Queen’s University’s first week of the school year began tumultuously as an estimated 2,000 students decided to take their party to a main thoroughfare going through Queen’s, the Queen’s Journal reported.

Police shut down University Avenue on the night of Sept. 6 as students flooded onto the street. Many of the students were visibly drunk, underage, or carrying alcohol in public, Kingston police tweeted on Sept. 7.

The Queen’s Journal reported a beer bottle hit a marked cruiser, but the large crowd of students was relatively calm otherwise that night.

Smaller disruptions continued until Sept. 9, according to Kingston police’s Twitter account.

Queen’s principal and vice-chancellor Daniel Woolf sent out an email Sept. 10 condemning the behaviour of students throughout the week.

“There is no tolerance for this kind of dangerous behaviour at Queen’s or in Kingston,” he wrote.

Woolf said the bad behaviour of some students would only serve as an impetus for continuing to cancel Queen’s homecoming. He also called on upper-year students to set a positive example for newer students.

Emmy Williams, a first-year Queen’s student, said partying has been happening consistently in and around the school since she has arrived.

“There have been parties every night since move in day,” she said. “A few guys ran down the street naked, people have been sitting on roofs . . . A woman’s car was damaged by drunk students and there have been a number of students hospitalized.”

Williams said some students decided to clean up garbage and raise money for a women who had her car damaged.

“It is important to stress that it is a very small minority that have participated in these events,” she said.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR