When students first celebrated State Patty's Day three years ago, they did so on the tenuous foundation of not being able to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in State College, as the holiday fell on spring break that year.
Last year's holiday made even less sense, as St. Patrick's Day fell on the first Monday after break. This year, when the holiday falls on the Tuesday after break, the basis for the holiday becomes laughable at best.
Even more laughable is Safeguard Old State's (SOS) current attempt to commandeer the holiday for its own agenda. State Patty's Day began as a grassroots reaction to having one less day to get drunk in State College; SOS wants to turn it into an exemplar of how Penn State students can practice responsible drinking.
Regardless of SOS's agenda, you'll have a hard time convincing the guy standing in line at 6 a.m. at the Phyrst that State Patty's Day is about "moderation" and "responsibility," as SOS's press release for the holiday suggests.
You'll have a tough time convincing the cops and hospitals of that, too, as both are sure to see increased activity on Saturday.
Further, to suggest that it's a holiday about bringing the Penn State community together is off-base and in fact counterintuitive. Penn Staters demonstrated they can come together by raising $7.5 million for pediatric cancer patients this weekend. Drinking dyed beer and passing out before the sun sets is not how you demonstrate coming together.
On top of that, SOS wants the university to offer alternative programming for the holiday. If Penn State doesn't want people to drink -- and it shouldn't -- the best method is to just ignore it.
State Patty's Day does not need "alternative programming." Are students supposed to bake shamrock cookies in their dorms to celebrate a made-up holiday?
At its best, that's what State Patty's Day is: a giant drinking holiday.
To dress it up as some kind of ideological movement, as Safeguard Old State is trying to do, is ludicrous.
On its Web site, SOS defines its mission as aiming "to preserve and protect student rights and traditions, fostering a rugged and enduring sense of collective memory among the members of the Penn State family."
Fine. Do that. Don't try to pass it off as something else.
State Patty's Day is a shaky tradition as it is, particularly now that the reason for its inception no longer exists. For SOS to take it over for its own purposes and shroud it in a moral fog only serves to weaken the holiday.
There are many effective opportunities to promote safe drinking; a holiday dedicated to the very act of imbibing is not one of them.
