ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. (Feb. 25)-- Green-clad students filled the pizzeria as sophomore Michelle Mills waited in line at Mangia on West Main Street in Allegany last St. Patrick’s Day. Behind her Mills heard someone shout, “Look guys, I’m doing an Irish jig!” Mills turned around to see her friend frantically hopping around with a big smile on her face, clearly proud of herself.
“My friend was drunk and hopping around like an idiot telling everyone that she was Irish dancing,” Mills said. “Clearly, she wasn’t.”
Stories about drunken students and parties on St. Patrick’s Day are heard all around the St. Bonaventure University campus, but what about the students who choose not to party?
For sophomore Jeanine Boerio, St. Patrick’s Day had been uneventful.
Last year Boerio, did homework in her room.
“It was like a typical school night for me,” said Boerio, who planned to stay in again this year.
Boerio, an English major, said she would have definitely gone to a fun program on campus but did not hear of any.
Sophomore Nick Garuckas also did homework that night.
“I had a paper due and tests the next day, so all I did was write the paper and study for the tests,” said Garuckas.
Like Boerio, Garuckas, a political science major, said he would have gone to a program if he heard about one.
This year students will.
Rob DeFazio, director of the Center for Activities, Recreation and Leadership and the Richter Center, said there would be two programs for students choosing to stay in on St. Patrick’s Day.
At 8 p.m. in the Dresser Auditorium in The John J. Murphy Professional Building project INDIE, a nationwide independent film network, planned to show a movie. DeFazio did not know which movie. Unfortunately, the movie company working with the university decided to take a break from the film series leading to the movie being canceled, DeFazio said.
The Campus Activities Board planned to offer at least 1,000 free chicken wings in the Rathskeller from 7 p.m. to midnight, during the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament, DeFazio said. The tournament starts at noon and ends early in the morning.
DeFazio expected a good turnout.
“I would think we’ll have well over 100 people go down to the Rathskeller to eat and watch the basketball games,” DeFazio said. “With free chicken wings we’ve always gotten a good crowd.”
Garuckas said he would probably go to the Rathskeller for the tournament. “Free stuff is always good,” he said.
Free chicken wings interested Mills, who said she would probably go to the Rathskeller to eat.
Kevin Kriso, a Franciscan Friar and a program coordinator for Mount Irenaeus, said there would be a third annual Celtic spirituality evening away at the mountain. Kriso said students use St. Patrick’s Day as an excuse to party and narrowed it down to just celebration. Students have forgotten what the day and the symbols, such as the three-leaf clover, really mean, said Kriso.
Julie Smithson, a sophomore who coordinates women’s overnights at Mount Irenaeus, said the evening away focused on the life of St. Patrick and Irish celebration and traditions, she said.
“It’s a different option besides staying on campus and people drinking for St. Patrick’s Day,” Smithson said.
In the past only around six to eight students have gone each year. “Not everybody understood what it’s about,” Kriso said.
Smithson, a biology major, had concert choir practice last year and could not go. She would be going this year if she doesn’t have too much work, she said.
Maddie Gionet, a sophomore journalism and mass communication major, said she might be interested in going to the mountain.
Transportation to the mountain would leave the Thomas Merton Center around 4 p.m. and return around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., Kriso said.
Whatever students decided to do this St. Patrick’s Day, they agreed the campus would be painted green and full of good spirits. As Garuckas said, “Everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s day.”
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