Beginning this year, Queen’s University will donate a sum of $100,000 for three consecutive years to the City of Kingston to help pay for policing during its annual homecoming event, the university principal Daniel Woolf announced.
This year’s homecoming was divided into two weekends in October. It drew attention after a series of tweets by Kingston Mayor Mark Gerretsen criticized the inconveniences it caused to the city and the university’s handling of it.
“@queensprincipal I am standing at William and Aberdeen. I have two words for you: NOT GOOD,” one of the tweets stated.
But Gerretsen said “Queen’s contribution toward city policing costs demonstrates the strong relationship between the university and the city.”
“Queen’s is an important community partner and we continue to work together on community safety for all residents, particularly when we welcome alumni back to Kingston,” Gerretsen said.
Woolf said resources were exhausted by the city during homecoming.
“There are some instances throughout the year—including but not limited to our first Homecoming weekend—where resources that far exceed the norm are required of our local police force to help keep the Queen’s community, and the greater Kingston community, safe. These resources come with a cost,” Woolf said in a statement.
“Too many people were gathered in the near-campus neighbourhood on the first Homecoming weekend, demanding considerable resources from our local police force.”
Kingston Police inspector Brian Cookman, who serves as a liaison between Queen’s and the police force, said disruption to the city was not particularly bad this year.
“I have seen much, much worse, but I wish, like others, that it had been quieter on the Saturday night of the first weekend,” Cookman said.
In terms of staffing, Cookman said the police force was able to provide coverage without any impact on Kingston’s regular service.
“Generally, the people in attendance in and around the neighbourhoods bordering the university were cooperative and respectful, so not too much was required from us,” he said.
Cookman said police don’t work on their own for homecoming, as it already receives support from the heads of many city departments, the principal of Queen’s and his staff, the university’s campus security, emergency services, student union, and hospital representatives.
After homecoming was banned in 2008 for extreme partying, Queen’s student union vice-president (university affairs) Thomas Pritchard said the union worked hard to ensure the event would continue.
“Both weekends, student volunteers alongside our Student Maintenance and Resource Team went out early Sunday morning to clean up the university district,” he said. “Further . . . we developed our ‘Let’s Not Fuck it Up’ campaign.”
He said the student union executive met with the mayor regarding his reaction to homecoming.
“We made it clear that while we understand that improvements still need to happen, the number of persons frequenting Aberdeen was significantly lower than the last official Homecoming and we viewed that as a positive sign and something we should work to reinforce,” Pritchard said.
Pritchard said the sum of money Queen’s plans to contribute to the city is bothering.
“We’re obviously concerned about an expenditure of student money that does not go towards the core missions of the university,” he said.
