Why do alumni come back to Queen’s for Homecoming?
They return to reunite and reconnect with old friends and classmates, visit their old haunts or watering holes, see what has changed since they left and what it was like to be a student at Queen’s. For my engineering classmates, Homecoming means hanging out at Clark, pancakes and beer on Saturday morning, getting purple, marching around the football field during halftime and maybe even crowd-surfing their way up to the top of the stands on the students’ side. Broadly speaking, people want to relive their youth, which even at my seemingly young age of 28, feels like it’s beginning to slip away.
There’s something particularly special about a five-year reunion. You still recognize those people you saw in a class but never really spoke to. You might be married, but even if you are, you probably don’t have kids and don’t have a life that’s overwhelmed by responsibility. Most importantly, the vibe of the campus hasn’t changed that much since you left five years ago.
Unfortunately, the class of 2004 has had this experience taken away from us with the istration’s decision to cancel Homecoming. Yes there’s a lot of anger at the University for this decision and there’s no doubt that affinity for Queen’s among my cohort has been seriously damaged. But the overwhelming feeling in my class is that the street party and its destructive nature project a false yet terrible image of Queen’s students—think of the overturned, burning car in 2005. None of us want anything to do with the street party, in no small part because its existence has torpedoed our fifth-year reunion.
There seems to be a strong feeling on campus that the Aberdeen Street party is a critical Homecoming tradition, but this feeling is misplaced. The party actually started accidently during Homecoming 2002, attracting people through the combination of a failed keg party and a truck giving away free X-Box swag. We all know Aberdeen isn’t an official part of Homecoming, but the University has scrapped our reunion as a means to prove to the city of Kingston, its police and its residents that they’re unrelated.
Debating the merits of closing Aberdeen to traffic and holding some sort of controlled event is purely academic at this point. I’m certainly not defending the decision to abruptly cancel the fall reunion, but the reality is that if the street party doesn’t stop, Homecoming as we knew isn’t coming back.
What’s most absurd about the street party is that, according to Facebook, a huge number of people who plan to attend aren’t even Queen’s students and have no affiliation with the University. The kid photographed on top of the burning car was a Kingston high-school student. Why help wreck your Homecoming when all you’re really doing is providing cover to Grade 9 students and randoms while they trash your city for a night?
Homecoming is already cancelled for the class of 2004, but it’s not too late for the class of 2005, and all the other graduates looking to come back next year. If tomorrow’s street party is a bust, it will become increasingly difficult for the istration to justify Homecoming’s continued cancellation. An official fall reunion in 2010 would be the first real return to Queen’s for some more recent graduates, but don’t forget that for some older Alumni, Homecoming is the highlight of their year. It’s a rare opportunity to see lifelong friends and feel young again as they walk—or ride—around the track at Richardson Stadium, completely thrilled by the roar of the crowd. Give a thought to next year’s reunion and the people who will otherwise miss out when you decide what to do with your Saturday night.
What I’m asking is that you find somewhere else—anywhere else—to be tomorrow night. Hit up your favourite bar. Find a great house party that doesn’t involve smashed bottles and debris-littered streets. If you decide to go to Aberdeen, you’ve seriously imperiled your own Homecoming and certainly helped wreck any chance of a proper Homecoming for the class of 2005.
You are among the brightest students in the country. Please don’t be so shortsighted as to assume that one night of destructive partying doesn’t have consequences.
John Mould, Sci ’04, was President of the Engineering Society from 2003 to 2004.
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