OXFORD, Ohio - Police are warning Miami University students that they could be sentenced to community service during spring break if they misbehave during today's annual Green Beer Day tradition of drunken parties.
For years, the college students - aided by Oxford bars - have observed a tradition of all-night partying leading into the Thursday before spring break week. The custom of drinking green-tinted beer derives from St. Patrick's Day, which falls at about the same time.
Residents and police in Oxford, the city surrounding Miami's 16,000-student main campus, complain of student drunkenness, littering and public urination.
University officials and police have been stepping up efforts to discourage problems. Police reported 29 citations in 2001, 15 in 2002 and four in 2003.
This year, police said they will urge a judge to order misbehaving students to serve a community service sentence during spring break.
Wouldn't it be awful to have tickets to fly to the Bahamas for spring break
but then have to cancel your plans just because you got drunk? police Chief Stephan Schwein said.
Tyler Marriott, day manager at Mac & Joe's bar near campus, said the tradition brings people banging on our doors like they've never been in a bar before. The bar has ordered about a dozen kegs of green-tinged beer for the day.
Miami officials have sent professors an annual letter asking them to insist that students be orderly and focus on academics.
Zoology professor Ron Wiley decided to give his students a physiology exam this morning.
I honestly didn't even think of it initially Wiley said. But then, he added, When I thought about giving an exam on Green Beer Day
I thought
'Maybe that's good.'
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