“# 1 Party School” is a very thorough report and therefore answers the questions posed by Harbrace. First, the reporters define the problem in a way that the audience will understand. They introduce the problem by giving a firsthand experience of downtown state college on a weekend night. They explain the scene and what they are experiencing and seeing so that people will get the full impact of the issue at hand. They are not simply saying “Penn State has a drinking problem.” Instead, they tell you about the kid that throws the pizza plate into the reporter’s yard and the boys who drag the stop sign out of the ground. The second chapter of the report goes further to really lay the problem down for the audience. They demonstrate just how prevalent, important, and deeply rooted partying is at Penn State. They show alumni and parents’ of students who help encourage this type of behavior. The audience quickly gets the sense that this is no small issue. It paints a picture that depicts a culture and way of life, which is not something to be easily changed.

The reporters of This American Life give several reasons why this issue needs to be addressed. One of the most evident reasons is the mayhem and vandalization that drinking and partying seems to foster. Public safety and human health were also among the top reasons why kids should drink and party less. But the issue went further than that. The report says that they did not want to report on Penn State’s drinking problem because it was the number one party school or because what goes on here is uncommon, but instead because it is common. This same issue is appearing in colleges across the country.

“# 1 Party School” does a good job at looking at the different groups that this issue affects. The Alumni, police, local business owners, bar owners, town residences, and Penn State administrators all are affected by the student’s heavy drinking. Alumni enjoy the drinking culture. They donate to the school; they support the football team, and they tie drinking into family and school spirit. The police are in charge of keeping the law and providing public safety. They are consistently being run wild over town to keep kids from peeing in public, falling asleep in random resident’s beds, and monitoring underage drinking. Local business owners have to tailor their inventory to what the kids want. As a former Mclanahan’s employee, I can vouch that until recently the condoms, lubricants, and pregnancy tests were all proudly displayed in the front of the store. While I was still employed there, one kid even tried to steal a pack of condoms. They also have a large stock of potential chasers, solo cups, and shot glasses. A local bar owner was asked about students’ drinking habits. I found it interesting that the drink of choice has switched from beer to liquor. I assumed liquor had always been big on campus. Town residents are the unfortunate soles who see most of the negativity involved with student partying at Penn State. It is their property that is vandalized and their neighborhoods that are made into noisy party scenes. Finally, the Penn State administrators, as Gram Spanier put it, have to “clean up the mess.” The administrators of the school are often falsely blamed for the risky behavior of the students. They are put on the spot when bad things happen to students due to drinking and partying. It is unfortunate, because their job is not to babysit us. However, the media and parents often look to them for explanations when someone gets hurt.

A lot of direct quotes were made in the investigative report. Several students were interviewed about their perspective on the issue of drinking. They got good quotes from kids that like to get sloshed such as, “I’m getting drunk and tailgaiting!” and, “If there was a drunk button…” They also got quotes from a student who does not drink at all. The College Pizza delivery boy, Alex Morre, was quoted saying, “Recently some kid broke my jaw…” while discussing chasing down a (probably drunk) kid for punching dents into another delivery boy’s car. The local residents were also represented in this report. One that comes to mind is the man who was quoted saying, “…I have motion sensors in the yard… I can hear which point they come in…” This particular fact freaked me out a little bit. A police officer was interviewed as well. One quote I found amusing was, “Sorry buddy, you were just caught peeing, I’m not shaking your hands.” The report was full of quotations from people that had different roles in the drinking and partying scene. One group I felt was not represented was the occasional casual drinker. I would have liked to know what they thought about the party scene. These drinkers would be the kids who do not have anything against drinking, but at the same time, do not do a lot of drinking themselves. They are the ones that only drink a few times a semester and do not do so to get drunk. I feel like they would be a moderating voice between the kids who want to get drunk all the time, and the poor boy who’s car has been abused by the drunk student body.

I feel that the specific conclusion that the writers of this talk show want their audience to reach is that drinking is an issue on Penn State’s campus as well as others around the country. They also want their readers to be convinced that what is currently being done is not enough. They stress that the “normalness” of the extreme drinking and partying is what makes this such a big deal. Furthermore, they offer possible solutions to the problem by comparing other university’s alcohol policies to that of University of Nebraska Lincoln. By giving an example of a successful alcohol control program, they seem to be suggesting that Penn State can fix their problem too if they would only choose to.

I have been at Penn State for a year now, and “#1 Party School” still managed to shock me. The data reported by the investigation seemed to be skewed toward excessive partying even more than I thought. I realize that the reporters from This American Life came to Penn State with the intent to prove that we are a party school. However, I do not see that as being ALL of what Penn State is. It is true, we like to drink, party, and have a good time. But we are also extremely smart young adults. We work hard and have an awesome reputation as being among the top schools in every category. Recruiters want us because they know that if you make it through Penn State, you’ll make it in the corporate world as well. Yea, the drinking might get out of hand at times, but welcome to college. Better yet, welcome to being a young adult. The kids in my home town who did not go to college are partying as much, if not more than my friends here. And why shouldn’t they? They are young and can get away with it now. Is it smart? Probably not. But neither is getting into debt, yet almost every American does that as well. My opinion is: monitor it and keep it under control, but do not make it a bigger issue than it needs to be. The police should put just enough fear into kids to keep them from getting into too much trouble. As much as I hate to admit it, the Alcohol Education online survey should continue even though it is a pain to do. Furthermore, the school should continue to promote a dry campus on campus. Off of campus, I think kids should be allowed to have fun. From what I have experienced, Penn State does a pretty good job of trying to keep things under control without cracking down too severely on kids.