State Patty's Day is coming up, and it sometimes seems like everyone is telling students not to party. Ideally, admonitions to drink responsibly would be heeded and the problematic part of State Patty's would go away.
Of course, it doesn't work like that.
So, if you're a student leader and see that State Patty's Day, as it exists now, is a problem, what do you do?
The Interfrarternity Council (IFC) and University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) have ideas.
Taking a cue from reality is the IFC. The organization has mandated ground rules for parties on State Patty's. Fraternity parties on Feb. 27 can't have liquor or wine, and no more than 50 non-members may attend. It's a strong step.
For those who think even stronger measures -- such as a moratorium on parties -- should be taken, remember that we're talking about a Saturday. Completely stopping drinking and partying is an unreasonable goal.
The IFC's measures normalize the day, make it more like a theme party and less like an excuse to drink to the point of overdosing.
UPUA's solution is to take out an advertisement in this newspaper, urging students to avoid "bringing shame" to the university. It's a variation on the "Be responsible, and don't be an idiot" strategy. As this editorial board acknowledged earlier, simply admonishing students to behave hasn't been effective in the past. However, UPUA has less sway over the entire student body than the IFC does over greeks. This initiative is at least a step forward, and a message from peers, which may have more weight than one from administrators or faculty.
Regardless of all that could have been done, what is being done by student leaders is encouraging and shows that students are taking State Patty's negative repercussions seriously.
