All Posts Tagged With: "Town and Gown"
Ottawa slaps moratorium on monster houses
Neighbours worry about 16 students next door
The house on Aylmer Ave. Jane Lytvynenko
A single-family dwelling in Ottawa is in the process of being converted to a three-storey monster house for 16 people. The home on Aylmer Ave., near Carleton University, will likely house students.
That project will go ahead, but in a surprise move on April 30, the city approved a temporary bylaw banning new applications for such conversions in the areas around Carleton and the University of Ottawa. The law could last up to a year, giving the city time to decide on new standards.
The sudden moratorium on new monster houses shows the tension between neighbours in single-family homes and the growing number of Ottawa post-secondary students looking for housing in their peaceful neighbourhoods.
Russ and Barbara Williams live next door to the new building on Aylmer and share a driveway with the home. They have lived in their house for 33 years and have never seen more than five or six people occupy the nearly knocked-down residence. Having as many as 16 people next door will be hard to manage, they say. The new building is just three metres away from their house. Barbara works as a nurse and is often on-call or going to work at 5:30 a.m. She worries that sharing a driveway with 16 others will mean a hassle every time she needs her car. Because garbage pickup is twice per month, trash piling up could also be an issue.
Kristen Campbell, a recent graduate from Carleton University, has shared a townhouse with five other students. “Depending on my own situation and what I needed at the time, I may have considered it,” she says of living in such a huge house. While she says sharing space with so many people is not an ideal situation, she could see why some students would opt to move in.
Bree Rody-Mantha, a recent university graduate, says she lived with six other people in a space meant for four and, after that experience, would not consider renting a bedroom in a converted home this size unless it was guaranteed to be clean and have bathroom access. “The fact is, the more people there are in [a small] space, the more mess there will be, the angrier people will be.”
Barbara Williams, the Aylmer resident, stresses that the issue with the house is not who its occupants may be, but the high number of bodies in such a small space. There were as many as six students sharing that space in the past and there were no issues, but 16 may be another story.
“It could turn out just fine, too,” she adds, but she still hopes the new bylaw will give the city a chance to seek public opinion and address issues like garbage, noise and parking space.
Jane Lytvynenko studies at the University of Ottawa and reports for the Canadian University Press.
Enough with the NIMBY neighbours in Guelph
Opinion: high-density housing near campus makes sense
Guelph classroom photo by Andrew Tolson
A developer hoping to provide students with much-needed housing directly across from the entrance to the University of Guelph got tired of waiting for the city to decide on its proposal.
Abode Varsity Living was so tired, in fact, that it appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board to make the decision instead, reports the Guelph Mercury.
Good for the developer, I say. The site at the corner of Gordon St. and Stone Rd., a five minute walk to the University Centre, couldn’t be a better place to build a large student housing complex.
High-density housing near campus is much better for students than low-density suburbia, which is the increasingly common option in Guelph. Besides, the needs of 20,000 students should trump the demands of roughly 20 NIMBY neighbours.
U de M’s future neighbours upset over second campus
Residents of bordering area say they were left out of public consultations
Community groups in the Montreal neighbourhood of Parc-Extension are upset after the City of Montreal approved zoning changes which will allow construction of a new Université de Montréal campus to go ahead.
The university, the second largest in Canada, says it needs to expand. But with a large cemetery on one side and a residential neighbourhood along the others, the school says there’s no more room on or around its campus.
In 2006, the university purchased an old rail yard in the borough of Outremont, where it intends to build a second campus. The city’s office of public consultations held several sessions and the borough has also held its own information sessions.
But residents in the neighbouring area of Parc-Extension say that because the majority of public consultations were held in Outremont, they haven’t been heard
They’re concerned because the proposed site runs along the border between Outremont and the borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension. So, even though parts of the campus will literally be across the street from Parc-Extension, the residents of Outremont have had more say.
The big problem is that Outremont and Parc-Extension are very different neighbourhoods and the residents have very different concerns about the project. While Outremont is relatively wealthy, Parc-Extension has a high population of immigrants and lower rents.
The main concern in Outremont is that the development will increase traffic, though much of the neighbourhood seems rather apathetic about the project.
In Parc-Extension, the concerns are a little more serious. Some residents are worried that an influx of students will push rents up and drive them out. They’re also worried that local businesses won’t be able to compete with businesses that move into the area to serve students.
The project has the support of Montreal’s Mayor, Gérald Tremblay, whose Union Montreal party has a majority on City Council. So, as long as U de M is able to secure funding for the development, it’s highly unlikely that the city will get in the way.
The next step for the city is the creation of an urban development plan for the campus and surrounding area, which Tremblay has said will include social housing. The creation and approval of that plan will involve further public consultations.
Town beats gown
Supreme court rules against Oshawa students
It’s after midnight on a Friday in November and two people are sitting on the porch of a house in a college town in Pennsylvania, waiting. They don’t have to wait long. After five minutes a group of loud drunk students stumble by, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are passing bedroom windows long after most people’s bedtime. Five minutes later another group passes, and a student throws a pizza plate onto a front lawn. A little later, at the sound of a noisy crash, our observers rush to the back alley and find two students dropkicking metal trashcans.
The observers have just returned to the porch when a loud scraping begins coming from the alley, a sound which one observer—who lives in the house—immediately identifies as someone dragging a street sign. Sure enough, upon investigation, they discover two men with a seven-foot stop sign. When they return to the front yard, three young women are crouched in a bush, their skirts hiked up, peeing. From the moment the two people began their observation to when they chased the pissing students away, only 35 minutes have passed.
To most people living in most neighbourhoods, this scene probably seems exceptional. Radio producers Sarah Koenig, who lives in the house, and Ira Glass, recorded and broadcast their encounters with drunken students on the show This American Life (which happens to be my favourite podcast), which took place in a town called State College where Pennsylvania State University is located. And while Penn State was voted America’s number one party school this year in online surveys conducted by the Princeton Review, residents living near university campuses from Kamloops to Antigonish deal with similar late night philandering and “town-and-gown” conflicts, a term coined by academics. These conflicts have been plaguing communities all over the world as long as universities have existed—one of the earliest documented when a three-day riot broke out in Oxford in 1355 over a dispute about beer, and left 62 people dead.
Canada, of course, has its fair share of town-and-gown conflicts. Perhaps the most famous party school north of the 49th is Queen’s University, where in 2005 the annual homecoming party turned into a full-scale riot; outnumbered police were pelted with beer bottles, a car was flipped and set on fire and there was extensive vandalism. This year, the homecoming party was cancelled.
Oshawa’s anti-student housing bylaw: complete failure
newsdurhamregion.com ran a story today on the failure of Oshawa’s controversial anti-student housing bylaw. As predicted, the bylaw has created a student housing crisis with only 11 houses near the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham College being approved by the city. The city received 201 license applications, however, they only approved 11 [...]
newsdurhamregion.com ran a story today on the failure of Oshawa’s controversial anti-student housing bylaw.
As predicted, the bylaw has created a student housing crisis with only 11 houses near the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham College being approved by the city.
The city received 201 license applications, however, they only approved 11 licenses.
It is estimated that over 500 rental houses are located near the university and 2,500 students are currently residing in those houses.
With an estimated 300 landlords ignoring the bylaw, the city is facing a problem.
With thousands of students living in illegal houses facing eviction, the city is considering granting another reprieve from the full brunt of the bylaw. The student union is demanding a guarantee that students will not be removed from their houses during the school year. On the other side, local resident homeowners are opposed to any reprieve.
During the rush to pass the anti-student housing bylaw, the City of Oshawa was repeatedly warned of the consquences of their actions and told they were creating a housing crisis. Surprise, the housing crisis is here and once again, the City seems to be rushing to find a band-aid to cover up its own poor planning.
While the city considers a reprieve, the local developer Tribune Homes and some resident homeowners are threatening further legal action to force the city to enforce the bylaw.
The spread of anti-student bylaws
Will Hamilton be smart enough to avoid Oshawa’s misguided, anti-student moves?
Last year, the City of Oshawa launched what I consider to be an anti-student campaign which began with a series of municipal law enforcement raids to harass students. These cumulated in the passing of Canada’s strongest anti-student housing bylaw.
This year, many other communities are looking at passing similar bylaws in an attempt to solve their “student problem.” One of these communities is my hometown, and current place of residence, Hamilton, Ontario. Hamilton enjoys the presence of two post-secondary institutions: McMaster University and Mohawk College.
Both institutions have large student populations and, surprise, many of these students prefer to live within walking distance of schools. This practical decision does not sit well with older residents of the communities surrounding the schools who prefer their suburban vision of the neighbourhood to the campus town vision of the students.
As the number of students at both schools has increased, there have been more encounters between the two groups and tensions have grown.
The non-student residents, or “permanent residents” as they prefer to call themselves, want a bylaw which will decrease the number of students living in “their” community.
Thankfully, Hamilton is not Oshawa and I very much doubt that a similar bylaw will pass here. At the very least, the worse practices of the Oshawa process will not be repeated here.
There will be no police raids, no ignoring of student opinion, and less of the blatant anti-student behaviour of Oshawa.
Brian McHattie, the city councillor representing the neighbourhoods surrounding McMaster, is actively engaging student opinion. He has formed a committee to look at the issue with students holding the majority of the committee seats.
Hopefully, Hamilton will not pass a bylaw similar to Oshawa’s. Right now, Oshawa is in the middle of a major student housing crisis and many students hold negative feelings towards the city. Considering the importance of knowledge workers to the economic health of a city, I hope the City of Hamilton is more wiser than Oshawa and continues to welcome young people to the city.
I wrote a solid opinion piece for The Silhouette on the topic last week. You can read it online.
RELATED: Students versus the world, Sept. 20, 2007
UPDATE: Councillor McHattie and I are discussing the issue on The Silhouette website here.
You may be second-class but you can sit at the table
John Wigle, President of the Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association of Resident Homeowners Inc. says he group welcomes students in a letter to the editor of The Hamilton Spectator.
John Wigle, President of the Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association of Resident Homeowners Inc. says he group welcomes students in a letter to the editor of The Hamilton Spectator.
Continue reading You may be second-class but you can sit at the table
Michigan State suspends six students after riot
Police were pelted with bottles, rocks
Six Michigan State University students have been suspended following what police characterized as a riot near campus last weekend, the school said Wednesday.
The students, who weren’t identified, violated a disorderly conduct policy, the school said. The students were suspended pending resolution of their cases, but can petition for reinstatement, it said. Of 11 cases referred to the school so far, seven have been reviewed for possible interim suspension. Six students were suspended and one wasn’t.
The school defines a riot as five or more people acting together to intentionally or recklessly create a serious risk of causing “public terror or alarm.” A party involving 3,000 to 4,000 people was broken up by tear gas after police were pelted with bottles and rocks early Sunday. The event was held at Cedar Village, a student housing complex bordering the northeast side of campus.
University spokesman Terry Denbow, citing privacy concerns, didn’t say if the suspended students were among 28 students who were arrested after the disturbance.
Of the 52 students and non-students arrested, 38 face disorderly conduct charges. Others face misdemeanour traffic, drug, alcohol and noise charges. Police also have issued dozens of tickets related to the party.
- with a report from AP
The Oshawa housing battle continues
At least one person isn’t happy that a ‘student apartment’ building will be located near UOIT
A group calling itself “concerned Niagara citizens” is distributing a flyer complaining about a proposed apartment building for students.
Apparently there is at least one individual who is not satisfied that students are being driven out of the neighbourhoods surrounding the University of Ontario Institute of Technology by the city’s new student housing bylaw. (The city says the bylaw is not actually targeting students.)
Now, they must be kept from living near the community. (The apartment building will be located on a main street near the campus. The community borders the campus.)
Do these people realize how great a place they live?
Their biggest problem is an influx of educated young people – there are communities that would pretty much sell their soul to the devil to have this “problem.”
Here’s the other thing I don’t get in a lot of these “town and gown” fights – the areas surrounding universities have high property values. The people who move into these areas are making above average wages, many of them are professionals. These means they went to university – why is it they are surprised to learn that universities have students and that students live near universities.
Common sense folks!
Oshawa students encouraged to file human rights complaints against city
Ontario’s chief human rights commissioner warns City of Oshawa about new housing bylaw
The student association representing students at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham College is encouraging students to file human rights complaints against the City of Oshawa after a city committee passed a bylaw which will restrict student housing in the area surrounding the UOIT/DC campus.
The new proposed bylaw would limit the number of bedrooms within rental houses in the area surrounding the university to four, regardless of the size of the house. Landlords will have to pay a $250 per bedroom annual licensing fee and carry increased insurance. The policy change has is the result of a nasty year of town-and-gown conflicts that culminated with police raids on student housing in the fall.
"Mayor Gray and the Oshawa City Council haven’t listened to a word that students have said. Now they have declared student renters to be second-class community members and we will have to follow by-law regulations that other Oshawa citizens do not," said Fraser McArthur, president of Durham College and University of Ontario Institute of Technology Students’ Association.
The Canadian Federation of Students opposes the bylaw and is concerned that similar bylaws will be passed by other Ontario cities with large student populations.
"Imposing unreasonable restrictions will result in fewer affordable rental units available and new landlord fees and inspection costs will be downloaded onto student renters," said Jen Hassum, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario. "By driving up the rental costs and reducing housing options in student neighbourhoods, it looks like the Oshawa City Council is trying to run students out of town. From where students stand, this looks like blatant discrimination."
Ontario’s chief human rights commissioner Barbara Hall weighed in on the bylaw. In an open letter sent to the editor of the Toronto Star prior to this week’s vote, Hall warned the City of Oshawa to reconsider its bylaw. "I urge Oshawa City Council members to look closely at what has been proposed, to apply a sound city-wide planning rationale, and to consider the human rights impact of its decision," Hall stated in her letter.
The UOIT/DC students association has taken the letter has an indication that human rights complaints against the city for age discrimination will be successful and has begun the process of filing complaints on behalf of students.
The bylaw will be formally passed by Oshawa City Council on February 18.
Related stories:
Students versus the world, Sept. 20, 2007
Police raid student houses in Oshawa, Oct. 31, 2007
Oshawa may charge student-area landlords up to $1000 annual fee, Jan. 4, 2008
Oshawa Council backs down on controversial housing bylaw, Jan. 16, 2008
Oshawa moves closer to removing students near university, Jan. 23, 2007
Oshawa moves closer to removing students near university
Bylaw targetting students will leave 500 homeless according to student association
The city of Oshawa has moved one step closer to enacting a controversial housing bylaw that would leave hundreds of students without a place to live. On Monday the city’s development services committee approved the bylaw for city council consideration.
The new regulations would limit the number of bedrooms in houses, close to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham College, to four, and place restrictions to keep bedrooms from comprising more than 40 per cent of total floor space.
The official goal of the bylaw is to control “density.”
Councillor John Neal, who represents the ward where UOIT is located, says the proposed bylaw does not go far enough. He wants restrictions placed on the number of houses that can be rented in the area, as well as laws requiring a set distance between rental houses. “This will bring the neighbourhood back to what it should be, what it was . . . it was quiet,” says Neal.
Students and the University both feel that the bylaw is unfairly targeting students. The university sent out a news release prior to Monday’s meeting stating that it fully supported the position of the students’ association against the bylaw.
The bylaw is the first in Ontario designed to restrict students from living in an area near a university. Many other university towns such as London and Hamilton are looking to pass similar restrictions on student housing.
The city of Oshawa denies that it is targeting students.
Read background story Oshawa Council backs down on controversial housing bylaw
Joey Coleman: Liveblogging the Oshawa meeting
Oshawa may charge student-area landlords up to $1000 annual fee
Mayor says residents want to get rid of all students
“Nothing short of getting rid of all students will appease local residents,” John Gray, mayor of Oshawa, said Friday. His city is dealing with town-and-gown conflicts between students and residents that culminated in police raids on student housing this fall and now a proposed new bylaw.
“All three groups are not happy,” Gray said, referring to the situation in the neighbourhoods surrounding the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham College. The area has been the target of a blitz to enforce noise and parking bylaws.
The new proposed bylaw would limit the number of bedrooms within rental houses in the area surrounding the university to four, regardless of the size of the house. Landlords will have to pay a $250 per bedroom annual licensing fee and carry increased insurance. The bylaw will be debated by city council on January 16.
The move follows months of tension in the community that led the city to impose interim control bylaws, preventing renovating properties for rental purposes, and to execute search warrants looking for leases and cancelled cheques.
Police and city officials raided 17 houses being rented by students in September. One Durham College student returned from school to find police officers, a fire marshal, and a building inspector searching her personal possessions. A locksmith had picked the locks to her rental home to gain access. Her roommate was awakened from a nap when the officials entered her bedroom to search.
Students were given no notice of the searches and houses were entered whether or not the students were at home. One student said officers searched his home for three hours, overturning his mattress and going through all of his roommate’s personal papers to try to find a lease agreement.
Fraser McArthur, president of the students’ union at UOIT/Durham, is disappointed in the proposed bylaw. “There is nothing that we were looking for in it,” he said. “Sure they consulted us by did they actual listen … looking at the document, it does not seem they did.”
McArthur wonders where students will live next year and how they will find affordable housing when many large homes will only have four bedrooms when they presently have six to nine. With a four-bedroom house paying the city $1000 a year for licensing plus the cost of insurance, McArthur figures that students will be unable to afford to live in the area.
City councillor Louise Parkes, who chairs the committee considering the bylaw, says that the city has to act to deal with an “infiltration of students into the community.”
“We have to address the health and safety issues, many of these houses have been renovated without licenses or inspection,” she said. “Some of the construction even happened at night. … Unfortunately, I guess there wasn’t proper planning [when the university was built] to address student housing.”
Parkes and Grey both say the city does not want to create a housing crisis with the bylaw and has been working to encourage development of apartment buildings for students.
In an interview last fall after the police raids, Mayor Grey was quoted as saying, the warrants were obtained as part of an investigation into alleged fire and building code violations. “This is absolutely not targeting students,” he told the Durham Region News.
But not everyone saw it that way. The University of Ontario Institute of Technology student newspaper published an editorial entitled, “Officials are in denial in regards to students complaints of discrimination.” The article pointed out that the crack down on housing bylaws is only happening in one neighbourhood of Oshawa: the rental area surrounding Durham College and UOIT campuses.
“It’s systematic discrimination against students,” one student told the Durham Region News. “We have exactly the same rights to live here as anyone else, but you don’t see the police knocking on the door of a family that has lived here for three or four years.”
A University of Western Ontario law professor told the Western Gazette, "In my 10 years of practicing criminal law, I’ve never seen search warrants executed for such a purpose," Jason Voss said. “If the search was to look for lease agreements, then I would wonder why the police wouldn’t search the home of the landlord rather than the tenant."
Oshawa’s proposed licensing regime may not go far enough for some city councillors. Mayor Grey expects that some politicians will call for a ban on student houses being close to each other. Grey says that such a move will not solve anything and would be wrong. “I am truly trying to create a safe community for everyone, homeowners and students, to live in.”
The licensing bylaw will be the first in Ontario under recent changes to municipal laws passed by the provincial government. Mayor Grey says that many other communities are watching the events in Oshawa and will likely pass their own bylaws in the future.
- with files from Erin Millar
City raids student houses in Oshawa
Search warrants are systematic discrimination against students: critics
Imagine how you would feel if you woke up from a nap to find nine unexpected, uniformed people in your bedroom searching through your personal belongings. This is the challenge posed by Katherine McFadden, a scenario that closely resembles the experience of her daughter—a first-year student at Durham College in Oshawa—in the last week of September.
The student returned from school to find police officers, a fire marshal, and a building inspector searching her personal possessions. A locksmith had picked the locks to her rental home to gain access. Her roommate was awakened from a nap when the officials entered her bedroom to search.
McFadden’s daughter is only one of many students who had their houses raided by police and city bylaw officers in September. The city of Oshawa gained search warrants to enter 17 houses being rented by students to confiscate leases and rental agreements. At least 10 houses were searched.
Students were given no notice of the searches and houses were entered whether or not the students were at home. One student said officers searched his home for three hours, overturning his mattress and going through all of his roommates personal papers to try to find a lease agreement.
“I understand how frustrating it must be for nearby neighbours to have so many students living in the area,” McFadden wrote in her letter to the editor, “but surely the city of Oshawa can find a different way of combating this problem without intimidating and frightening young adults by picking the lock and entering without notice.”
David Selby, of the Durham Regional Police communications unit, neither confirmed nor denied that officers were involved in the raids. “I don’t know if I would classify them as raids,” he said. “I know we were part of the team that was working with the college and the city to reduce the number of public complaints about noise and vandalism and alcoholic issues. In terms of the actual events where people went into homes, that I don’t have that information.”
Although the city did not return phone calls from Maclean’s, local news reports quoted Mayor John Gray as saying the warrants were obtained as part of an investigation into alleged fire and building code violations. “This is absolutely not targeting students,” he told the Durham Region News.
But not everyone sees it that way. The University of Ontario Institute of Technology student newspaper published an editorial entitled, “Officials are in denial in regards to students complaints of discrimination.” The article points out that the crack down on housing bylaws is only happening in one neighbourhood of Oshawa: the rental area surrounding Durham College and UOIT campuses. The area has also been the target of a blitz to enforce noise bylaws and parking infractions, according to the editorial.
The zoning of the area surrounding campus only permits single-family detached dwellings. However, many students rent in the neighbourhood. Some students have posted their lease agreement on the outside of their door to prevent officers from entering their house in the event of further raids.
“It’s systematic discrimination against students,” one student told the Durham Region News. “We have exactly the same rights to live here as anyone else, but you don’t see the police knocking on the door of a family that has lived here for three or four years.”
Some students are concerned that the investigation will lead to evictions. One student, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “They’re not going to stop until they have the students out of here. If they think the houses are illegal, eventually they are going to have the landlords kick us out.”
In a recent interview with Maclean’s, Ronald Bordessa, president of UOIT, spoke in general about the off-campus housing situation. “The worst is over,” he said, referring to tensions between students and residents. He noted recent efforts to curtail absent landlords from purchasing homes and renting to as many students as possible.
But the student president representing students at Durham, UOIT, and Trent University’s Oshawa campus disagrees. Fraser McArthur said, “The worst is not over. The city is still working to classify rental houses near the campus as rooming houses.” If the houses are labelled “rooming houses,” the city will be able to evict the students.
McArthur says that the city has agreed not to evict students during the academic year. But that does little to comfort students who are afraid of further raids. “The city is being short-sighted,” he said. “You need young people in a community to be successful. If they continue to discriminate against students, they run the risk of chasing away their future.”
Jen Hassum, Ontario chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, is concerned that the City of Oshawa could be setting a precedent that could affect students across the province. Many cities with universities have tensions between students living in the community and residents. “These raids were directed against students,” she said. “Students aren’t criminals.”
Students versus the world
“Town and Gown” fights between students and cities have been around since the Middle Ages
Students living near McMaster University returned to discover an anonymous letter in mailboxes last week. The writer of the letter, who did not identify himself, complained about students ruining life in Westdale, Hamilton’s university neighbourhood. The writer blamed students and what they call the "New McMaster" for the student ghetto, “a campus drenched in alcohol", a traffic crisis, vandalism, noise, and litter. McMaster University has over 20,000 students but only 4,000 live on campus, pushing thousands of students into the community.
Ryan Moran, President of the McMaster Students Union likened the letter to hate speech. "If you took the word ‘student’ out and replaced it with any other identifiable group, it would be hate speech, plain and simple," he said. Moran acknowledges that there are problems in the community, but feels that teenage residents of the community are often labelled university students and the blame is placed on students because of this. He points out that the majority of students are contributing citizens within the community.
“Town and gown” tensions—a phrase coined by academics—are nearly as old as universities themselves. In one of the most famous examples, a three-day riot in Oxford resulted in 62 students and nearly as many townspeople dead in 1355. The Scholastica’s Day Riot broke out after a dispute about beer in a local tavern. Luckily, town and gown conflicts are now mostly fought in the editorial pages of local newspapers.
The McMaster flyer is particularly critical of a frosh event called the pyjama parade, in which students are supposed to dress in their pyjamas and march through town to meet the residents. In reality, the parade serves as a kick-off for a week of parties, with hundreds of students wearing bikinis and thongs while they parade down the street, kissing each other and drinking alcohol in public.
Although there were at least 18 police officers at the parade this year, they did not seem overly concerned about the alcohol consumption. One group of students was serving beer out of a keg in the trunk of a car, within police view. Police simply directed students to step onto private property when drinking to avoid tickets. Kyle Park, one of the revellers and member of the McMaster Students Union Student Representative Assembly, said, "I do respect the community, stepping a foot off my lawn to have a beer is not a big deal."
Paul Jones, student union vice-president, said, "It is not our responsibility to police the students on the sidewalk, that’s up to the police officers. I would hope that the police officers would do their duty and arrest or fine those people that are drinking in public."
The debate about who is responsible for the policing of off-campus university activities came to focus after Queen’s University’s annual homecoming 2005. During the infamous Aberdeen Street Party—which is not sanctioned by the university—a riot broke out when over 5,000 people spilled onto Aberdeen Street. The party spun out of control, and the police, outnumbered 50 to 1, retreated. By the end of the night, one car had been flipped and set on fire, many others vandalized, and police pelted with bottles and other flying debris.
Queen’s Principal Karen Hitchcock apologized for the event stating in a letter "Queen’s University condemns and apologizes for the lawlessness and dangerous behaviour associated with Homecoming events on Aberdeen Street this past weekend and profoundly regrets both the disturbance and harm experienced by our community neighbours and the risk faced by the attending police, fire and ambulance personnel."
The City of Kingston did not feel this went far enough, they passed a motion demanding Queen’s pay $84,000 of the $119,000 it cost to police homecoming that year. Queen’s refused to pay.
Last year’s homecoming was tamer with a strong presence of police in riot gear. The budget for policing homecoming increased to $212,000 and Queen’s paid $100,000 of the cost.
Tensions are not unique to Ontario. Mt. Allison University in Nova Scotia made headlines last year when the RCMP starting emailing the names of students to the dean of students. The dean would then call the students into his office. Some students felt this was heavy-handed. One student claimed that he was threatened with on-campus judicial action for his off-campus activities if he became a repeat offender in the eyes of the university. A week after the student newspaper reported the story, the practice stopped. The police and university claim that the end of the problem had nothing to do with the newspaper reports.
Another hotspot of tension is the University of Western Ontario in London. City council recently passed bylaws to limit the number of people that can live in one house in the city, a bylaw which appears to target student housing. The city has assigned extra police resources to target areas where students live and as publicly announced that they will not tolerate misbehaviour by students. The tension between town and gown resulted in Ryan Gause, president of the Kings University College Students’ Council, warning the city that due to student bashing, it was being seen as "anti-student" which could result in lower enrolment. Gause told the London Free Press that students feel under siege.
Two weekends ago, tensions flared in another part of London when a party near Fanshawe College involving 500 people got out of hand and police had to use pepper spray. Bernice Hall, a college Vice-President, told the London Free Press that Fanshawe would not tolerate its students trashing neighbourhoods and the college plans to go door-to-door in the community with police to talk to students in an effort to response to problems in the community. Hall admitted that the college had no power to penalize students for off-campus behaviour. Police stated they were pelted with bottles and during the mayhem a man began to tear apart a fence in front of officers. Police chief Murray Faulker was quoted as saying, "Every year, a new batch moves in and they have their first taste of freedom and they don’t understand how to control their alcohol intake."
In all these communities, non-student residents are demanding that universities and colleges act to punish poor behaviour by their students in the community. However, legislation that governs these institutions is intended only to be used to discipline students for on-campus offences. Administrators are loath to attempt to extend those powers off-campus. Offences committed by students in the community are mostly bylaw offences, and universities are not mandated to enforce municipal bylaws.
Waterloo has taken a “zero-tolerance” approach to enforcing its bylaws this year, including a controversial 24-hour noise bylaw. During the four days leading up to the start of classes at Laurier and UWaterloo, over 200 infractions and/or charges were laid by Waterloo police and bylaws officers. 49 of these were violations of noise bylaws.
Oshawa, Ontario is the latest scene of tension between town and gown with the founding of Ontario’s newest public university: the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Since UOIT started accepting students in 2003, many houses around UOIT, which shares its campus with Durham College and a satellite campus of Trent, have been purchased by landlords and converted into student rental housing. Some in the community are not happy about this and have demanded action by the city. The city has responded by drafting a new bylaw which would require any rental property in the areas surrounding campus to first have a license before being allowed to rent. All sides in the dispute are unhappy with the draft bylaw and the city is continuing to try and find a solution.
