IFC’s Tailage letter misses the point

I couldn’t help but laugh when I read the Interfraternity Council’s open letter to the Duke community in the Oct. 7 issue of The Chronicle. (See page 6 here. --Ed) The problem with Tailgate is not can-throwing, nor is it standing on cars. The problem with Tailgate is Tailgate. The problem with Tailgate is that it is not, as IFC suggests, “an important part of the Duke football experience,” but rather, it is the Duke football experience.

Every week it is truly disheartening, as am I sure it is to the players and alumni, to watch fellow students drunkenly stumble away from Wallace Wade Stadium as Tailgate ends, never having had any intention of going to the game. As long as Tailgate remotely resembles its current form, this will never change, “Party Monitors” or not. The IFC knows this, and their letter was nothing but a hollow save-face, the same-old smarmy do-good exterior that fraternities have always fronted.

Tom Burr

Trinity ’12