When faculty from the Office of Student Affairs visited last week, we got a chance to learn and talk more about the Code of Conduct here at Penn State. A lot of the things that they went over were obvious stuff mature young adults like myself and my fellow classmates should have learned while in high school, all of these relating to the core value of being socially responsible. However, there were a few new interesting things I learned and some things that had me thinking about how things really work.

First off, I learned that apparently you could plagiarize yourself, something that was also new to a lot of people. I mean, I understand that using something you have written before is pretty lazy, but at the end of the day it is your words and they are not the words of another person. If I express my ideas in the same manner at different points it seems weird that it would be considered plagiarism. I mean, for all the college and scholarship applications I know my college counselors told me to use the same essay if it was applicable because it saves time, so that all threw me for a loop. Like I said, I understand and from a standpoint of being socially responsible it is not responsible to be lazy and just take something you’ve written before and use it word for word, but I just don’t believe that to be plagiarism.

            The other thing I found interesting was our very extensive, interactive discussion about consent. I know a lot of fellow scholars will touch on this because it was a very interesting conversation based on how things are perceived these days and how we interpret things. Now I clearly understand what consent is, but like everyone else it is hard to find the exact definition realistic. To just directly ask someone “Can I have sex with you?” is unrealistic, a mood killer, and results in you not having sex. As many of my classmates pointed out a lot of things today are implied, and most people know what you mean if you ask if they want to go somewhere else. However, like I said I understand that you should clarify that consent is being given; you just need to find a good way of doing so. Or in simple words follow the core value of being socially responsible and do the things that you know you have to do to avoid getting in trouble, which I will do by just using my common sense.