Penn State: A Party School

After listening to the This American Life podcast, I had very mixed emotions about the general content and the manner in which they tried to present it. I feel as if this was given from a very biased standpoint, and doesn’t show what Penn State is really like. When put in the wrong light, anything can look much worse than it is. I understand the intent was to show the issues that are included with Penn State being a party school, but the way they presented their anecdotes and thoughts made us look like a reckless set of students who are in general destructive and out of control. I do agree that the party scene at Penn State is big and fairly linked to the university, but I think how they showed it over exaggerated the problems that happen, especially those to the extent of deaths and severe property vandalism. With that aside, some of the things that happen such as “drunk kid in the house” are inexcusable and should not be what represents the overall picture of our university.

I found many shocking moments during the podcast. One of the main things that disgusted me was how delivery drivers were treated. To think that students would damage their cars, verbally abuse them, and even break their bones when all they are trying to do is deliver the drunk kids their food saddens me. Another surprising moment was when they were interviewing a kid at a party who was talking to a female who he had just met that night, and he openly admitted to trying to take advantage of her. “I’m just trying to get her drunk so I can take advantage of her later,” he said. I know this sort of thing happens, but it is hard to hear someone openly admitting to trying to do something like this. I also thought it was a shame how the officers could predict exactly what would happen through the night. They knew that around 2 A.M. they would get their DUI’s, around 3 A.M. was the victims and people to the hospital, and around 4 A.M. was when “drunk kid in the house” commonly occurred. This shows that these events happen frequent enough that there are trends that are fairly accurate in estimating when they will be.

The podcast had many appeals in place which greatly increased the effectiveness of their points. They used a lot of logos during their discussion and included many facts when talking about Penn State as a party school. One of the memorable ones was how 75% of the school drinks. They brought in a lot of pathos when discussing the victims of these events (such as delivery drivers and owners of houses that were intruded). Also, when discussing the fact that students die from these activities, they made their argument more credible and ethically appealing. Regardless of the party situation, I will still see Penn State as a well-balanced, superb university.