Last spring, we realized it was time to kill the walk up line. Now, six months later, we’re here to tell you that the Carolina walk-up line is dead.
We’ll be the first to tell you: Krzyzewskiville is a magical place. So is Cameron. They bring together incredibly disparate parts of our campus in a tradition that dates back three decades, to some scraggly tents and rogue students trying to get the best seats to watch Carolina go to Hell.
K-Ville is, and always will be, our greatest breeding ground for deep late-night conversations about life, the kind that make our academic struggles worth it. K-Ville brings Duke students together in profound and unparallelled ways.
Last year, and for many years really, that spirit has been dampened in the rainy nights and gameday chaos of the Carolina walk-up line.
For those who are unfamiliar, the Carolina walk-up line has historically allowed students to pair up with one other student for two days, in order to get into the UNC game without tenting. Last year, it devolved into a drunken mob. Plenty of students arrived into the stadium in tears, terrified by the ordeal they had just gone through. Line monitors had death threats thrown at them, and many students were nearly trampled. The environment was unsafe, and the behavior displayed by a portion of the line was inconsistent with the values and community we hold dear as Duke students.
The nights of walk-up line were not much different. Groups of students, after drinking to their heart’s desire, trashed the same areas where they would later have to sleep, making plenty of students feel unsafe along the way.
If we love K-Ville, and I know so many of us do, we must also embrace change to make it as safe and as functional as possible. That’s why there will be no UNC walk-up line this year.
As line monitors, we hope to instill two core values in our community: spirit and inclusivity. Say what you will, but we know that the Carolina walk-up line greatly diminished the enthusiasm of those entering the UNC game last year, and its drunken, dangerous culture can in no way be labelled inclusive.
That does not mean that less students will attend the Carolina game. Instead, pending DSG approval, we will add a specified number of Flex tents. These tents will operate under all of the same rules as White Tents; they will have groups of 12, with two people sleeping in them at night and one during the day. They will have to go to tent checks and personal checks alike. They will not be guaranteed admission into the Carolina game (as walk-up line has been in past years), but we expect we will be able to get most, if not all, of the Flex tenters into Cameron to taunt Luke Maye and Nasir Little to their heart’s desire.
At the end of the day, we value Section 17 more than anything else on this campus. We love the Cameron Crazies, and the community we get to take part in as line monitors. And we know that the only way to keep this a safe, inclusive and spirited community is to get rid of the walk-up line. We look forward to a tenting season with more tents than ever before.
In the meantime, let’s start preparing for our non-conference schedule, and, as always, we’ll be keeping our #SightsonSix.
Steve Hassey and Peter Potash are co-head line monitors and Trinity seniors.
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