“Go home and study” Joe Pa

This podcast for the most part just made me angry. Once the speaker said that Penn State was ranked the number one party school through a poll that was voted on by college students, I felt the whole argument lost its validity. Obviously, Penn State students are going to vote for their school to be the number one party school in the nation so they can brag about it to all their friends back home. I did not think it was fair for the podcasters to criticize the students for drinking cheap horribly tasting alcohol. Maybe if it was not tens of thousands of dollars to go to this school we could afford to buy more expensive and better tasting alcohol. And then of course the speakers blamed much of the partying problem on the football program. At the time of the podcast, the man who was the head coach of the football team and the face of the school preached academic excellence. Joe Paterno donated a magnificent library to this University and did not tolerate poor grades amongst his players. I feel students party and drink just as much in the spring, as they do in the fall during the football season. Yes there is no tailgating in the spring, but each weekend there are huge day time parties that take place outside (Day Longs) preceding the night parties.

I do feel that the podcast did bring up some good points however. Though I do not believe it is only Penn State students, the vandalism here is a big problem. Also after listening to this podcast I did feel sympathetic toward the residence of State College who are living here and not attending PSU. These residences should not have to put up with students; urinating on their lawn, damaging their property, or even breaking into their home. I was surprised that the podcast did not focus on the completely made up drinking holiday, State Patty’s Day. I thought for sure the speaker was going to heavily criticize the student body for creating this holiday.

I also do think the report was accurate in some cases. I agreed with the parts about; the fratket, pre-gaming, the cheap alcohol students consume, and when they described the fraternity’s windows that were covered with garbage bags. I feel all these things are all completely true and are all a part of the party scene at Penn State.

What the podcast failed to mention is that Penn State is an extremely prestigious University in regards to academics. Penn State is very highly ranked amongst Public Universities and the Business School was recently rated number one by recruiters. Students do not just come here to party and get poor grades. Yes there are some who do, but the majority of students go on to graduate and that is what should define Penn State.