Centredaily – Several State College taverns will not sell alcohol on State Patty’s Day, this Saturday. The Partnership: Campus & Community United Against Dangerous Drinking, a collection of Penn State and local leaders, announced Tuesday that 34 bars agreed to not serve alcohol in trade for a $5,000 subsidy, according to a partnership news release. The money is expected to offset lost revenue the businesses normally would have received by serving alcohol. Taverns in the so-called “alcohol-free zone” will still offer food and non-alcoholic drinks, according to the release.“This could be a turning point in the conversation on high-risk drinking on this particular weekend,” Courtney Lennertz, president of the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) and a member of The Partnership, said in the release. “As students, we need to consider the bigger picture of our actions. We just raised an incredible $12.3 million dollars for Thon, but just one week later, we damage that reputation with a weekend of large-scale binge drinking. We hope that everyone will do their part on State Patty’s Day weekend to make our home an alcohol-free zone.”

Boo! Hiss! Boo! As I’ve said many times on these airwaves I have a fundamental problem with any decision that is made by the extreme minority under the premise that the majority isn’t smart enough or capable enough to make decisions for themselves. I mean there is no way 99% of the campus isn’t bullshit about this move yet somehow the 1% wins. They somehow have decided they need to protect everybody from themselves. This is not the answer to anything. The point of college is teaching kids to make responsible decisions on their own accord. Not treating them like they still live at home with their parents and aren’t real people yet. If a 21 year old kid can’t figure out how to hold his alcohol that’s on him. Like what happens when he graduates next year and St. Patrick’s Day isn’t banned?  Will he just die?

Bottomline is if he does something stupid that’s on him. Learning how to deal with your own actions is part of growing up.  It’s the whole point of college.  That’s the time to go fucking bananas.  Having the administration ban anything they don’t like defeats the entire purpose of going to school. Not to mention the fact all this is going to do is cause kids to get twice as fucked up in their dorms and shit now. Eventually one day people will learn that college drinking has always existed and will always exist. There is no way to stop it. The worst solutions are always ones dumb enough to pretend you can.