One of the ideologies represented in the podcast was the connection between drinking and the football season that unites many Penn State fans. Yesterday was my first experience with physically seeing all of the tailgates outside the stadium, and I was shocked at how open all of the people hosting tailgates were; even if you didn’t know who was there, through the Penn State family you would be offered all kinds of food, games, and of course drinks. Alcohol was the other major commonality I saw at the tailgate, as no matter where you looked there were always people drinking. The podcast described how some people view the drinking on campus as either a safety hazard or the inconsequential behavior of college students; in this case, I would describe the tailgates as the latter, as there did not seem to be any tangible problems that arose due to the behavior.

Later at night, however, the ideology of the students seems to shift towards more unsafe drinking habits. If you walk around downtown later at night, you see lots of students going to/from parties, large crowds around bars, and sometimes the occasional person with an open beverage on the streets. Through alcohol education, knowledge of safety while drinking has joined the common sense of nearly all the students on campus, but rather than changing the ideology to want to drink more responsibly, it seems to confirm their current behaviors as the drinking habits don’t change. To best describe the situation, I would use the oxymoron that students drink “irresponsibly safely,” They know their drinking habits are not fully safe due to their education and prior knowledge but don’t believe it is unsafe enough to warrant changing their behavior, so they simply continue the same practices.

This ideology primarily encapsulates the downtown area, as that is where most of the parties seem to be, but why is that? I believe that this is because college dorm rooms cannot accommodate as many people as a fraternity house or off campus apartment can, so people naturally flock to the parties that can hold more people. Furthermore, it is also more difficult to throw a loud party within a dorm, and more punishing consequences for getting caught there. This also contributes to the ideology of going downtown to party for students, and a large number of students following the same behavior helps to bring a feeling of safety, making up for the safety lost from their alcohol intake. Wrapping all of this up, the natural campus dorm size and policies push the ideology of students to party downtown, and despite the education of alcohol safety, students continue to follow some unsafe drinking practices due to the sheer number of students doing the same that can contribute toward a feeling of safety for the students.