By Anthony Ouellet

In light of a new external review of the events that occurred last homecoming on Reed Street, Bishop’s University has decided to fight back against off-campus large events, in hopes that in-house festive gatherings, like HOCO on the Hill, are going to become the new norm. ‘’Create a new on-campus tradition’’, “decenter alcohol and promote activity based events’’ and ‘’reimagine Homecoming promotion’’ : these are all recommendations that emerged from the external review by the public relations firm TACT of the events of Reed Street.

Photo courtesy of Anthony Ouellet

The findings of this review were presented on Sept. 22 by Bishop’s University principal, Sébastien Lebel-Grenier, secretary general, Geneviève Gagné, and vice-principal of Student Affairs and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Danai Bélanger, in a meeting in front of about 20 staff members, to which The Campus had access.

With these findings in hand, Bishop’s University is making a move against unregulated off- campus massive events, and Hoco on the Hill is the fi rst step in that strategy. “We want to redirect [students] away from, you know, places or events that may not necessarily be safe for them’’, Ms. Bélanger said in front of the crowd.

When asked if they feared that students were going to move the party off-campus after these new on-site events ended, the vice-principal indicated that these were designed to prevent such a thing from happening.

‘’The idea is to create a high-intensity event on-site, so by the time it is 1:30 or 2 in the morning, the students have had a pretty packed day’’, she noted. She then emphasized that the goal of this strategy is not to prevent students from hosting off-campus activities, but to provide them with alternatives. According to the TACT report, these alternatives should be less alcohol-centred and aim to nurture a sense of belonging on the campus.

Bishop’s is going to try to learn from this new formula and adapt it. However, ‘’this is something that worked elsewhere’’, the principal added. ‘’What this is meant to do is to maximize the chances that there is only positive that comes out of the weekend, he said, speaking on the importance of safety and structure during events such as Homecoming.

Police surveillance

After what happened last year, it is expected that the Sherbrooke police department is going to step up its surveillance during Bishop’s big events, such as homecoming. A question was, for instance, raised for the principal regarding the use of police drones during this year’s homecoming.

He responded that police do possess drones and that he expects that they would be used if any problems were to happen off-campus.

The police department has not responded to our request for comment in a timely manner for the publication of this article.