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"Unofficial" St. Patrick's Day



By Kris Fitzpatrick
University of Illinois Police


Spring is quickly coming to the University of Illinois campus. With the promise of a break from the cold, our students turn their attention toward spring break and a chance to get away from the books. Unfortunately before the annual trek to warmer climates, there has been a practice of local bar owners enticing our students to participate in what is called "Unofficial St. Patrick's Day" (USPD). This event has its focus on alcohol, with local campus bars opening their doors early and encouraging customers to gather and "celebrate".

In the recent past, University of Illinois officials as well as city managers and police have attempted to deal with the effects of this day by imposing later bar opening times, adding additional University and police staff to provide a presence on campus streets, in classrooms and housing units. Unfortunately, last year a UI alum was killed after falling off a motorcycle. This former student had returned to the UIUC campus to participate in the non-University sanctioned activities. University Police calls for service increased 58 percent during the day (7 a.m. to 4 p.m.), Champaign Police experienced a 42 percent increase and the estimate of the increase in costs for city, university and state public safety officials was $10,000 on that day.

Chancellor Richard Herman immediately expressed his concern with the event and over the past year has worked with University as well as city officials to develop a workable approach to addressing the problems associated with USPD. To be clear, USPD is not initiated, sanctioned, supported or condoned by the Urbana campus or the cities adjacent to it. Consequently, there are limits to what the campus or community can do to control or influence what is essentially a private, commercial venture and the personal behavior of individuals. The Chancellor's Task Force to Review USPD conducted surveys of faculty, staff and students in order to identify the impact of this event. By and large, faculty and staff do not like what USPD brings to their attention while student attitudes toward the event are tolerant and a sense of pride in establishing USPD as a tradition on the UIUC campus.

From the survey results, there was support for public safety increasing police presence, increasing police action/law enforcement and enforcing campus disciplinary actions. Comments from those surveyed strongly suggested that the campus would fail if it tried to eliminate USPD. This belief is supported by the many websites dealing with Unofficial St. Patrick's Day; one Facebook account shows 6,771 confirmed guests to their site which supports the event.

The University of Illinois Police works closely with the city police departments and University administration to provide a safe and secure environment for our students. Our mission not only involves enforcing federal, state and local laws but also educating our community about the effects of risk-taking behaviors. We view our mission as a partnership and would like to extend this partnership to the parents of our students. We ask that you talk with your sons and daughters and discuss with them the effects of binge drinking and individual responsibility for one's behaviors. Many of life's lessons can be learned from others; the impact of a criminal arrest or the heartbreak of injury can be avoided if direct and open discussions occur before an individual makes an unwise choice.

I truly value the opportunity to work with the vibrant and exciting student population and believe helping others to identify good choices is a core mission of our service. I ask that you join me in reaching out to our students to accomplish this mission.