Eager to shirk party-school reputation, McMaster seeks outside insight

It happens every year.

University students make the journey back to school. Upon homecoming or fake homecoming," they party. Things get out of hand. Residents get angry. City councillors call for change.

And the next year, it happens all over again.

Can anything break the cycle? McMaster is trying to find out.

Sean Van Koughnett, McMaster University associate vice-president and dean of students, told The Spectator on Tuesday that he plans to speak with other universities next week - including those with more established party school" reputations - to ask how they've dealt with wild homecoming or fake homecoming" parties that have long-plagued some schools.

The quest for solutions comes in the wake of the 5,000-person party on Dalewood Avenue on Saturday. It was dubbed fake homecoming," held in place of an official homecoming, which was cancelled due to COVID.

This year's party seemed bigger and more destructive than years past, say residents. A car was flipped, glass bottles were thrown police's way, a cruiser was damaged, lawns were trashed and street signs were damaged. Van Koughnett said it was the worst he's seen in his eight years at McMaster. Residents who live in the area call it the worst ever. (Police, however, stand by their 20,000-person estimate for 2019, making that the biggest.)

Van Koughnett said McMaster is not a party school." He wants it to stay that way.

Street parties... have never reached the level of what's been happening for many years in Kingston and in London in particular and in Waterloo and even to an extent in Guelph," he said. I don't think one really bad street party means that we're in that same grouping. But we have to be concerned."

Some mitigation tactics he's seen other schools employ: scheduling overlapping homecomings with other schools to limit party-hopping outsiders; planning on-campus activities to lure students away from street parties; and fencing off notorious party streets - a Waterloo police tactic this year.

Van Koughnett acknowledges some efforts simply don't work" or are too dramatic."

Part of the solution has to lie with students themselves, frankly," he said. Peer pressure to act responsibly might work.

Either way, McMaster is under pressure from local homeowners - and city councillor Maureen Wilson - to take aggressive action. Wilson has called on the university to foot the taxpayer bill for cleanup and emergency response. She met with city officials Monday to share residents' concerns.

Backlash to homecoming blowouts is nothing new elsewhere.

In 2005, Queen's University made national headlines when a partygoers flipped a car and set it on fire. In 2007, police called in outside forces for backup, to a taxpayer-funded tune of nearly $500,000. The university then cancelled homecoming in 2008, bringing it back in 2012. But the hiatus didn't kill the party. In 2017, police laid 330 charges for violations such as open alcohol, underage drinking and public intoxication.

Queen's declined The Spec's request for an interview.

Residents in the Ainslie Wood area, where the Dalewood Avenue party took place, meanwhile, have mitigation ideas of their own.

Daphne Kilgour understands students want to have a good time. So if the party won't stop, she suggested the city or McMaster could set up porta-potties, deterring students from urinating on lawns and homes.

Resident Sonja Samek, who spent Saturday trying to keep rogue partiers out of her backyard, wants more of a police presence next year. Anyone breaking the law should be charged appropriately.

They're not afraid because there's no consequences," Samek said.

Residents feel McMaster and police abandoned them this year, she said. She's already bracing for next year. Her one semi-joking idea for how residents could better protect themselves: A six-foot fence ... electrified."

Katrina Clarke is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: katrinaclarke@thespec.com