Western University homecoming: 15,000 partiers, 39 taken to hospital

Paramedics had a busy weekend taking patients from homecoming parties around Western University to hospital, but police kept a lid on rowdy behavior despite a significantly larger crowd than last year.

Article content

An estimated 15,000 people packed streets around campus last Saturday for homecoming, up from 10,000 the year before, London police said Thursday.

Unlike last year, when the crowd uprooted trees, damaged property and pelted officers with projectiles after night fell, the roughly 7,000 people who continued partying after dark largely stayed out of trouble, police said.

“Most of the young adults we encountered were co-operative with emergency services and partner agencies,” Supt. Ryan Scrivens said in a statement.

One person was charged with assaulting police and two Highway Traffic Act charges were laid. Twenty-four tickets were dished out for liquor offenses and 187 fines issued for nuisance party, noise and parking offenses, police said.

Article content

Paramedics took 39 people to hospital Friday and Saturday from the campus area, up from 31 last year.

In the most serious incident of the weekend, two people were injured in an assault with a weapon at Richmond and Huron streets about 9:45 pm Saturday, police said. Their injuries were not considered life-threatening. No arrests have been made in the case.

About 3,800 alumni and guests came to campus for homecoming events and 8,500 students attended on-campus activities including a Western Mustangs football game, the university’s Stephen Ledgley said.

But Ledgley wouldn’t say whether any students are under investigation for code-of-conduct complaints related to homecoming.

“To protect the privacy of both complainants and respondents, we do not report on code investigations or whether complaints have been received,” he said by email, adding the school worked closely with police and city officials to deal with unsanctioned street parties.

Article content

“We appreciate the collaborative work of our community partners. . . in making student and community safety a top priority,” Ledgley said.

Western tried to root out the rowdy behavior in 2016 by moving homecoming weekend to mid-October, when the weather is cooler and students are studying for midterms, but the plan backfired. Students organized their own event, known as fake homecoming, that continued to draw huge crowds to campus-area streets, where they left on rooftops and prevented ambulances from reaching injured people.

In response, Western returned homecoming weekend to September and police began calling in reinforcements from other southern Ontario forces. A tougher nuisance party bylaw, packing a $1,130 fine for hosts, and an agreement between police and the university to hold troublemakers to account also were introduced.

Article content

Crowd-control measures include closing off Broughdale Avenue – a dead-end street that is the epicenter of homecoming parties – to vehicles and erecting barricades in the middle of the road to keep order.

Officers from Windsor, Hamilton and Peterborough were called in to help monitor last weekend’s bash. The tab for policing the event won’t be known until spring, when a police report will detail the costs to the city’s police board.

The total cost to police for Western’s 2023 homecoming and to promote public safety before the weekend was $311,100, up from $265,000 the previous year.

[email protected]

Article content