Response from Bill Mahon, Penn State spokesman

The Daily Collegian received the following e-mail response from Penn State Spokesman Bill Mahon. It is in regard to the movement by bar owners to change St. Patrick's Day to March 2.

"In case you follow up again on the story about the movement downtown by bar owners to change St. Patrick's Day to another date because of when spring break occurs this year, here are some stats that might be appropriate for such a story:

• There were 10 Penn State students taken to the ER with alcohol overdoses on March 17, 2006, or during the first couple early morning hours of March 18, 2006. The ER visits by Penn State students on St. Patrick's Day have gone up three years in a row. The medical center does not keep stats for alcohol overdoses by non-Penn State students.

• Borough police made eight DUI arrests on St. Patrick's Day, 2006. That's eight drunk drivers taken off borough streets in one day.

• There were 76 criminal arrests last St. Patrick's Day by State College Borough Police, compared to a daily average of nine such arrests throughout the year. About 60 percent of those arrests involved Penn State students.

• On St. Patrick's Day, 2006, State College Borough Police handed out 30 alcohol-related citations before noon.

Based on the stats from previous years, successfully "moving" the celebration to a new day will mean more work (resources and costs) for ambulance services, police departments, the courts, University Judicial Affairs and the medical center than they might otherwise expend on dangerous drinking problems that day. Some possible questions for bar owners involved in this effort:

1) Will you take any steps to help reduce the number of students who end up in the ER compared to last year?

2) Is there anything you can do to reduce the number of people who drive drunk on St. Patrick's Day, especially in light of some of the terrible drunken driving tragedies we have had here in State College in recent months?

3) The statistics indicate the borough police, ambulance services, the ER and Penn State will have to expend additional resources if the St. Patty's Day move is successful. Who should pay those costs if your St. Patrick's Day plans are successful and attract a lot of business?

Best regards and good luck with your coverage."

Bill Mahon
Assistant Vice President for University Relations
and Director of Public Information
309 Old Main
Penn State
University Park, Pa 16802