Missy ([info]merisusa) wrote in [info]queens,
2005-09-26 20:39:00

Homecoming

So, if anyone has been watching the news tonight, they may have heard another rendition of what the media took away from our university's homecoming.

Yes, this year was worse than it has been in the past. There are even talks of them cancelling next year's homecoming due to what happened this past weekend.

No matter how much planning the police and the university did to prevent all of what happened, the situation still happened. I think the losing battle here is that the police do not want an Aberdeen street party happening in any way, but they need to realize it will happen regardless.

I know none of us want to lose the tradition of the Aberdeen party, so what kind of things would you think they should try to put in place for the party to occur?

How can we make an Aberdeen party safer for Kingston and for Queen's students and our friends?
Tags: homecoming

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  • 89 comments

[info]dragondare

September 27 2005, 01:04:36 UTC 6 years ago

I would love to see the university put on a street party up University (using the same area we use for the sidewalk sale). I think it would be pretty awesome to have a concert in Miller and a party going on down University.

Of course, I'm also realistic and don't think it would ever happen...

[info]flying_w

September 27 2005, 01:23:04 UTC 6 years ago

That is an awesome idea.

[info]youssarin

6 years ago

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[info]viveleroi

September 27 2005, 01:24:17 UTC 6 years ago

so what kind of things would you think they should try to put in place for the party to occur?

"they" shouldn't have to do anything. students should pull their thick heads out of their overprivileged asses and stop being morons, is what should happen.

[info]plette

September 27 2005, 01:54:56 UTC 6 years ago

At least I'm not the only one who thinks so.

[info]01536

6 years ago

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[info]visualpurple

September 27 2005, 01:26:10 UTC 6 years ago

Similar to the above idea, I think it'd be awesome if they set up the stage for the concert at William and Aberdeen. That would be...probably the coolest thing ever, especially if they kept getting good bands like Metric. It'd never happen, but it'd be amazing.

[info]bec31

September 27 2005, 01:42:58 UTC 6 years ago

banning any sort of car parking on aberdeen all weekend.
seriously. haha

[info]bluefishie

September 27 2005, 01:57:15 UTC 6 years ago

if an aberdeen party is going to be like this last year was, I don't even think we need it. The whole thing just felt dangerous and not in crazy fun way at all. There are a whole slew of things that need to be addressed - students inviting 12 friends from mcgill and ottawa u and carleton is one, perhaps. Maybe the permanent residents of kingston also need to watch their high school aged kids and perhaps see where they're going saturday night. There are just way too many people attending saturday night events, it's too famous, for a party on aberdeen to safely accomodate all of them. Imagine if we'd had to evacuate the street for some reason? Fucking mayhem. I don't even want to think about it.

[info]monkeybuttz

September 27 2005, 02:03:23 UTC 6 years ago

What I love hearing is the whole, wow only 20 people were acting up and they've made a bad name for all of us. So if you were one of the other 5,000 people there, why didn't you help the police out and get out of the way and GO HOME.

We are so lucky someone didn't die. Very, very lucky.

[info]marina___

September 28 2005, 02:03:31 UTC 6 years ago

I heard that two people died - a girl who broke her neck when she got hit by some vehicle, and a guy who got stabbed. But I guess it's just rumors

[info]slavik81

6 years ago

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[info]eerin

September 27 2005, 02:11:23 UTC 6 years ago

Keep in mind too that Aberdeen isn't a tradition. When I started in first year (I'm in 4th now), it wasn't common knowledge that Aberdeen was a crazy street party. Maybe people knew there were keggers, but no one expected a street party. Sure, there was an impromptu street party which led to everyone expecting it the next year, but it is NOT a tradition.

And now because of this "tradition" administration is seriously considering getting rid of homecoming entirely.
link to the Principal's statement

[info]dragondare

September 27 2005, 05:37:00 UTC 6 years ago

Yes, but before Aberdeen, there were parties on University and etc. It's not new for there to be street parties; it's just the location that has changed.

I don't think that they would ever completely cancel Homecoming - the unviersity relies on it too much to get those good 'ol feelings of school pride out, and with them, the chequebooks.

As an aside, I always find it interesting that the Kingston residential community always comes first in anything written by Karen Hitchcock. Maybe the students would respect you more if you didn't look at them as about the equivalent of slime on your shoe.

[info]eerin

6 years ago

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[info]siukong

6 years ago

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[info]eerin

6 years ago

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[info]siukong

6 years ago

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[info]slavik81

6 years ago

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[info]mink_stole

September 27 2005, 02:15:46 UTC 6 years ago

mmm...how about students stop being jackasses and take responsibility for their behaviour?

I was scandalized by what happened this year...and I sure as hell don't scandalize easy. As far as I'm concerned, the Queen's community doesn't deserve to have an aberdeen again. Ever.

I came to this decision on saturday night after dodging the tenth beer bottle being thrown from a balcony, and smelling the gas in the air as a car was destroyed. Enough is enough.

[info]chenry

September 27 2005, 03:02:09 UTC 6 years ago

win.

[info]jihad4dummies

September 27 2005, 02:40:00 UTC 6 years ago

Honestly, I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what happened, but from what I've read it sounds like there were some real fucking morons that ruined the entire thing for most of the people there. I don't know how many people were throwing bottles or involved in smashing up cars, but it was enough to justify the city banning the event next year.

Why should cops be expected to risk a beer bottle in the face just so a bunch of dumb rich 18 year olds can act like morons when mom and dad aren't looking?

[info]kb19

September 28 2005, 04:24:22 UTC 6 years ago

thanks for perpetuating the stereotype buddy!

[info]serendipitynow

September 27 2005, 02:56:43 UTC 6 years ago

It's an embarrassment. Students need to take responsibility for their own behaviour. It wasn't just a few who were acting like assholes, it was many. Everyone should be truly thankful that no one was seriously injured. Do these idiot students not realize that the cancellation of homecoming entirely, and the incidents of Saturday night, will more than likely result in greatly reduced alumni contributions? Come on, people, wake up and act like young adults and not like morons. And if any of you were in that photograph in the Toronto Star today, be prepared to be expelled. This is being discussed by those on the Principal's staff.

[info]mortonofski

September 27 2005, 05:08:35 UTC 6 years ago

One of the main problems here is that the guy in the front-page picture of both the Whig and the Toronto Star was a KCVI student (which opens another can of legal worms in and of itself).

[info]bluefishie

6 years ago

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[info]marina___

6 years ago

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[info]bluefishie

6 years ago

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[info]marina___

6 years ago

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[info]bluefishie

6 years ago

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[info]gaffthemedio

6 years ago

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[info]chenry

September 27 2005, 03:04:03 UTC 6 years ago

How can we make an Aberdeen party safer for Kingston and for Queen's students and our friends?

how about you all grow the hell up!

jesus.

[info]kb19

September 27 2005, 03:08:52 UTC 6 years ago

I agree with what eerin said. So many people are complaining about the car and how it has gone too far. HELLO do you not see you/we are taking part in a huge street party which is illegal? I myself was there and had a good time, but I went with the knowledge that the crowd will be rowdy, there is the potential for dangerous occurances or what not. This should not be a wake up call, the wake up call should have been when the street party first happened.
There is no way anyone there can possibly wash their hands of the situation. Every single person there contributed to the crowd/noise which in turn makes people do stupid things. Do you think if 5 people were outside drinking infront of a car they would feel compelled to tip it? Not a chance. So every person that was present shares some of the responsibility in what happened, myself included.
Yes the car rolling is bad and out of control, but isnt the projectile beer bottles, house damages and mass spectacle also out of control? How can everyone choose to draw the line in different places?
I feel I should add that I look forward to the Aberdeen spectacle every year....

[info]kerryblue19

September 27 2005, 03:17:49 UTC 6 years ago

Just to add to this, I dont think Aberdeen will be 'safe' until the party doesnt happen at all...

[info]mink_stole

6 years ago

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[info]tribalwaif

6 years ago

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[info]horseman_of_war

September 27 2005, 05:14:17 UTC 6 years ago

I also agree with eerin. 3 years ago, when I was a frosh, it was just a couple of keg parties on Aberdeen.. since then it's been a resonation of stronger and nastier occourances every year. And it totally isn't fair to the alumni, most of which probably just come back for friends and good memories, to cancel homecoming because a minority people decided it would be cool to flip a car, try to set it on fire, and screw with the cops.

At the same time, you do get into the mentality that it's 'something to see' (and apparently the 4500 odd people that were there and not really causing serious problems agreed).. just to say you experienced it... sort of like watching a train wreck or an accident on the highway, to be cliche. But as to trying to stop it, at least the police officers have protection. If you tried to stand up and say stop, you would most probably get a beer bottle to the face. And as to leaving, it's not like everyone stayed for the entire time... there was a hell of a lot of traffic in and out, probably due to all the broken glass.

That was the other crazy thing. We live near the corner of William and Division, where the paramedics set up one of their mobile posts. The amount of people we watched from our roof get treated for glass to the feet/hands/face was appalling. Drunk or not, it's a hell of a safety hazard for people to smash bottles on the street. And that, sadly, was caused by more than just that small minority. Bring nalgenes or something people! :S

Anyway, it is my last year here. At the same time, I want to be able to come back and see all the people that are going to spread out to do different stuff over the course of their lives. Cancelling homecoming will destroy that chance for me, my year, all the successive years after ours, plus all the years that have come before us until it's determined 'safe' to bring it back.

[info]iisabelle

September 27 2005, 18:42:42 UTC 6 years ago

Yeah, I can safely say I probably won't be going anywhere near Aberdeen next year, considering I was near William and Division at a friend's friend's, sitting on the lawn, when some waste of life decided to smash a beer bottle. A piece flew up and cut my head, and another piece injured my hand.

Then he and his friend made fun of me for being a girl, because apparently that means I can't do anything about it when I get hurt.

Deleted comment

[info]lougheed

September 27 2005, 15:09:05 UTC 6 years ago

Full old, crusty and annoyed agreement.

[info]siukong

September 27 2005, 05:33:42 UTC 6 years ago

People will never stop being stupid. Hopefully most of them will be slightly less stupid in the future, though.

[info]three_phase

September 27 2005, 05:45:39 UTC 6 years ago

The solution right there...

Remember, how do you suck the fun out of any event? Embrace it. If the university allowed the party to take place by licensing the street for an open-air mardi-grad type celebration, the result would be a far more docile version of this year's party. It would take away much of the problems associated with the street party:

(a) bottles - if the event was licensed and beer (at cost) was provided, there would be no reason for people to bring slews of glass bottles which could be thrown or smashed on the ground
(b) alcohol poisoning - people feel the necessity to get retarded hammered before coming to aberdeen, basically because they know they probably wont be able to carry enough to get really drunk later
(c) retarded people - again, giving people the opportunity to purchase beer from vending stations on the street would reduce the number of drunk people being fed even more beer until the point of irrational behaviour
(d) stu-cons are our peers - the attitude of 'fuck the police' is rather prevalent, and it's much more tolerable to hear from someone your age, 'dude you've had a few too many, take it easy' than to have a condescending cop ticket you.

Legalize it...and you'd tone the whole thing right down. Cancelling homecoming is simply not a option for the university. Such an action would lose 3 million in direct revenues from the weekend for merchants, not to mention the affect it may have on alumni donations. In other words, the administration is full of shit...homecoming isn't going anywhere. Anyway, some preliminary thoughts on the matter.

[info]heraclitus

September 27 2005, 06:58:24 UTC 6 years ago

This is the most reasonable proposal in the thread, though I am doubtful that it will work.

[info]viveleroi

6 years ago

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[info]spusan

September 27 2005, 06:23:09 UTC 6 years ago

I'm only in 3rd year, but I remember in my first year there was no huge Aberdeen thing. There were keggers at a lot of places, but nothing like the mass police presence and violence/chaos of recent years.

It all started (I feel) last year when the police decided to publicly declare they will increase their presence and shut it down, etc. And since then it's gotten worse.

Our generation is the generation of little causes. We've got the racial movements & suffrage & the draft out of the way and while most of us oppose the war in Iraq, it's too distant for us to truly give a fuck. Therefore some restless teens think this is it, the police are the enemy and this is their anthem. Which is so stupid. Go volunteer at a soup kitchen or something.

This makes me glad I was completely passed out by 11 in my comfy bed and had no part in any of this.

Whose car was it? Did anyone find out?

[info]bluefishie

September 27 2005, 14:42:24 UTC 6 years ago

a stolen car

http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=127228&catname=Local+News&classif=News+Alert

[info]spusan

6 years ago

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[info]bluefishie

6 years ago

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[info]silverwind9

September 27 2005, 07:40:14 UTC 6 years ago

As one of the people who had to take care of the stupidly drunk during Homecoming (not that those people are by nature, just that they're stupid when drunk--though that begs the question to how they got to that stupidly drunk stage in the first place) and I must say that I'd be happier on a whole if some sort of extreme crackdown/rule was enforced Homecoming weekend. Honestly, the number of responsible drinkers I saw last weekend I could count on one hand, and none of the frosh showed me that they should be allowed to (even with the law put aside) be twenty metres near any alcoholic substance.

Ban all alcoholic substances from residence that weekend (not that there are that many people who are actually allowed to have them in the first place), record down all the terribly intoxicated idiot level drunks and impose fines, or if we can't do any of that, issue cameras to sober people and play a 'Weekend's Stupidest Individuals' reel, combined with statistics (# of pukings, etc, etc).

You can probably tell how happy I was regarding drunk people this weekend.

[info]blufromage

September 27 2005, 12:15:32 UTC 6 years ago

i honestly think that the best thing for the cops to do would be to not be on aberdeen at all...if they were stationed in the area, but not at the scene, the students would be fine, or at least more fine than they were...the cops/school made such a big deal about how they were going to crack down on the students that they took it as a challenge and thus it was rowdier than it need to have been. I think it would have been fine had they done this...it's impossible to stop it from happening...6000 drunk people vs. 179 cops who really can't do much aren't good odds....

[info]sherbear82

September 27 2005, 13:45:57 UTC 6 years ago

I agree, but it's such an immature way for students to look at it. It's comparable to a ten year old wanting to do something only because mommy and daddy said they couldn't. Queen's students act as adults when they want to (they live by themselves, after first year they cook their own meals, no one tells them to clean up or do their homework) but still feel the need to rebel? Come on.

[info]jihad4dummies

6 years ago

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[info]laurajay

September 27 2005, 16:11:03 UTC 6 years ago

Homecoming should be about the alumni first. We need to show the alumni more respect...this weekend is for them, not for us. We should want them to have a good weekend and get a good impression of the current students at Queen's. The purpose of homecoming should not be upstaged by a street party that the alumni (the vast majority of them anyways) don't attend.

[info]bluefishie

September 27 2005, 16:32:46 UTC 6 years ago

seriously. I mean we had grads from the 1930s here this weekend...and yet, all students act as if homecoming is just for them. And the Office of Advancement, which is actually ridiculously busy planning reunion events for returning classes, has to put extra work into planning ways to keep spoiled students, who think everything is for them, from ruining the whole weekend.

excuse the run on.

[info]jimmyintime

6 years ago

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[info]mac_k_i_nn_o_n

September 27 2005, 19:46:58 UTC 6 years ago

Does anyone know what will happen to the students who got arrested/charged/their picture taken on the car?

[info]serendipitynow

September 27 2005, 21:52:14 UTC 6 years ago

Various academic penalties are being considered, including expulsion.

[info]the_space_race

September 27 2005, 20:34:00 UTC 6 years ago

A couple of things:

Does anyone else get the feeling that this "issue" (homecoming, aberdeen) is diversionary and serves to veil other problems in this city (at least for the time being)? A 23-year-old woman was killed by her live-in-boyfriend this weekend but the newspaper column inches and CKWS coverage of this story were fractional when compared to the homecoming stuff. I'm not suggesting that what occurred on aberdeen doesn't require some sort of debate or action, but there are bigger problems here.

And, tangential to that, it seems like the kind of language used in coverage of homecoming ("riot", "war zone", "drunken rampage", "drunken street brawl") tends to sensationalize the event, and also glosses over some of the underlying problems. I know, practically speaking, this is about homecoming...but it also speaks to a bunch of other things, including (but not limited to) 1) the university's problematic relationship with this city (and the way that economics and class are tied up in that relationship), 2) the transitory/temporary role of students in this city and the "tourist" mentality that seems to override any connection to the community, etc, etc. Thoughts?

[info]kb19

September 27 2005, 21:50:11 UTC 6 years ago

Great post. I am thinking the same thing. The MEDIA is referring to this as a STREET BRAWL. I for one did not see one fight break out, or havent heard about one fight taking place, but nonetheless, does one fight constitute a STREET BRAWL?

It seems that no one wants to admit that Kingston is in fact a scuzzy town and that I would rather be on campus late at night than north of princess. The town folk dont care about public offenders/convicts residing closeby, but are feeling the rage from a bunch of undergrads who drink too much and congregate on one crazy night of the year? We did not rape anyone, rob anyone (save the stolen car that ended up on aberdeen) and no one was murdered. It goes to show you how sensible these residents of ours, in fact are.

It seems that the first millisecond the kingston community complains about one issue or another, hitchcock sides with them faster than you can say...aberdeen. Hitchcock needs some sort of student committee to actually advise her on ways to get people off of Aberdeen. I mean Metric and Billy Talent, BILLY TALENT. Yes Metric is a great band, but how many people will give up a party on Aberdeen to go see them. The need some big bands, like some Rolling Stones shit, or someone like...Prince? haha no way. But Billy Talent? It feels like part of the show was geared to an angsty muchmusic crowd. I dont think alot of us have much angst anymore seeing as we are not TEENAGERS. My sister who is in grade 10 could do a better job putting together bands that will attract alumni and students alike.

As a final point, in response to the post I am replying to, I wonder what all the kingston residents would say if they were to be presented with financial reports of how much money we inject into their piece of shit economy. How alot of the businesses only survive because of us or experience a boom in their sales as a direct result of students coming back to kingston. Ask many store owners, adn they would say that they look forward to the students coming back to kingston. So BAH IN YOUR FACE KINGSTON RESIDENTS.

/end rant

[info]bluefishie

6 years ago

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[info]rgscarter

6 years ago

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[info]bluefishie

6 years ago

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[info]rgscarter

6 years ago

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[info]kb19

6 years ago

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[info]jimmyintime

6 years ago

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[info]jimmyintime

September 28 2005, 04:34:41 UTC 6 years ago

Mom and Dad are looking though. People forget, but the public is watching us here. when we do stupid things, when we fuck up, they see that.

look at any major media outlet in the region.
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