First the Worst; Second the Best

A few days ago, I listened to a podcast recorded in 2009 about Penn State University being the "#1 Party School." The podcast was about two interviewers that visited Happy Valley on a typical football weekend. They interviewed a number of different people, including drunk students downtown, downtown homeowners, student and family tailgaters, and even a bartender. As I listened to these interviews, different feelings emerged at different points.

At first, I was mad at the first group of students being interviewed. I thought they were acting extremely idiotic because not only did they pull out a stop sign, but they were proud about it and bragged to the interviewers. As I went on listening to the stories about other students, it made me wonder whether these are the only students they are seeing, or if they are only reporting the extreme cases. Yeah, I'm sure there are some students that pee in public, vandalize public property, and break into houses due to their drunken state of mind, but that doesn't mean that this was happening to every student that they saw. These reports led me to believe that the interviewers only included the extreme stories in order to persuade the audience that Penn State is a terrible place. These stories about vandalizing public and private property make both ethos and pathos due to their lack of "doing the right thing" and helping homeowners relate to those in State College.

A lot of the stories told on this show seemed very familiar to me. A lot of them were accurate of Penn Staters, such as singing "Sweet Caroline" on the CATA Buses and the joyful tailgaters. Although I have never seen anybody urinate in public, light furniture on fire, or remove stop signs, I would not be surprised to hear of it. I just don't think that they are as common as they are made to seem. And these aren't occurrences that only happen at Penn State. Multiple times throughout the podcast, the one female interviewer stated that she was like this in college or even thought the same way as some of these students. This shows that Penn State is not the only school that is like this. These same occurrences happen at other universities across the country, but all the attention is focussed on Penn State because its own students voted it to be the "#1 Party School."

Personally, when I look at the party scene at Penn State, I don't believe that it is out of control. I think that Penn State is just like any other college. College students just want to have fun. Sure, they may do stupid things when they are having fun, but that's not only Penn State students. I believe that this report was accurate, but it did not compare Penn State to any other schools, which makes the report biased, in my opinion. In my opinion, Penn State should be defined by loyalty, unity, and devotion to the institution, rather than by its parties. I love Penn State, and the opinion of an outsider will not change my attitude toward the great institution.