User:Ultimate79/Unofficial St. Patrick's Day

Unofficial St. Patrick's Day (better known as Unofficial) is an all-day event celebrated annually at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It was created by campus bar owners so they could make more money and also to allow students the opportunity to celebrate St. Patrick's Day on campus since it normally occurs during the University's Spring Break. The holiday has become popular among UIUC students as well as students from other universities who travel to Urbana-Champaign to participate in the celebration. In 2012, over 10,000 people digitally acknowledged that they would be partaking in the event, many of them being underage. This shows the culture and the atmosphere that this event has fostered in and around the Champaign-Urbana area.

Background
Unofficial St. Patrick's Day was created in 1996 by campus bar owner Scott Cochrane. He, and other campus bar owners, realized St. Patrick's Day always occurred during the university's Spring Break and they were missing out on potential holiday-related revenue. Advertisements were created to promote the celebration of a new holiday, Unofficial St. Patrick's Day, which was celebrated the weekend before St. Patrick's Day. Its popularity caught on quickly, attracting not only UIUC students, but UIUC alumni as well as college students from other universities.

Controversy
Although most UIUC students enjoy and participate in the celebration of Unofficial , there are many who dislike the holiday and wish to see it stopped. University staff members, including Chancellor Richard Herman, the mayor of Champaign, George Schweighart, campus and local police, local residents, and others have voiced complaints about the event. Those associated with the university are concerned the event brands UIUC as a party school, because the event promotes binge drinking, instead of a world-class research institution. Also, many students find themselves attending class drunk on this day. The university believes students like this cause classroom disruptions and distract those students who are not participating in the celebration. Police and residents are more concerned with controlling law-breakers and the increase in hospital admittances to the point that non-student patients must wait for care.

Those who support the holiday argue that the students who attend UIUC worked hard to get in to the university, and continue to work hard to remain enrolled, so they deserve one weekend during the year to relax and forget about the stresses of schoolwork. In addition, participants feel a sense of unity with one another and they talk and joke as they pass by on the street. Differences in race, religion, sexual orientation, major, university, etc. are set aside for the day so enjoyment of the holiday can be experienced by all.

Notable Dates
2004 - Champaign Police worked with the owners of the campus bars to move the celebration of Unofficial forward one week because of the date's coincidence with the University's Engineering Open House. Since then, Unofficial has been celebrated two weeks before the start of Spring Break.

2006 - A 22 year-old girl, Caroline Yoon, died after falling off a motorcycle on Wright Street. This incident led to the increase in police presence on campus and crack-down on alcohol-related laws during Unofficial.

2009 - A man in his 20's fell three stories while trying to climb from an apartment building's third-floor balcony to its fourth-floor balcony. He was admitted into the hospital in critical condition. Police also handed out 267 citations including 103 public possession of alcohol tickets and 106 underage drinking tickets.

2011- Brad Bunte, a 21 year old Junior, was hit by two cars and rushed to emergency care at a local hospital. Brad died at the hospital, though both the family and the University of Illinois don't blame his accident on the holiday.

2012- Business administration professor and Champaign-Urbana Senator Mark Roszkowski suggest for bar closing throughout the entire weekend believing it will help to eliminate the holiday. Professor Roszkowski cites the success this action had with eliminating Southern Illinois University's Halloween celebration. Professor Roszkowski was the same Senator who proposed the state resolution to restrict Unofficial in 2006.

Celebration
It is common for participants to wake up very early, sometimes as early as 6 am, to begin drinking alcohol (particularly green beer). The drinking continues almost non-stop for the remainder of the day, or until he/she passes out. It is also customary to wear green or Irish-themed clothing, especially clothes with clovers on them. Many stores on campus take this opportunity to make specific unofficial clothing, often with a catchy phrase or saying on it. Some UIUC students decide to skip classes on Unofficial while some go drunk, though they risk getting caught and the consequences that follow, including dismissal from the university.

In recent years, Unofficial has started to become a two day celebration instead of one. However, under pressure from the chancellor and the mayor of Champaign, Scott Cochrane downplayed the holiday in 2009 by not advertising for the event.

Special Enforcements
Following the death of Caroline Yoon in 2006, Chancellor Herman, Mayor Schweighart, and Champaign Police have increased their efforts to control the celebration of Unofficial St. Patrick's Day. Below is a list of key policy and law changes made specifically for the weekend of Unofficial.

2006
The Champaign-Urbana Senate passes a resolution calling for a more concentrated attempt in trying to end unofficial.

2007

 * Champaign City Council voted 7-1 to give Mayor Schweighart more power as liquor commissioner in order to regulate the sale of alcohol on Unofficial
 * Bars cannot sell pitchers of beer or undiluted shots
 * Must be 21 to get into bars (usually only have to be 19 to get in, though you can’t drink)
 * One keg per residence
 * Police can break up parties considered "nuisance parties" and give party hosts citations
 * More staff in classes of 50 or more students to prevent disruptions. Student Disciplinary Committee voted that any student caught disrupting class on Unofficial could possibly be dismissed from the University
 * Increased law enforcement, including Illinois State Police

2008
In addition to the changes stated above, the University also restricted out-of-town visitors from staying overnight in university dorms by locking all their doors, which required an I-card to open. Also, anyone caught in the dorms without an I-card was asked to leave.

2011
More bad luck came to participating students during the celebrations in 2011. Over 300 citations were handed out, and of those only about 120 were issued to students who went to the University of Illinois. Yet this was not the worst for the day, Brad Bunte, a Junior at the university, was struck by two vehicles off-campus on University Ave. in Urbana. It is unsure whether or not the student was intoxicated when the event happened, and the University of Illinois has denied the correlation between the two events. Neither of the two drivers were ticketed, but this event lead to the police to promise to be stricter with their policies on Unofficial.