#1 Party School

Personally, I thought this podcast was hilarious. As college students, we never really stop to think that there are other people besides us living in the State College area. We have this assumption that the town is made for us to party in and for us to walk around drunk in at three o'clock in the morning. Hearing about how ridiculous and stupid we look from the viewpoint of a State College residence in the first few minutes of the podcast was pretty eye-opening to me, and I couldn't help but laugh at the students being portrayed in the podcast. From peeing on people's lawns, to stealing stop signs, to walking into someone's house and sleeping in their bed in the middle of the night, Penn State students have done it all. Although these are extreme cases, it is definitely an apt portrayal of a Penn State students, because they (and pretty much any college student) will do stupid stuff when they're drunk.

Ethos definitely comes into play in the podcast. For the most part, the arguers have ethos and the people being interviewed do not. The arguers are sensical, calm, and sober while the others are for the most part drunk. The people at the tailgate seem irresponsible for giving this young woman drink after drink for their entertainment. However, when the narrators bring up their college days, they seem to have done a lot of the same things that us current college students do, which puts them in a similar spot as us (aka they don't have much ethos). I am proud to say that most of the scenarios depicted in the podcast were very familiar to me. When they interviewed those girls in front of East Halls waiting for the bus, I instantly pictured the exact scene in my mind and same goes for when they got on the bus. Sometimes the best part of going out is the bus ride or the "drunk bus" as some call it. I am proud to be a part of this at Penn State. What moved me was the story about the death of Joe Dado. I thought that this could happen to any of us if we're not careful, and it encouraged me to never leave a group of friends or never let a friend go off by him/herself. I was a little shocked that this news wasn't more publicized and that nothing was done because of it, but then again we are a school of over 40,000 people and it would be extremely difficult to make a chance because of this incident. This was definitely the part of the podcast that had the most pathos appeal for me however. I felt horrible that this had to happen to an 18 year old kid, and that it could happen to anyone that isn't careful, regardless of how much they have to drink. The podcast does include a lot of statistics such as how many Penn State students party and drink on the weekends. The numbers were high and compelling but I don't think they differ much from other colleges. It just seems like a crazy number because there are so many people at this school.

What I didn't like about this piece was that it seemed to define Penn State as a party school and that's all. It briefly mentioned football but not nearly enough, and it did not mention the fact that we have an excellent academic program at our school. Penn State students should not be define as party animals because there is so much more to it than that. We all go to class in order to excel and we join clubs to get involved. We also party on the weekends, but so does every other college with a mass amount of people ranging from ages 18-22. It's normal, but it does not define who we are. We are Penn State and we define ourselves.