DSG to hear proposal to delay tenting

The first round of Krzyzewskiville tenting may start a month later this basketball season.

Duke Student Government will consider a line monitor proposal that may begin Blue tenting Jan. 30. The proposal is part of an effort by officials in the Men’s Basketball Office to increase student attendance at basketball games, said Head Line Monitor Zach White, a senior. He noted that fewer students have been flowing into Cameron Indoor Stadium for the last several years.

“We as a whole... view tenting as something that should be an enjoyable time,” he said. “We’re looking to get Cameron as packed as possible.”

Students tent to get into the home men’s basketball game against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and typically for one other game against an Atlantic Coast Conference rival. This year, the UNC-Duke home game is March 6, meaning that if DSG senators approve the proposal, tenting will last for about a month, as it did last year when the game was earlier in the season.

White is in favor of changing the start date for Blue Tenting, as are most line monitors, though some oppose it, he said.

Line Monitor Tommy Ferguson, a senior, said he supports the change suggested by the men’s basketball office because he believes it will increase attendance.

“We’re really in support of whatever the Duke basketball program wants,” he said. “We’re all for getting more people into the games, and we’ll do whatever it takes.”

Officials in the men’s basketball office did not return phone messages and e-mails seeking comment Tuesday.

Line monitors have also discussed others ways to make the tenting experience easier, such as reducing the number of students who must sleep in each tent at night from eight to six. Other possible changes include allowing students to return to their tents as late as midnight on Thursdays and raising the minimum temperature at which students will be allowed to leave K-ville.

Sue Wasiolek, dean of students and assistant vice president for student affairs, said cutting the length of time tenters spend in K-ville to a month will be good for those students.

“Students compromise their health and even their academics when they spend that much time in K-ville, so it sounds like it serves all purposes in a positive way,” she said.

Aaron Dinin, Trinity ’05 and author of The Krzyzewskiville Tales, a book about K-ville, said he does not think imposing a later start date for Blue Tenting will keep students from staking out spots.

“It’s not the first year that they tried to put rules on that and stop people from starting early,” he said. “What happened is that people always said, ‘I don’t really care,’ and they showed up when they wanted to anyway, which is kind of how K-ville got started.”

To increase attendance, line monitors and men’s basketball officials are also considering holding theme nights similar to Senior Night, White said.

They are discussing making the Nov. 13 game against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro a Greek Night. White said no definite plans have been set for the night, but Greek students would likely be admitted to Cameron after the first several hundred students waiting in line get in.

Associate Head Coach Steve Wojciechowski has met with several fraternities to encourage members to attend men’s basketball games, White said. He added that people associated with the men’s basketball program will talk with other large groups, such as sororities and club sports teams, in the future.

Wojciechowski spent an hour on a recent Sunday night talking basketball with about 30 members of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, said member Dave Faurie, a junior.

 “He just talked about getting a rowdier crowed, like it used to be in Cameron,” Faurie said. “They’re reaching out to frats first because they know they have a large social influence.”