McMaster has traditionally been known as a community that cares about one another and our neighbours, in large part due to the efforts of generations of students over many years.

Throughout the past two years, students have helped each other and made the difficult choices necessary to keep our families and communities safe. This has been especially apparent as we made a full return to in-person classes over the past month, and as more Marauders were welcomed back to living in our surrounding neighbourhoods. Together, we have done a fantastic job this winter of managing these risks while getting back to the things that are essential to a thriving university experience.

Heading into St. Patrick’s Day, our hope is that we can reinforce our culture of caring and being a good neighbour, and be considerate of the families, seniors, and fellow students who live around us.

While socializing with friends, our ask is to avoid gathering in large groups. These events can come with extremely high risks. If any roads are blocked, emergency medical services and ambulances can have trouble getting through to help fellow students or others in our community who may need assistance. This extends to avoiding large gatherings in other communities across Ontario.

McMaster continues to work with Hamilton Police Services, Hamilton Paramedic Service and City of Hamilton, who are also sharing messages about safety and respect. As has been done for many years, McMaster is paying for additional police officers to patrol the neighbourhood on St. Patrick’s Day and throughout the rest of the weekend. These officers will be part of the Hamilton Police Services team.

While our main concern is for the health and safety of our community and of other Ontario communities, we also want to prevent any student from experiencing adverse impacts when bylaws, laws and/or McMaster’s Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities are violated.

Since welcoming more members of our community back to McMaster this winter, our students have been phenomenal about caring for each other and our surrounding community. Let’s keep that momentum going.

—Sean Van Koughnett
Associate Vice-President (Students and Learning) & Dean of Students