In response to a groundswell of student support through groups on Facebook, a number of bars have decided to move their celebration of St. Patrick's Day to Friday, March 2 rather than the official date of March 17. This new holiday, styled "State Patty's Day," has provoked a wide range of reactions from various areas of the community.

Interestingly, this March 2 celebration is indicative of the power of students to affect a change, albeit celebratory. It bodes well for future student endeavors that students are able to wield such influence and attract the attention of the community; perhaps a larger student turnout for Rally in the Rotunda will be in the cards for future attempts to convince the Pennsylvania legislature to increase allocations to Penn State.

For many bars, St. Patrick's Day is far and away the busiest business day of the year. It makes sense that the bars would respond to the desire of many students to celebrate the holiday earlier, on a day when there are many more students in State College.

However, there are important and serious points to consider about personal responsibility and safety for this new holiday. The recent, high profile incidents involving DUI's raise the issue of student safety and it must be stressed in the strongest possible terms that students must practice a high degree of personal responsibility. As Penn State administration has pointed out, the movement of the holiday may mean additional expenditures on behalf of and work by police and medical services. An excellent indicator of student attitudes is the addendum to the Facebook group "The Official Group to Move St. Patrick's Day 2007," which encourages celebrating safely. It is important that we, as students, realize that State College police will be working additional shifts and emergency medical personnel will be busier than usual; so we should practice personal responsibilities for ourselves and for those whose jobs will be much more difficult on March 2.

In addition, increased financial support from Penn State would not be unreasonable, considering the number of students who will be observing the holiday in the borough. These additional funds would be helpful to set up checkpoints to curb irresponsible and unsafe behavior.

Perhaps there will be more disturbances on this new observance of the holiday, but certainly one must keep in mind that there are risks inherent in every holiday.

We must rely on a strong sense of personal responsibility to commit ourselves, as students to having fun, but also to maintaining safe personal conduct during the holiday.