While many students and their guests eagerly await the beginning of Friday’s Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day, University and local officials are busy preparing themselves to keep the campus community safe and under control.

“In 2005 on Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day, we saw an exponentially greater number of problems than the year before,” said Lt. Holly Nearing of the Champaign Police Department. “Because of those problems, we felt like we had to take some concerted steps to start to deal with the public safety issues.”

Last year, 32 campus arrests were made by Champaign police on Unofficial, compared to 10 arrests the day before, according to police reports. In 2004, 14 campus arrests were made the day of Unofficial, but none were made the day before.

Also, local trauma centers saw a dramatic increase in the number of intoxicated people brought in on Unofficial.

“When you’ve reached the point in your community where your emergency rooms are saying that . they may not be able to provide service to the community because of all the intoxicated people that are coming in, that’s an issue,” Nearing said.

Allen Rinehart, Carle Foundation Hospital’s manager for the emergency department, said general communication within the hospital is important on Unofficial.

“We know that we are going to have several people coming in that are not breathing well,” he said. “We will have respiratory therapy ready to come and help us.”

The hospital’s security team will deal with combative, intoxicated students, he said.

On Feb. 1, Gerald J. Schweighart, Champaign’s mayor and liquor commissioner, signed an emergency order to prohibit Champaign bars from opening before 11 a.m. on Friday.

Under the order, businesses are also banned from selling more than one keg of beer to any particular customer between 6 a.m. on Thursday and midnight on Friday. Officials hope these measures will curb early-morning binge drinking.

On Thursday and Friday, University police and the Champaign Police Department will work together to help guarantee that all safety problems are addressed.

“All of the local departments that are going to be affected get together way in advance and start developing operation plans,” said Jeff Christensen, assistant chief of University police. “(Champaign police) will come help us if we need it.”

Nearing said she plans to pull officers from other parts of town and have other officers work overtime to patrol campus.

“We are going to have extra officers out there beginning at 8 a.m. and going all day long,” she said. “We’ll be hitting it as early as we can to keep a lid on things.”

Champaign’s police concentration will focus primarily on Campustown and its surrounding areas. Students who are acting “out of control” and bringing attention to themselves are the most likely to be targeted by police, Nearing said.

The University does not support Unofficial, because it “glorifies underage drinking, the abuse of alcohol and the negativity of alcohol-related behaviors,” said Bob Wilczynski, the University’s assistant director of residential life, in an e-mail to all University housing residents.

Last year, teachers complained about students coming drunk to Friday classes, said William Riley, interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs.

“Some of them went to class, because they didn’t want to suffer (penalties for missing),” he said. “They shouldn’t have gone. We do not want to see students going to class intoxicated.”

Those students who do attend class intoxicated will be dealt with “aggressively” by Riley’s office, and in some cases, directly by University police, he said.

Additionally, police and University employees will patrol University buildings to monitor student activity and prevent property damage. The University has instructed professors and teaching assistants to call 911 if there are emergency situations or disruptions in classrooms and they have instructed them to call a separate number for non-emergency situations where an officer or student affairs personnel is needed.

Last month, the University asked its fraternal organizations to ban any social activities on Thursday and Friday, Riley said.

The administration’s second concern is the influx of outsiders to the University.

“They don’t have as much commitment to the University or to the community and are more likely to create problems for themselves and others than our own citizens are,” Riley said.

He said the University would not take offenses committed by student guests lightly.

“What can happen is . our student judicial affairs office will contact that university’s judicial affairs office and share with them the problems we had with the student from their campus,” Christensen said.

Because of the increased numbers on campus, motorists are asked to be especially careful when driving this weekend.

Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District drivers have been warned to “expect the unexpected at all times,” said Michael Stubbe, the organization’s spokesman and operations planner.

As of now, there are no plans by the University or Champaign to cancel Unofficial in the future.

“We have an understanding that . part of the college experience is for students to drink,” Nearing said. “We understand that it’s a reality and that we’re not going to change that. What we are interested in is curbing binge drinking and behavior that puts people in harm’s way.”

Nate Jungheim, assistant manager of It’s Brothers Bar & Grill, 613 E. Green St., said the bar will open at 3 p.m. and will not celebrate “Unofficial.”

Other bars on campus declined to comment or could not be reached.