In recent years the student-created holiday, State Patty’s Day, was used as an excuse for Penn State students and their out of town friends to don their best green gear and drink in excessive amounts.
Erratic behavior from students and out of towners, left hundreds in the hospital, record-amounts of calls to police, it also left a community dumbfounded and disgraced.
However, this year IFC President, Vincenzo Lizza, decided to take a stand against the “holiday.” His role as a leader on campus, allowed his voice to be heard, and whether student reactions were positive or negative, Lizza definitely made his mark.
This year’s “State Patty’s Day,” was the least crime-ridden since its beginning in 2007. Overall, there were less hospital visits, less out of town visitors, and less community damage.
While he may not have stopped the “holiday” dead in it’s tracks, or even for good, Lizza stood up and most certainly made a difference. We sat down with him to hear his after-thoughts on the weekend:
HC: Give us a little background of the State Patties Day tradition (who started it, why it was started, when?)
Lizza: State Patty’s Day was created because in the spring semester of 2007 the real Saint Patrick’s Day fell over spring break and one of the students felt the need to create an alternate celebration day. The student’s name was Joe Veltre, who was a junior at the time. He says it started as a joke and it quickly grew interest, ever since then it has become a yearly event that typically takes place the weekend prior to spring break.
HC: Why did you think it was so important to ban the “holiday” this year?
Lizza: Granted everything that happened over the past few months here at school, the roundtable that I am a part felt this was not the time for State Patty’s to give PSU another “black eye.” I want to stress that the events that took place in November were not the reason that we made this decision, the discussions had been started prior to the Sandusky scandal. It is possible that the national spotlight we were under did accelerate the rate at which some protocols were put into place, but I firmly believe State Patty’s had run its terror last year and there were a lot of people looking to make sure it began to die this year.
HC: How did you bring up the vote for the ban to all of the IFC presidents?
Lizza: In presidents’ council—a bi-monthly meeting with the IFC execs and all 47 chapter presidents—we were discussing, as an executive board, what we should propose to the presidents. After a bit of discussion, we decided proposing an event ban on Saturday was worth the proposal and we wanted to see the reaction from individual presidents. After giving a short speech to everyone on my view points and what the “holiday” has done to State College and PSU, we tallied the votes and the majority was in favor of banning any events.
HC: What has been the response of the ban?
Lizza: I think all the presidents were pretty happy with the decision, however I knew there would be some members from chapters who would not be too happy. In the first few hours and days I received a few calls and emails telling me what we did was not the right choice and that the IFC had made a poor choice etc. After the first reactions began to simmer down, I think that members started to realize that the appropriate decision was made and there was not much resistance in the weeks leading up to Feb 25.
HC: Judging by this year, do you think the ban helped to minimize the “holiday?”
Lizza: Based on my personal interactions and trips around town, I think there was a significantly fewer amount of people in town. The “holiday” was definitely slowed down due the the fraternities and a lot of alcohol establishments being closed down. Essentially we dissuaded people from coming to town which was exactly our intent.
HC: How did you think Saturday compared to recent years?
Lizza: This year saw the first time since the “holiday” has started that the number of citations given and damage down has decreased year-over-year. The police reported that the number of calls in dropped from roughly 340 to only 240. That is a very significant figure, being that there were more police officers in town this year than there are for football weekends.
HC: What do you see for the future of State Patties day here in State College?
Lizza: After this year, I think State Patty’s will be back next year, but it will not be returning anywhere near the toxic levels that it has in years past. Students are still going to want to celebrate and we simply do not have power over their free will to do so. All we can hope is that it becomes a strictly PENN STATE event and not an event in which thousands of people come to visit their friends on this one weekend.