State Patty’s Day came about last spring from the idea of Safeguard Old State Director for Student Rights, Joe Veltre. The idea came about after St. Patrick’s Day was allocated to occur during Spring Break. Thus leaving one of the top college towns in the country from enjoying this celebratory day.

Students quickly jumped on to the idea as Veltre’s social networking group jumped to 4500 people. Bars and Local Establishments followed in the holiday as well. Although many did not officially support the tradition, they managed to extend their hours to accommodate the demand.

In the end the holiday went off without incident and the Penn State family truly came together. There were celebrations and gatherings all over campus. The Greek community also bought into the tradition having events throughout the day. It was quite amazing how students came together as a collective whole.

This year again St. Patrick’s Day will occur during Spring Break. But more than anything there is a call for the student body to make this an annual tradition.

Thus, Safeguard Old State is stepping up to the challenge to ensure that that this tradition carries on in the current as well as in the future. For this current year Safeguard Old Statewill safeguard the tradition of State Patty’s Day and ensure that it benefits the student body as a whole and not just individual ideals.

In the future Safeguard Old State plans on leaving this organizational task to a State Patty’s Day Coordination Committee. Over the next few weeks we hope to secure an adviser and submit a constitution to obtain official club status for the coordination committee to ensure this tradition carries on in the future. As there are other coordination committees for Paternoville, Homecoming, and Blue and White Weekend, we believe that there is a committee necessary for this student created tradition and are stepping up to the plate to make this a reality.

The idea to safeguard this tradition came from communication by State Patty’s Day creator and Director for Student Rights, Joe Veltre, having concerns over the direction of this tradition. In communications Veltre had with Executive Director Gavin Keirans and Director for Advocacy Tom Shakely, they realized a student created tradition needed to continue on. Thus, they decided that Safeguard Old State needed to safeguard this tradition.

Safeguard Old State also believes that this tradition should be more than just the possibility of alcohol consumption. Thus as an organization we want to ensure that this year’s State Patty’s Day is held again without incident. We plan on working with SPA Late Night to offer alternative to programming and to truly embrace this tradition. There is no reason why the student body can not celebrate as a collective whole without major incident.

Our greatest hope as an organization is that the student body embraces this tradition once again this year. We believe that what happened last year was nothing short of amazing, in that students spoke up and came together to create a university wide holiday. Hopefully the university as a whole will bask in this great tradition and celebration.

Safeguard Old State firmly believes that there is a need to safeguard this student created tradition and will help foster the idea of an annual State Patty’s Day becoming a reality.