Editorial: Don't change K-ville

Head Line Monitor Jeremy Morgan and Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta have been considering changes to tenting in Krzyzewskiville. However, changes to the tenting process are unnecessary and the problems that arose this year are largely the result of the basketball schedule, not inherent problems with K-ville.

The discussions about possible changes to K-ville have been prompted by student complaints that the tenting period is too long, which some argue prevents casual Cameron Crazies from tenting. However, "casual Cameron Crazy" is a contradiction in terms, and casual fans do not deserve an easier tenting process.

Cameron Crazies who really want to get the best seats for the games versus the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Maryland will be willing to tent for a long period. Those fans who are less willing to tent can start tenting later on; indeed, new tents can be added up until only a few days before the game. Even more casual fans will generally be able to get into the game via a walk-up line.

The premise behind the current tenting policy is that those students who most desire to get into the game and are willing to sacrifice the most in terms of time spent tenting should get better seats.

Students who really want to go to basketball games should be allowed to pitch their tents whenever they want. Whether they want to start tenting at the beginning of spring semester, during Christmas break, or even before Christmas break should be irrelevant to policy makers like Morgan and Moneta. If the students decide that the basketball game is a high enough priority for them to tent for a long time, they should be allowed to and should be rewarded for their dedication.

The current system allows both die-hard tenters to tent and be rewarded and casual fans to either tent for a short period of a few days or to even get into games via the walk-up line.

Admittedly, this year's tenting was a very difficult process, but this is because the UNC game did not occur until early February and the Maryland game occurred only a couple weeks later. Hard-core tenters had to tent through all of January and did not get a break between the games. Different schedules for the games will make the difficulty of tenting vary from year to year, but tenters still choose to tent and choose the duration of their tenting, and this freedom of choice for tenters should not be taken away.

Most importantly, though, any change to the tenting system should come from Duke Student Government, line monitors and the tenters themselves. Student Affairs should have at most minimal involvement in the discussion about tenting and Moneta should have no influence in the final decision. Tenting has been, and should remain, a student-run system that rewards the most dedicated fans, and should not be subsumed under Student Affairs's bureaucracy.