This Sunday will be Binghamton’s 49th annual Parade Day. It’s a day of festivities that most students wait all year to partake in — so alluring is the prospect of day-drinking and parade-watching. Unfortunately, this year may by the last in which many underclassmen will have the chance to easily take part in the Downtown celebrations.

The 2016-17 academic year features a mid-semester break scheduled from March 3 to March 7, over which dorms will be closed. Parade Day 2017 falls on March 4, meaning that on-campus students will likely have a hard time attending one of the most iconic days that Binghamton has to offer. A theory going around is that the administration has scheduled this break on purpose to keep underage students away from Parade Day in an effort to parent the student body. However, the administration has assured students that the timing was unintentional, and said that it was simply an inconvenient coincidence. In addition, they explained that the breaks are not static, and will not fall on Parade Day every year.

In the past, we have asked for some time off in the seemingly interminable stretch between the beginning of spring semester and our spring break. Finally, the administration is delivering. Unfortunately, in giving students what they wanted, the University inadvertently took away something that students want even more.

The Editorial Board doesn’t buy into the theory that the break was added to keep students away from Parade Day. But for the sake of argument, let’s say that it was.

If we’re being honest with ourselves as students, we have to admit that Parade Day festivities can sometimes get out of hand. TVs get thrown out of windows, public urination is rampant and beer cans and red cups are scattered everywhere throughout Downtown and the West Side. It’s not difficult to understand why the University might want to spare the local community from our behavior.

And, sure, this behavior does not describe that of the vast majority of BU students who go Downtown on Parade Day, but it describes enough. Why not take this Parade Day as a chance to show the administration that there’s no need to worry about students causing trouble Downtown and maybe — just maybe — convince them to keep dorms open during next year’s break?

When you go out on Saturday, be courteous to the community around you. Tens of thousands of residents live in Binghamton, and the vast majority of them are not students. Many of the homes throughout Downtown, the West Side and Southside areas are full of families, eager to head to the parade themselves with their children. Let’s not get too crazy in public, especially in front of kids and impressionable high schoolers.

When you’re walking from your friend’s house on Chestnut Street to a fraternity on Front Street, hold onto your beer can and dispose of it at your destination, rather than in someone’s bushes. If you need to pee, find a bathroom and wait to use it, even if there’s a wait. If you see a friend who is crossing the line, call them out.

Look, we’re not saying don’t get drunk. Go out and have a blast — it is Parade Day, after all. Let’s just keep the over-the-top debauchery to a minimum so that there will be more Parade Day to go around.