This week, I listened to an episode of This American Life podcast centered on topic of the Number-One Party School in the nation (according to Princeton Review) in 2009: Penn State. This podcast detailed four different perspectives from students, local business owners, police officers, and school administrators on life surrounding Penn State’s party culture. Throughout the podcast, I identified several ideologies that covered many commonplace beliefs in the State College community.
The first and largest ideology is obvious: Penn State is a party school. According to students, the university is so isolated that there is not much else to do but drink. In fact, 75% of students here drink on both Friday and Saturday nights. It’s just what they do. The podcast asked questions of many students heading to parties or at parties. According to those students, girls wear miniskirts in order to get into frat parties, everyone “pre-games” by drinking a couple shots or cups of beer in their apartments or dorm rooms before going out, and if a student is too young to get into a bar (and most of them are), “you just go to a frat party,” the wildest parties on campus.
Even though the students throw the parties, the party school ideology seeps off campus to the businesses of State College. The hosts of the podcasts spoke many “townies” to gather their opinions. One major consensus was that business drops after the football team loses – the depression spreads to the entire community, apparently. After talking with students, the owner of one of the town beer stores concluded that no one likes the taste of light beer, but light beer is what everyone drinks anyways. Another commonplace, stated by the owner of a local bar, is that less people get “stupid drunk,” but those who do are getting worse. This belief is shared by the residents of local neighborhoods, who must deal with drunk students defacing their property and breaking into their homes to find a place to sleep.
During the same year that Penn State was ranked the number-one party school, State College was ranked one of the safest metropolitan areas in the United States. This title is influenced by the large amount of money put into the town and university police systems to reduce the number of party incidents. One of the podcast hosts rode along with a State College police officer for a night, learning that after a few months, the officers know drunk students’ habits like the back of their hand. For example, students leave for parties from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m., start leaving after 2 a.m., and from 3 a.m. on is “victim hour,” where students start arriving in the emergency room. The officers also learn to avoid “questionable handshakes,” especially from the drunken public urinators that they write up nightly. Like the business owners, the police officers also know to expect a quieter night after a football loss.
The school administrators also believe in several commonplaces. After extensive efforts to curb student drinking (which continue today), many of the faculty have been forced to accept that higher consumption among students is the “norm” now. Raising awareness does not change behavior; even though students are more informed, they are still more likely to drink. After the alcohol-related death of freshman Joe Dado in 2009, the university encouraged students to look out for their fellow partiers, a plea which many students took to heart – even while they continue to drink.
The other ideology interwoven into the fabric of Penn State partying is school spirit. The podcast stated that students felt they must defend the number-one party school ranking as a point of pride; the students wanted to keep partying to stay on top. The football games are also a huge part of school spirit – just listen to the “WE ARE” chant reverberating all around the stadium. Tailgating, drinking, and football are inseparable, sacred parts of the Penn State tradition, especially for the thousands of alumni who come to the games. The administration believes that a crackdown on alcohol at tailgates and football games would irreparably alienate the alumni (upon whom Penn State relies for thousands, if not millions, of dollars in donations) and the students.
While the podcast hosts interviewed students and locals to find commonplaces, one can find them simply by observing the layout and buildings of campus. As a student, I have found three other important ideologies hidden in plain sight. The first is the most obvious: the priority of academics. Each classroom is equipped chalkboards and projectors to enhance learning. Most of the buildings – Huck Life Sciences, the HUB, Ritenour, Hammond, and the commons for each dorm area, to name a few – have study spaces where students can go to work quietly no matter where they are on campus. Professors promote sessions for tutoring with Learning or Teaching Assistants outside of class. In addition, the typical fifty-minute lecture time is enough to teach the needed material without losing the interest of the students, and classes are fifteen minutes apart to allow time for walking across campus. These common-sense decisions naturalize the importance of learning so that students understand that academics come first.
A second ideology I have observed on campus is the safety of students. There are crosswalks and sidewalks everywhere to keep students safe while walking the campus, though the students take advantage of these by assuming that every car will stop for them. Other safety measures include the presence of blue light emergency stations all over campus, the university police system, lit sidewalks at night, and the University Alert system which broadcasts emergencies straight to students’ phones. Also, only students who live in a specific dorm can swipe in to enter, preventing unwanted visitors from getting inside. All these measures are in place to enable students to worry less about their safety and focus on academics and activities.
The last important ideology I found hidden in plain sight is the campus’ promotion of a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. First, Penn State prides itself on being a walkable campus. Bike racks are also available outside of almost every building, encouraging students to use their bikes more frequently. Campus dining provides different areas with various healthy options to serve every student’s desires. The three major exercise buildings – White Building, Rec Hall, and the IM Building – are spread out across campus so that students can work out no matter where they live. In terms of sustainability, each dorm has bins for different types of recycling. Penn State toilet paper is made of recycled materials, and students put their uneaten food in compost bins at the dining halls. The availability of exercise and the promotion of sustainable practices teach students to live a balanced lifestyle that keeps them and the environment healthy.