For Cameron Crazies expecting a difficult tenting season, this year has been anything but.
Wary of taking on this year's stricter line policy, hard-core tenters remained inside until last Thursday night, when Trinity freshman Kat Townes and nine of her freshman friends, mostly from Brown Dormitory, set up camp.
"We actually thought about setting up a week earlier," Townes said Friday afternoon. "We were front row last week for Clemson. I can't imagine what [UNC] will be like...."
For fun and practice, Townes and a few buddies erected her heavy-duty tent in the middle of the late-January blizzard. She proudly showed pictures of her tent buried in the snow, her head popping up from the whiteness around her. "I figure if we can handle that, we can do this," she said.
By Sunday night, the eight groups that had pitched tents decided to ease the policy's bite while they still had control, requiring only one tent member in each tent and allowing severe weather grace periods. Until the tenth tent goes up, the official policy's mandate that seven out of 10 occupants man the tent in the evenings does not go into effect.
Pre-registration will end Feb. 24, two days before the St. John's game. On Feb. 28, students will be able to register at a designated campus location and the traditional tent policy-one member in K-ville at all times-will
In the meantime, the current policy, which is posted in the new Krzyzewskiville along Cameron Indoor Stadium's grass plaza, declares a grace period between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. any time the National Weather Service predicts sub-freezing temperatures for the night. The tenters employed that condition on both Saturday and Sunday.
"We don't really have any interest in making it overly difficult, particularly during the day...," said tent three captain and Trinity senior Luis Villa, who wrote the interim policy. "As far as the severe weather policy, it is still my opinion that a lot of people got sick last year because they were forced to stay out during a ridiculously cold period.... When it gets to the point where it is endangering health, you need to go in."
Tent five member and Trinity senior Anna Scanlon agreed and speculated that DSG will enforce a similar severe weather policy when they take control. "The line monitors would have come out here and told us to go in if it's below freezing, so we did it anyway," she said.
Head line monitor Rob Cuthbertson, a Pratt senior, said he will investigate today whether to continue this grace policy when he assumes control of the tent city. In addition to consulting administrators about the safety of camping in freezing temperatures, Cuthbertson will meet with Tom D'Armi, director of games operations and facilities for the Athletic Department, to discuss whether the department will continue allowing students to sleep in Cameron, as it has in years past.
"If I give these grace periods, it is defeating the whole thing...," Cuthbertson said. "But it's kind of crazy to jeopardize campers' health for the health of the policy."
For the last several years, the craziest of the Crazies have returned to campus in early January to literally live out of their tents, knowing that once dormitories opened up, a forgiving policy and sympathetic line monitors would allow for a long, but relatively untaxing campout. This year, Cuthbertson strengthened the policy to prevent both the typical length and ease of the experience.
"When you make it a lot more difficult to be out there, then people ask, 'Do I really want to be out there that long? Is it really worth it to me?'" Cuthbertson explained. "It brought home how much time and effort go into tenting, and it worked."
Tent number 14 staked out its turf this weekend, but has elected to wait until the first 13 tents go up before it declares itself officially in line. Meant to honor its numbersake Nate James, the tent is occupied by the bone-carrying, dog-ear-wearing Nate's Dogg Pound, who have barked and bow-wowed from Cameron's front row for much of the year.
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