Penn State is responding with caution to the progress of moving St. Patrick's day from March 17 to March 2, citing extra cost and resources for alcohol-related incidents, spokesman Bill Mahon said in an email today.

"Moving the celebration to a new day will mean more work," Mahon said.

Mahon defined the extra work as resources and costs for the police department, medical center and judicial affairs. Moving the holiday to a time while students are not on break will cause these departments to surpass what "they might otherwise expend on dangerous drinking problems," he said.

Last year, there were 10 students taken to the emergency room on St. Patrick's Day for excessive drinking that occurred, he said.

"The ER visits by Penn State students on St. Patrick's Day have gone up three years in a row," Mahon said. The total number of alcohol overdoses cannot be tallied, due to the fact that the medical center does not keep records for non-students, he said.