Some Dunedin students are taking extra precautions but others say they will party on despite the threat of catching Covid-19 and hefty fines.
It comes as a student flat party in Leith St’s north was closed on Monday night after it was flooded with uninvited guests, several hours after the Southern District Health Board said a member of the student community had tested positive for Covid-19.
Students spoken to by the Otago Daily Times this week had different views on whether students would limit their partying because of the threat of Omicron.
Students at a Castle St party on Monday said they would not change their behaviour, one saying "Castle doesn’t get Covid bro" and another saying everyone needed to catch the virus so they could keep partying.
A group of female students, who did not want to be named, believed it was inevitable they would all get it eventually, but they hoped being vaccinated would stop them getting badly sick.
They said they would try to limit their contacts by avoiding big parties in favour of small-scale gatherings with people they knew were vaccinated.
They believed alcohol-fuelled poor behaviour was not representative of most students.
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond said the gathering broken up in Leith St had more than 150 guests when it was closed about 9.45pm.
The organisers said they had someone on the door checking vaccine passes, but measures fell by the wayside as those who were meant to be enforcing compliance joined the party.
On Monday night, several smaller parties, of between 20-40 people, had popped up as a way to get around the 100-person limit on large gatherings under the Red setting.
Like the larger gatherings these still posed a "huge risk" of becoming superspreader events, due to the tendencies of people to move from one party to another, Snr Sgt Bond said.
Most of the students dealt with by police so far seemed more concerned with the risk of infringement fines than Covid-19, and they were being educated and encouraged to comply with the rules.
He accepted that "at some point that messaging will be ignored" and enforcement would begin.
In previous years, trouble had often been caused by non-students, who were not subject to the university code of conduct, attending parties in the student area, and he expected this year would be no different.
Last week "campus cop" Senior Constable John Woodhouse sent a letter to students outlining the requirements that must be met for parties to take place in Red.
It advised students that gatherings were limited to 100 people and must take place within a defined space, separated from passersby by a wall with a distance of at least 2m.
The number of attendees must to be monitored and contact tracing measures upheld.
Vaccine passes must also be checked.
Students could be held responsible for facilitating a gathering even if they did not directly organise gatherings in breach of the rules.
For most offences, a $1000 fine would be issued to an individual, but it could be as much as $4000.
More severe penalties could be given if incidents went to court, the letter warned.
Proctor Dave Scott said the deputy proctor, together with the campus constable, visited a number of traditional party flats to remind and educate them about their responsibilities at the Red light setting.
He said that students were intelligent young adults and he hoped they would look at the bigger picture and make the right decisions for their fellow students and the community.
The Proctor’s Office and Campus Watch were working closely with police and other agencies including Otago University Students Association, Otago Polytechnic, Otago Polytechnic Students Association, Fire & Emergency New Zealand, St John, the Dunedin City Council and Public Health South to foster and maintain a safe and secure campus environment within the complexities of a pandemic.
While it was not yet known exactly how many students would return, given the first half of semester one was moving online, more students were expected to arrive at the weekend as residential colleges returned, he said.
