Campus was crawling with green last weekend. House parties were in full swing and there were lines down the street to get into the bars. Large groups of students gathered on their way to celebrate.
This is just a peek into what Wednesday might look like.
St. Patrick’s Day typically falls over spring break, when students are on vacation or visiting their families. However, since there is no spring break this year due to COVID-19, students will be on campus.
With COVID-19 placing restrictions on indoor occupancy at the bars and large gatherings carrying disciplinary action by the University, students are finding other ways to celebrate.
Jon Zheng, sophomore in Gies, said he has no plans for St. Patrick’s Day. However he knows many people that went out for Unofficial and have plans to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. He says being on campus for St. Patrick’s Day is just another reason for students to party.
“(The police) really need to crackdown or COVID-19 is probably going to have a field day,” Zheng said.
Zheng said the University has been inconsistent with their prevention of parties, citing that some Greek houses have been punished for partying, while others haven’t.
PJ Coleman, junior in ACES, said he had plans for a small indoor gathering on Unofficial, but hasn’t made any for St. Patrick’s day. He said this year’s celebration was very different compared to years past, but that it was still fun to get together with a small group of friends for a bit of normalcy. Coleman said he doesn’t think St. Patrick’s Day will be as big of a spectacle as Unofficial was.
“I don’t think St. Patrick’s Day is going to rival Unofficial, because it’s during the week, and I know a lot of people, like my roommate, have a heavy workload,” Coleman said.
He said it’s more unlikely for students to freely drink during the day on a Wednesday as opposed to a Friday.
Although the possibility of a weekday may hinder some students from stepping out due to classes, there is no way to know until March 17.

Jessica Brinkworth, assistant professor in LAS, gave some insight on how the cases may look after the holiday. She said that the most common trend campus may see after celebrations on campus is an increase in case numbers starting around four to five days after the event.
“A week after that, there starts to be an uptick in hospitalizations,” Brinkworth said. “About a week after that we start to see increasing ICU numbers, followed by an increase in COVID-19 deaths.”
Brinkworth said this all happens over a four to five week period. Depending on how many students participate in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, Brinkworth said a spike in cases is expected around campus.
The COVID-19 resource center on campus said that students should look over the COVID-19 events and gatherings website to be sure their celebrations are in accordance with the University’s COVID-19 policies.
“As long as everyone remains vigilant in their testing and does not participate in behaviors that put their health and the health of others at risk, we will have no need for additional worry,” Chantelle Thompson director of marketing and communications for student affairs said.

[email protected]