Western officials 'need to get a grip' on FOCO, says London city councillor

A London city councillor says Western University 'has a responsibility' to get so-called FOCO celebrations under control. It's an unsanctioned and booze-fuelled homecoming celebration that sees thousands of students from all over the country pour into the streets and costs the City of London tens of thousands of dollars. 

FOCO, or fake homecoming, began two years ago, when the university moved its annual homecoming celebrations from late September to mid-October with the aim, it said at the time, "to address a variety of concerns associated with the unsanctioned and unsupervised street party that has taken place in recent years on homecoming weekend." 

What it is now is a confrontation between the administration at Western and the students- Phil Squire

Phil Squire, the councillor whose ward 6 constituency includes many of the homes that rim the university campus, said the celebration has only grown and has become a way for students to collectively thumb their noses at Western's administration.

"What it is now is a confrontation between the administration at Western and the students at Western," he said. "The City of London and our budget, our expenses and our police force are caught in the middle of this disagreement."

A legendary party

The party seems to have become so legendary among Canadian students that people will fly from all corners of the country just to be there, according to fourth-year Western Kinesiology​ student and Broughdale Avenue resident Sara Pijanowski.

"It's tonnes of fun, we love it," she said. "Our furthest visitor flew out from Halifax, but our across the street neighbours have friends from Vancouver, so coast-to-coast."

Last year the party drew more than 10,000 revellers, according to official estimates from the London Police Service. This year, police did not have any official numbers on Monday regarding the size of the crowd, or the number of people charged in the impromptu street festival, saying the service would release final numbers on Tuesday. 

There is also the cost. Last year, the city spent at least $55,000 in officer overtime. This year, that bill could be even higher and will include the cost of bringing in officers from as far afield as York Region to quell the teeming crowds. 

Squire said he thinks Western officials "need to get a grip" on FOCO and try to make peace with students over homecoming in order to get the unsanctioned parties under control.

"Clearly if you're there, you see this is directed from the students to the administration. So administration has a responsibility, in my view, to sit down and solve the problem with students."

Squire said that while Western University presents a united front that it made the right move on its decision to move homecoming from September to October, not everyone within the school's senior staff feels that way. 

"Privately some people told me before this happened it was a mistake," he said. "I think they have to admit now it was not the right approach and it's clearly made the situation worse." 

'They're not directly correlated'

Western University officials appear to be doing no such thing.  

"I don't think that gathering is associated with the moving of homecoming because it was happening prior to homecoming," said Jennie Massey, Western's vice-president of student experience in an interview with CBC News Monday. "They're not directly correlated." 

Massey said the decision by Western officials to move homecoming has worked in reducing the number of unsanctioned student events. 

I don't think that gathering is associated with the moving of Homecoming- Jennie Massey

"I think it's important to note we haven't seen any unsanctioned street parties in October," she said. 

Massey said she did get a chance to attend the festivities on Broughdale Avenue and had a chance to speak to students and police officers.

However when it came down to whether Western officials were ultimately responsible for creating the so-called fake homecoming celebrations by moving homecoming to October, Massey didn't seem to want to answer the question.

"Ultimately I think we're all members of the community, but it is a city street and we look to police for leadership in managing this and we look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with all our community partners in addressing the challenges," she said.