I was outraged when I saw the headline in Tuesday's Collegian, "Prof. demands end; Dennis Shea asks peers to stop State Patty's." This is absurd. Sure, we can all agree that high-risk drinking can be dangerous. However, why not try putting an end to that instead of the holiday of State Patty's itself? Asking us to celebrate responsibly is reasonable, and the Interfraternity Council has taken steps to do that, such as limiting the potency of alcohol permitted at fraternity-sponsored events. Asking students to cease celebration completely, however, is not reasonable in any way.
As far as the church that was considering changing the date of its fundraiser because "member's won't venture downtown on State Patty's day," that is a fine argument for ending the holiday, except there are just as many -- if not more --organizations and companies that benefit from the celebration of the pseudo-holiday. I'm sure there are plenty of people who avoid downtown during football weekendstoo, but there is no professor on the front page of the Collegian trying to put an end to Penn State football.
Those are weekends of high-risk drinking for not just students, but for alumni and fans alike.
Jonathon M. Greig
freshman-political science
