The Penn Stater Magazine

The Fallout From State Patty’s Day

March 2, 2010 at 6:18 pm Ryan Jones Leave a comment

State Patty’s Day was celebrated in State College on Saturday, and the effects are still being felt. The fourth annual “holiday” attracted national media attention, with the likes of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, and U.S. News & World Report covering the event. The news leading up to this year’s party seemed to imply a toned-down affair—downtown bars agreed not to open early for the revelers, the undergrad who helped start State Patty’s Day announced he was disowning it, and at least two local bars, the Lion’s Den and the Shandygaff, didn’t open at all — but the post-party numbers told a different story. Local police announced 430 reports over the weekend and made 160 arrests — more than half of them of non-students and “visitors” who apparently came to town last weekend solely to party.

I’m sure that plenty of students — probably a large majority — enjoyed the day and didn’t get out of hand. Like a lot of locals, I avoided downtown on Saturday, so I can’t account for how crazy it actually was. Reading accounts of a hit-and-run DUI and the State College cop who was punched in the face, however, I think I made the right choice.

Ryan Jones, senior editor

Entry filed under: Campus issues, Controversy, Penn State students, State College, University Park campus. Tags: Centre Daily Times, Daily Collegian, Lion's Den, Philadelphia Inquirer, Shandygaff, State Patty's Day, U.S. News & World Report, Washington Post.