I was excited to find out that we had a speaker in seminar today, it meant no work and who can be upset with that? The speakers we have had in the past have been a tad dry, but they did well with their job and shared a lot of useful information. I did not have a chance to check the syllabus before class, so the speaker was going to be a complete mystery to myself until he or she introduced his or her self. There happened to be two speakers for us and they seemed very promising. They both were young, almost a fresh out of college young, and that gave me an idea that they were not going to give us the typical “bull” that most older speakers gave. The fact that they were young made me feel related to them, it gave me the feeling that they know where I have been and they were not going to be afraid to tell it how it is. I had an exciting and eager feeling as they began, I did not want my standards for these speakers to have been too high. It was time to find out who these two people were.

My fear had come true. The main speaker introduced herself as a member of the “Know the Code” team and as a board member who helps figure out the punishments and consequences for breaking school policy. She was a part of the team that has punished a few of my poor friends who were cited for breaking the code. I would like to admit that I am not the kind of student who goes out and binge drinks every night of the week, or even on weekends for that matter, but I have had my share of fun in my duration at Penn State. I know that the citations some of my friends have gathered here were not the university’s fault, but their own. Having said that, I still had the feeling that this speaker was part of the system that has created the seemingly endless bound of rules that this university has, and I almost felt betrayed. Luckily for myself, that feeling soon changed and I began to listen to what she was talking about.

At first she talked about the certain punishments alcohol related incidents could have and the prices that stack up with them. I was intimidated to hear this because that kind of problem can really impact a record and is expensive. Although this was intimidating for me, I have heard it all before and my worries quickly subsided. The next part of her speech was about the rights of the victims. I did not know that victims had rights. This captured a lot of interest from the class. We learned that there is in fact a defense we could have if the code of conduct is broken. There are alternatives to being suspended and options that could significantly cut down on the fine costs. I hope that this will never apply to me, but it was nice to know that I have rights.

The next part of the speech was more applied and by far the most fun I have had in a class. Very applicable questions involved with alcohol, sex, and drugs were placed on the projector and we had to describe what an average student such as ourselves would do in certain situations. I was fortunate enough to be called on to describe to Dr. C what “pre-gaming” was. I knew that no judgement would be passed in this class atmosphere, but I can definitely say I was uncomfortable. However, I was not the truly unlucky student in the room. The guy sitting next to me had to describe to the speakers and professor how he asks for consent in sexual situations. The poor guy had no clue how to answer the question, and it certainly made for an uncomfortable situation. However, from this whole uncomfortable series of events came a very good revelation. It was better for us to feel awkward and learn the rules rather than us feeling awkward and being in trouble with the school or even the police. Knowing the rules is an advantage for students to follow them or at least act in a more responsible manner, and I am glad that our speaker shared this knowledge with us.