Your Kid’s Not That Cute
I am soooo tired of hearing about homecoming at Queen’s. I’m not even in Kingston right now and yet it’s still a topic of conversation everywhere I go. The Globe and Mail had a story on Queen’s Homecoming just two days ago (complete with a map showing out-of-towners where exactly to go to find the party). It is time to lay the smack down. Seriously. I’ve had it.
One quote from the Globe’s article was given by a Queen’s alum and now businessman in Kingston. He said “It gets to a point of, what more can you do? Cancel homecoming? Cancel football? Not allow 17-year-olds to go to university?” well my response is YES, YES and YES.
When I was a child I remember a time when my class was getting really out of hand. We were going swimming on a weekly basis and the walk to and from the pool was getting worse each week. Students were leaving the pack and going missing for short periods or walking in people’s gardens and just being generally unruly. Know what my teacher did? She canceled swimming. For three weeks we sat and did math problems during swimming time. When we were finally allowed to go back to the pool, the class was so well behaved on the walk. And it stayed that way because the kids in the class below us heard what had happened so they wouldn’t dare step out of line for fear that the same punishment might happen to them.
We call this making an example of someone and it works. The problem with this approach is that it sometimes punishes the wrong people but I think we can make this work. For those who are actually alumni over the age of 30 and who come to Kingston to revisit their university years, we can still have a homecoming. Why not make it in February instead of September? If all people want is to come see their friends and participate in departmental events, then the time of year shouldn’t really matter.
Now, I know I’m stepping on thin ice saying this but how about no football? Just for homecoming. I know it could screw up the season in some way but find a way around it. Reschedule the game or have it somewhere else. That is how punishment works. The person or people being punished lose certain privileges which can inconvenience others as well, leaving the punished one to deal with the wrath of others.
As for keeping 17-year-olds out, obviously we can’t control that but perhaps Queen’s needs to do more to make sure these students understand from the second they arrive on campus that they are guests in our city and that this childish behaviour will not be tolerated. Queen’s, stop letting your clubs throw pancake keggers! Get tighter security at the game that actually keeps out the drunks and ticket every single person who arrives at Aberdeen with an open drink. I know it would be costly but it already is and maybe, just maybe a year or two of this will help deter the same behaviour in the future.
Young people today (yes I said it, call me grandma) have the world handed to them on a plate and all they do is pick the stuff they want from it. I think one of the responsibilities of our institutions of higher learning (especially now that the kiddies are so young) is to teach them to be respectful, decent human beings. So get in there Queen’s! Take it ALL away and show them who’s boss. Stop being the pushover parent who thinks their kid is so cute it’s okay that he’s a total brat. Help our city get its dignity back!
(By the by, I’m a 28-year-old alumnus myself. This year is my fifth homecoming but I’m not going because I don’t want to have anything to do with it.)
I have to agree, past approaches to solve the recent homecoming woes are not working, maybe we should take the approach of a parent dealing with a naughty 4 year old.
I myself am looking forward to homecoming, but only in the respect that its means a reunion with people who I haven`t seen in ages due to us all growing up and heading in different directions. I have no desire or intention to be anywhere near the ghetto; ravaging, disrupting street parties are not how I remember my years at Queens.
I don`t think its a coincidence that things started getting out of hand when OAC was taken away and the kids entering the school became even younger. It really is something the university overlooked. You now have kids not even old enough to vote living away from home, with really no figure of authority present to keep them in line, they are not old enough to go to the bar so of course their going to take their drinking to the house parties. But they seem to be so lacking in common sense and respect that things get out of hand, and with all of the publicity surrounding it and really no consequence for their actions things keep getting more out of hand.
So back to the 4 year old, maybe it is a situation where if you cant play nice with your toys they should be taken away completely.
I hear they will not be serving alcohol at the game this year (this could just be a rumor). Perhaps its time for the school itself to take drastic action, maybe one cant discipline every student participating, but perhaps they should start with the students hosting the parties. Start handing out fines for noise violations, and serving alcohol to minors. Go one up on the schools part, start taking academic probation and or expulsion.
Start making them make the choice, learn to enjoy the festivities in a civilized manor or possibly screw your future forever.
Homecoming doesnt have to be a dry affair, years past partied it up in celebration, but we did it without making national headlines and making an embarassment of the institution.
Queen’s University should be ashamed of their lack of oversight on this, forcing citizens to confront this problem on their own.
If they refuse to step up to the plate, then the City can lock down any special-permit applications, vigorously enforce bylaws, and expand the “name-and-shame”. Perhaps the Whig would be an interesting paper once again if it participated.
Obviously, students by-and-large have repeatedly shown their irresponsibility, so perhaps Kingston should be made a bit less enjoyable for them. Call it a time-out.
I know, I know, this blog is student-dominated, so I can expect the usual toothless attacks, but perhaps some day even you will see the light. And I trust that light will be enlightenment and not just your beer fridge when you open it.
But then, you are Queens students…
That Guy, when we last shared comments about SONAG, I believe you weren’t the only person who felt helpless/upset/disgusted about the problem in the Queen’s Ghetto. Many of the comments reflected your sentiments, some disagreed. Those who did not agree with your stance were both student and non-student. Just saying your generalization of who reads/comments here are not entirely true.
Great post Izzy! I was out taking pics of the chaos last night, and will be posting them over the weekend on Kingstonist’s Flickr. Yes, I was at a reunion party last night…but it was neither loud, nor visited by the Kingston City Police.
Port Dover, Ontario, knows how to turn raucus Friday-the-13th parties into riches. Kingston’s nowhere, going nowhere, and square, unable to cash-in.
For a third of the cost of policing, we could hire Service Master to hose-down, scrub, and vacuum every square inch between Division and University, from Union to Princess, before sunrise Sunday morning.