Last week's student toga parade which unexpectedly descended into uncontrolled disorder will be a hot topic at a multiparty meeting on Friday.
All the groups involved with the Orientation parade - the University of Otago Students Association (OUSA), university management, emergency services, Dunedin City Council and others - are members of the council's North Dunedin working party, which holds one of its quarterly meetings on Friday.
While the meeting date had been scheduled long before the parade happened, the parade and its aftermath was sure to be discussed, Dunedin-Clutha police area commander Inspector Dave Campbell said yesterday.
There would be many issues to review, including spectators overloading George St verandas; spectators throwing frozen oranges and offensive material, such as buckets of vomit and faeces; a misunderstanding by some residential college parade co-ordinators about the parade start time; and the number of police, security staff and parade officials controlling participants and onlookers.
The discussion would only be a starting point for trying to ensure future parades - if they were held - were more orderly, Insp Campbell said.
"Work has to be done with OUSA and the halls of residence before next year, that's for sure. The ground rules need to be restated."
But he said that work "did not need to happen this week".
"It is early days yet. Sometimes it is better to wait for the dust to settle. We need to be careful we don't run on emotions, but run on facts."
The police had rostered on extra staff from mid-February to mid-March to cover Orientation.
A debriefing on the period had been scheduled for the end of this month, and Insp Campbell said he was not planning to bring that forward.
He said the overcrowding of verandas was a safety issue and "could be a disaster waiting to happen".
The flats which had verandas would be visited, or may already have been visited, by university Campus Watch staff.
Insp Campbell said he was not sure how to stop flat tenants inviting friends to watch parades from their verandas, but said one possibility was asking landlords to put conditions in tenancies limiting numbers.
The university would not say yesterday what actions it was taking about the bad behaviour at the parade, or whether any students had been referred to the proctor for disciplinary action.
Chief operating officer John Patrick said it was too early to comment, as the university was still investigating.
Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin said last night, when contacted, he was looking for information from Friday's meeting, and did not want to pre-empt it by discussing possible options to be considered ahead of any repeat event next year.
"Let's not hasten to make any assumptions yet. Any future event is one year away and we need to get details of what happened, why, and how, and in the cold light of day analyse all that and look for a way ahead."
OUSA president Edwin Darlow had not responded to ODT inquiries by yesterday evening.
