McMaster student and university leaders hope official homecoming event will keep the party on campus

Homecoming celebrations are returning to McMaster University's campus for the first time in several years, and there's more than just a party at stake, university and student leaders say.

For Jovan Popovic, McMaster Students Union (MSU) president, the coming festivities serve as a way to energize a student body he says has been disengaged with campus life since the pandemic started. The goal is also to provide students with a safer way to celebrate than the raucous, unsanctioned street parties which spilled into local neighbourhoods for the past several years.

"Given the unsanctioned street parties, the nature of the community reaction and knowing that it wasn't the safest event for students, it just felt so natural to say the best possible solution is to bring something back on campus," Popovic told CBC Hamilton.

In 2021, Hamilton police arrested and charged seven people following an unofficial homecoming street party in which they said thousands of people gathered. Police said some threw objects at officers, and some flipped a car that was parked on the road.

The city implemented a nuisance party bylaw to deter those sorts of events, but locals complained about similar unofficial homecoming parties in 2022. In 2023, police said gatherings of around 9,000 people in Westdale and Ainslie Wood led to roughly 50 calls for service and five arrests.

McMaster has not hosted an official homecoming party since 2019. Sean Van Koughnett, dean of students, told CBC Hamilton that while official homecoming celebrations have traditionally been focused on alumni, the trend at post-secondary schools has been for current students to participate by having parties.

Popovic and Van Koughnett said the MSU and university had repeatedly heard from students and community members that having an organized event for students would make it less likely that students would attend unsanctioned events.

"I was very supportive of pursuing that idea and here we are," Van Koughnett said.

"We're not naive enough to think we're going to end the street parties," Popovic said, but the hope is that if an official homecoming party is fun enough, people will choose to celebrate on campus instead of on the streets. 

The university and student's union have planned a full day of activities on Oct. 5, including a football game, inflatable obstacle course and concert.

For Popovic, the prospect of creating an exciting on-campus feeling that lasts beyond the day is what's most exciting.

In his opinion, students became disconnected from campus throughout the pandemic, and there are still relatively few students participating in extracurricular activities on campus. That creates a downward spiral, he said, since students disconnected from campus also lose touch with important social supports that organizations like his provide. 

"It's really exciting that we're the ones that are going to be able to spearhead this initiative and bring [homecoming] back," Popovic said. "It's a large investment, but I think it's a great investment of our time and resources."