On Monday night, the Interfraternity Council announced their ban on fraternities hosting State Patty’s Day parties. The IFC is hoping for a sober Penn State on February 25th, and instead plans to involve students in a (sober) “philanthropic event” in the downtown area.

The IFC announced that it was planning to team up with the Panhellenic Council last Wednesday to discuss different methods to help curb excessive drinking on State Patty’s Day. Evidently, a party ban is what was decided. Even though it would be an ideal time to enforce a more positive image on Penn State, there are still the majority of students who are not members of a fraternity.

What could they possibly plan as a “philanthropic event” that would be able to distract students from doing what they normally do every weekend? There’s either going to be a dodge ball tournament or some sort of DAYGLOW mock-up — nothing is going to persuade the students from their annual drinking habit. If anything, students will drink more in the privacy of their own apartments, and then emerge from their concealed confinements and re-enter society to wreak sloppy havoc in the downtown area instead of in the shelter of a fraternity house.

But imagine if this plan really does forever alter this holiday. The decrease in profit from retail stores, bars and hotels would be crippling. Even though students can easily make their own apparel, drinks, and mattress for their out of town friends to crash, local businesses find State Patty’s Day as their “Luck of the Irish” in revenue. This student-made holiday is not something that fraternities can eliminate by themselves.