When Spring semester began three weeks ago, things just weren’t the same. In place of a tent city and pools of mud in front of Cameron Indoor Stadium sat a plot of grass that was actually green. An unusual sight for the time of year, Krzyzewskiville was empty.

Last semester, line monitors and Duke Student Government were pressured by the Department of Athletics to boost attendance at men’s basketball games and restore rowdiness to Cameron. As a result, the line monitors implemented sweeping reforms to tenting policy that, among other things, pushed back the tenting start date.

To date, the men’s basketball office has never released figures that quantify whether student attendance at games has decreased, so it’s hard to know exactly how serious of a problem this actually was. 

Still, the changes instituted this year seem to have achieved their goal of packing Cameron full. But as an added benefit, they have also made the basketball experience at Duke a more inclusive one.

The line monitors’ most significant change involved a complete overhaul of the rules governing tenting. In previous years, the tenting process began with the blue tenting season that operated on a first-come, first-served basis. As a result, many die-hard students would pitch their tents as early as the day after Christmas.

This year, however, an official starting date of Jan. 30 was set for blue tenting, and groups that wanted to be one of the first tents in line were given the option of participating in a one-week “black tenting” experience starting a week earlier. In addition to this change, groups are only required to have six students in their tent each night during the blue season, a decrease of two students from last year.

As we wrote last Fall, loosening tenting requirements makes sense from a public health perspective. Nights out in the cold only increase the chances of a student falling ill, and limiting the number of students in a tent is a prudent move after swine flu, pink eye and meningitis have hit campus in the past two years.   

But these changes also make K-ville more accessible to more students. Seeing a large number of tents pitched in K-ville on the first day of classes gives the impression that only ultra-dedicated fans can get a spot in the student section. That perception is simply not true, and diverting the start of tenting to a more reasonable date helps to dispel this false notion.

Furthermore, a later start date and a lower number of students required to spend the night in a tent makes it easier for those who are dedicated to school work, extracurricular activities or greek organizations to participate in the time-honored tradition of tenting. 

Before this season started, Associate Head Basketball Coach Steve Wojciechowski spoke at several fraternity and sorority meetings, encouraging their members to attend more games. 

And so it’s important to reiterate that, following in the spirit of inclusivity, this new approach to student section attendance should not target specific groups that the athletics department has deemed better, “rowdier” fans, but rather broaden the spectrum of students that go to Cameron to cheer on the team.

Line monitor Dan Romero recused himself from this editorial.