This has to be some kind of sick joke, right? Either I’m reading this syllabus wrong or this professor is out to dismantle this campus’s most beloved tradition since 1996. And no, this isn’t about the Chief, this isn’t about taking photos with Alma, this isn’t about Three-in-One.

This is about my midterm on Unofficial.

I like to think that I’m a fairly open-minded person, but I’m not going to pretend I’m fine with this. In my entire history here at the University, I’ve never had an exam on a Friday, let alone in a discussion section for an upper-level class. As a professor at this University, he or she full well better know that this tradition happens on the first Friday of March every year.

There have been cutesy pop quizzes where you get a full quiz grade for writing your name on a piece of paper — although I’ve passed them all without studying too hard. It’s a shoddy practice I despise nonetheless. There have even been the adorable classroom parties where you get credit for choosing your favorite piece of candy from a bag, which is a form of taking attendance that’s borderline unethical but borderline delicious. I also got credit for those classes.

But this is the first time that I’ve had a full-blown, in-your-face, this-grade-will-decide-the-difference-between-an-A-and-a-C-in-this-class exam I’ve ever taken on Unofficial.

I can concede a bit: When the undergraduate population nearly doubles as visitors pour into Champaign-Urbana for the weekend of straight outdoor boozing, there are going to be some safety concerns. Students have fallen from balconies, several have been injured and countless more have reached blood-alcohol levels beyond what I’d ever want to feel.

Even at that, these shenanigans are not much different than any other weekend at the University. Kids will be kids, and kids at a top party school with the drinking culture to match are going to be really drunk kids.

Notice that I haven’t explicitly called it partying, instead opting for declaring it a drinking culture. Unofficial is not a party in the same sense New Orleans’ Mardi Gras isn’t a straight party either — they are traditions and will continue, regardless of what anyone tries to do to stop it. With the way students at this campus think and treat Unofficial, the only way that it will ever be completely shut down is when the culture of this campus lets it go on its own terms.

A culture is persistent. Last year, 289 tickets were issued, and of that, two-thirds were issued to non-University students and more than half issued for minor in possession. The year before that, 328 tickets were issued, and 265 the year before that. But the day goes on.

More than that, it’s not entirely fair to think University students are being any less responsible on Unofficial than any other day of the year. Considering that year to year, only a third of the tickets issued are to University students — the grand majority of them are given to non-University students who haven’t figured out how to have a good time responsibly.

An exam on that day, or any other form of punishment by grades, is not going to stop this. The rules got more stringent on bars, so the parties moved outside and into apartments. Purchasing liquor got a little more difficult, so people buy what they need a little earlier. Tests might be issued, so students will start the day a few hours later, but they will still start.

Try all you want to stop Unofficial, but it’s not going anywhere: It’s a badge of honor as a student here. It’s legendary. And the increased police presence, the hurdles put in the way, the tests, the administration and police’s calls for its end make that badge all the more worth it. Anymore, the harder anyone makes it for this day to go on in all of its Irish green glory, the more students are going to want it.

You can call it rebellion, but I’ll call it the memory that will persist beyond some test.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still hunker down to study and take the exam. But you only have me for one hour.

Ryan is a junior in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @ryanjweber.