The third State Patty's Day celebration was the student-created holiday's most dangerous, State College Police Department Chief of Police Tom King said, and measures will be taken to discourage the holiday next year.
Along with King, other State College officials said they were not happy with the high levels of public drunkenness seen on State Patty's Day. This year's holiday totaled 311 calls to police, surpassing the 262 calls last year and topping the activity seen during both 2008's Homecoming weekend and the 2008 Illinois football game weekend, according to police.
King has already taken steps to plan for next year's festivities.
He plans to work with student organizers and bars to "strongly discourage" activities that fuel the holiday, such as green beer and early hours.
Enforcement will be "vigorous" for all crimes and ordinance violations during State Patty's Day next year, King said.
"We will be requesting from the district judges that anyone violating on that day be faced with the maximum punishment allowable by law," he said.
A significantly greater number of officers will be scheduled next year if it seems the celebrations will be larger than this year's, King said. More than $4,500 of taxpayer money was spent on police overtime this year during State Patty's Day.
"While we cannot stop someone from organizing and having it, we would hope that the organizers would see that it does not have a significant purpose," King said. "It is taking away from the community. People get so drunk that they get hurt, hurt other people -- that's what I hope changes."
Mayor Bill Welch expressed his disgust at a State College Borough Council meeting earlier this month, calling State Patty's Day a "drunkfest" and an "alcoholiday."
Borough Council President Elizabeth Goreham said they are investigating the businesses that encouraged the event.
"We will write them a letter and outline the cost to our town and diminishing of resources we used on their behalf," Goreham said.
Beyond that, the council is considering talking to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to see what kind of limits could be imposed on the businesses to prevent early opening on State Patty's Day.
Tom Shakely, Safeguard Old State chairman, said Safeguard Old State will not be sponsoring State Patty's Day in the foreseeable future.
Shakely said he was "disappointed to see that so many took the opportunity to go overboard where it was pretty tame in the past."
However, the real issue, Shakely said, is that alcohol education is failing, liquor sales are up and "all the letters in the world aren't going to help anything" if citizens aren't living up to community ideals.
Executive Director of the Downtown Improvement District Jody Alessandrine said although some establishments may have benefited from State Patty's Day events, it ultimately hurt downtown businesses overall. He cited instances of trash throughout the downtown, harassed employees and negative publicity.
Alessandrine plans to work with the borough to discourage the festivities for next year.
"A 'holiday' that encourages drinking and public drunkenness -- it shouldn't come to that," Alessandrine said. "When we have to do that for people to do better business wise, God help us. We are better than that."
The university, however, does not have plans specifically to put an end to the holiday, Penn State spokeswoman Jill Shockey said.
King said those who drink responsibly are not doing anything wrong by enjoying the holiday -- it's those who are not acting responsibly who create the need for stringent enforcement.
