Residence and campus safety: what parents should check before move-in

A residence guarantee is a promise with conditions. The university holds a room for first-year students who apply and pay on time. Miss a step and your student goes on a wait list.

U of T shows how this works. New full-time students qualify if they apply on the residence portal by March 31 and receive and accept an offer of admission by June 2. Your student doesn't need an offer to apply by March 31, and applying doesn't commit them to anything. A deposit is only due if they get a residence offer. U of T says students must meet every deadline and deposit requirement to keep their eligibility, with no exceptions.

Each university sets its own dates, deposits and rules. Our residence guide compares guarantees, deadlines and deposits at more than ten Ontario universities.

Universities run their own safety services alongside local police. Waterloo's special constables are on duty 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and the university sends emergency alerts through its notification system. McMaster's Campus Safety Services can be reached by dialling 88 from any university phone, and its Safety App includes a Friend Walk feature.

Walk-home programs help late at night. Western Foot Patrol is a volunteer service that walks students across the Western, Huron and King's campuses and to some off-campus locations, and it offers plain-clothes walks for students who'd rather not be noticed. U of T's Community Safety Office runs self-defence workshops and offers a Campus Safety App.

Ontario law sets a floor. Under the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act, every publicly assisted college and university must have a sexual violence policy. It must cover sexual violence involving students and set out how the school responds to incidents and complaints. Students must have input when the policy is written or changed, and the school must review it at least every three years.

The Act defines sexual violence broadly. It includes sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, indecent exposure, voyeurism and sexual exploitation, whether physical or psychological.

Find your child's university policy before September and read the section on how to get support.

New students, especially international students, are a target for fraud. U of T's Community Safety Office warns about fraudsters who target international students, and Waterloo's Special Constable Service posts alerts about email fraud aimed at its community.

Immigration Canada says it will never call and ask for money to be deposited into a personal bank account, or sent through a private money transfer company. Tell your child that a caller who demands urgent payment is a red flag. If a message feels off, they should hang up and call campus security.

A residence room isn't an ordinary rental. Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act doesn't apply to living space a school provides to its students when the rooms don't have their own bathroom and kitchen and certain other conditions are met, such as the housing being mainly for residents under the age of majority, or residents being consulted on major decisions through a council.

In practice, your child signs a residence agreement with the university instead of a lease. It sets the rules for living there and what happens if one is broken. Read it together before you pay.

Move-in day is busy, and safety talk feels awkward in front of new roommates. Do it the week before instead, at the kitchen table, and keep it practical rather than scary.

Walk through what your child would do in three situations: they feel unsafe walking home late, they lose their phone or keys, and a friend has had too much to drink. For the first, a walk-home program like Western Foot Patrol or McMaster's Friend Walk is the answer. For the other two, the residence don or front desk and campus security are the first calls. If anyone is hurt or in danger, it's 911.

If your child missed a residence deadline, don't panic. U of T, for example, still lets students join a wait list after March 31. Start looking at off-campus options in parallel, and use the lease advice below.

Most students move off campus after first year, and that's where parents can help a lot. Private rentals in Ontario generally fall under the Residential Tenancies Act. The province's standard lease is required for most residential tenancy agreements signed on or after April 30, 2018, and the province publishes a guide to it in several languages.

The standard lease spells out rent, deposits and rules. The law limits how much a landlord can take as a rent deposit, and a rent deposit can't be used as a damage deposit. If a landlord won't use the standard lease or asks for a large deposit, slow down and ask questions.