold various soirees. New Haven cops couldn't care less about underage drinking, unless there was driving involved. Which is what kills people. Not having a few on a non-school day.

To put this in perspective, for Yale kids the Harvard-Yale game is the day after the last day of classes for a week, a time to unwind before the home stretch of final exams. If you're ever gonna have a beer or three in a spirited game of beer pong, that's the time. And these kids aren't exactly going to set a bus on fire or anything -- they're just having a good time.

My favorite part of all this anti-drinking crusading that goes around on college campuses tends to focus on the parents. What hypocrites! As Peter King pointed out in his column this week (read point 9.3), they all did it too. It's a Saturday morning celebrating a game steeped with tradition, not the end of their lives.