Guelph Police Chief Jeff DeRuyter said the party got to its height at about 4 p.m., and saw between 4,000 and 5,000 people gathered on the property, where police closed the road in an attempt to maintain order and safety.

“Our role was really to ensure that it was a safe environment,” DeRuyter said.

He admitted it was a significant drain on police resources.

“We had significant resources that were drawn to deal with the crowd at Chancellors Way,” he said. “It did impact our ability to police elsewhere.”

There were up to 20 officers on that site, as well as emergency responders who came to deal with medical emergencies, DeRuyters said.

Meanwhile, there were between 50 and 60 parties that police were also aware of taking place in the city’s south end. Those parties had been registered online through the university’s party registry system, an initiative aimed at reducing the number of nuisance parties in the city.

The student revelry, coupled with several unrelated motor vehicle collisions, including one involving a fatality, made it a challenging weekend for police, said DeRuyter.

On a positive note, there were few significant assaults or other such incidents, but the crowds were taxing for police, and the mess they left was upsetting for community members.

“I was out early Sunday morning ... and I was disappointed with what I saw,” DeRuyter said of the mess left behind. “I understand, certainly, the frustration of some of our citizens.”

In the aftermath of the social-media fuelled revelry, Guelph citizens took to social media to voice their complaints, many posting Facebook messages and tweeting their frustrations with what they see as unacceptable student behaviour.

Many were calling on the university to cancel future Homecoming events.

Guelph’s mayor, who added his thoughts to the social media conversation via a YouTube video, seems to agree with them.

Mayor Cam Guthrie said it is up to the university to take responsibility for what happened over the weekend, and for future events as well, to ensure something similar does not happen again.

“The university really does need to take a lot of responsibility and oversight when it comes to Homecoming. It’s going to take an effort on behalf of several groups and agencies — not just the police, but all of our emergency services, the university, the students’ association, neighbourhood groups,” he said Monday.

“I’m taking this very, very seriously and I intend to be calling a meeting of all those people together today, and we’re going to have to get together and see what is required to move forward, because what occurred was unacceptable.”

Guthrie said that if things don’t change, then Homecoming may need to become a thing of the past.

“If there’s any type of resemblance to what occurred this past weekend again, if there was any chance of that happening again, I agree, it should just be cancelled,” he said.

“It is unfair to the citizens of this city to endure what they had to go through this past weekend. It’s just shameful, some of the actions taken by a few, and they should be ashamed of themselves and embarrassed. If they can’t integrate respectfully into our city, then they shouldn’t be here.”

Whiteside said cancelling Homecoming next year may not be the sensible solution it seems to be.

“That’s an easy solution, except it’s not,” she said.

It’s a solution that has been tried by other universities, including Queen’s and Western, where Homecoming celebrations have been difficult to control, and as those universities have learned, cancelling Homecoming doesn’t stop the parties, Whiteside said.

The people who want to party, will continue to do so, except with a culture of defiance.

“People are coming out to defy, and they come out with a very different mindset,” Whiteside said.

She said in past years, other universities have come to Guelph to seek advice, because the U of G seemed to provide a positive example. This year was different.

Representatives from the university were to get together with police and city bylaw staff Tuesday to debrief and figure out strategies for dealing with the challenges associated with Homecoming, Whiteside said.

“The one good thing about this is the city and the university are committed to working collectively to say ‘let’s address this,’” she said, adding that students will also be at the table working on strategies.

“If our student leaders take on a stronger leadership role, that will help,” she said.

The mayor said he has received numerous suggestions on what the city, the university and other groups can do moving forward for future events, including the possibility of having student volunteers clean up the mess.

“The next day, they would make sure those groups of students would be out and about, making sure everything is cleaned up. I think that’s one idea,” he said.

“I think the communication from the university and the Central Student Association to the students as they come to Guelph needs to be ramped up or revised.”

Guthrie also said that if students want to be treated with respect, they need to act accordingly.

“Lastly, I would hope there are some severe disciplinary actions that would be taken if there is these types of antics done in the future,” he said.

“I think there’s too much carrot and not enough stick, and I think it’s time that if we’re being asked to treat these students as the young adults they want us to treat them as, then there should be some severe consequences if they’re not going to respect our city.”

Guthrie added that the city will also be reviewing whether the university is contributing enough resources to go toward preventing similar incidents from happening again, and for future clean ups.

He said the problem goes beyond Guelph, and that some changes need to be made at the provincial level — namely the Heads and Beds payment, which municipalities receive from post-secondary institutions in lieu of property taxes. The amount, $75 per head, has not changed since 1987.

Guthrie says that needs to change.

“Municipalities that have universities within their cities … have been lobbying the provincial government to change that legislation to allow for greater revenue to flow to cities so that we can use those revenues to increase the resources that are required to handle the students that arrive,” he said.

A message to students, guests & permanent citizens from #Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie regarding @UofG 2017 Homecoming: https://t.co/5yexuFpfg2 pic.twitter.com/W8Q35e5jMi

— Cam Guthrie (@CamGuthrie) September 24, 2017

Party last night. Time to clean up today. Show your true gryphon values #iamagryohon pic.twitter.com/ZOIOzLj2Qm

— Brenda Whiteside (@WhitesideBrenda) September 24, 2017

Dear #Guelph & @uofg,

This is Katie.

She & her b/f didn't party, or disrespect their neighbours. Yet they cleaned up anyways! #GuelphProud pic.twitter.com/WgLxaCEXlk

— Cam Guthrie (@CamGuthrie) September 25, 2017

There's about 200 screaming drunk girls in the mall with Guelph shirts on. Security is following them.

Must be homecoming 🎉

— Blake (@BlakeDezormo) September 23, 2017