Dormitories may have opened just two days ago, but a group of students has been living on campus for more than two weeks. Several freshmen from Blackwell Dormitory arrived Dec. 29 to stake their claim to the spot that, when official registration begins this Friday, will be Krzyzewskiville's Tent 1. The next group arrived New Year's Day.
Now, more than 100 tents-enough to fill the quota set by the line monitoring policy-have representatives waiting in line, protected from the cold only by heavy coats and, in the case of a lucky few, tarps draped over a chain-link fence.
This year's policy prohibits students from pitching tents more than 10 days before designated games; Duke Student Government Executive Vice President Rusty Shappley said it is still too early to decide whether the change has been successful. DSG members will meet with Krzyzewskiville campers today at 5 p.m. to gathers comments on this year's policy.
Shappley, a Trinity junior, stressed that, so far, "Everything that we've done has strictly followed the policy," leaving tenters to concentrate on the rigors of camping.
"The first couple of days it was really cold, but it has warmed up, which makes things much better," said Trinity freshman Stephen Byrd, a member of Tent 6. "I do have a tarp up... and seeing as it doesn't block nearly enough wind, I do not think it violates the spirit of the tent policy. It helps with the rain but little else."
The "spirit" of the policy, Byrd said, is "to make things a tad more uncomfortable when you're waiting to register so as to decrease the time spent in line."
Life may become even more uncomfortable for campers now that a large crowd is in line, and although Cameron Indoor Stadium was opened for campers at night during the break, it will no longer be available to them.
"The crowd is just too unmanageable now-any time you get 200 people in Cameron Indoor, there's always a chance for disaster," said Trinity junior Cat Saleeby, a former line monitor who cut her winter break short to begin camping early.
But campers said admission to the designated games would still be well worth the wait. "People ending their break early, braving the freezing cold, and spending 24 hours a day outside of Cameron-that is the spirit of the policy," added engineering sophomore Christopher Peretti.
Still, many campers avoided most of the hardship and returned from break three or four days before the first day of classes-by noon Saturday, only 35 tents were represented. "A couple of nut-cases had been out there a week or so, but it seems like the great bulk of that line has shown up in the last few days," said engineering junior and head line monitor Al Prescott. "It seems like the people who really wanted to be out there in the front got out there... and the other people who didn't want to go nuts like that also had an opportunity to do it."
The number of tents began to swell Sunday. "A lot of people came in after the Virginia game," said Trinity freshman Matt Burr. "So everybody here respects the people who have been out here so long."
Byrd added, "Of course some people complain about Tent 1 being here on the 29th, but since they were willing to make the sacrifice, they deserve to be number one."
That sense of respect may be what is keeping Krzyzewskiville in order. Students from Tent 1 and some of the other top 10 tents have been regulating the line with random roll calls.
"If a tent has been missing, the tent behind them has the power to bump them," Saleeby explained.
Official registration of the tents will begin Friday so as not interfere with Saturday's game against Florida State, Prescott said. "We didn't want to run into any trouble with people who are going to see the game losing their spot in line," he explained. "[This way,] we can make sure that it won't be an issue."
Prescott will not begin calling tent checks until 10 days before the game against the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Tim Millington contributed to this story.
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