1.) Opening Scene:
-It’s a Wednesday night around 10:00 and Dillon Gentekos locks up his friend’s bike outside of Tener Hall and goes inside
-The next day Dillon gets a text from his friend saying he can’t find his bike.
-“Please tell me you didn’t lock it through the wheel.”
-“Ok, I’ll look around some more.”
- The bike is gone and all that is left behind is the bike lock
2.) “It really ruined his day. It really ruined my day because now I owe him 300 bucks.”
3.) Nut Graph:
- I am writing about crime and safety at East Halls. I chose this issue because it is something that affects everyone at Penn State and is a serious issue for students and Penn State administration.
- My audience should care about this issue because it is something that they see and have to deal with every day.
- Recently there have been multiple reports of theft and indecent exposure in East residence halls, so it is an issue that is very relevant.
- “The Penn State Police Department will increase police officer and student auxiliary officer patrols on campus in response to a string of indecent exposure incidents reported in the residence halls.”
4.) Background:
- Safety has been a concern for the school for many years.
- “Safety on campus is one of the highest concerns.” – Graham Spanier
- The school has put much effort into safety measures, such as I.D. cards, lockdowns of residence halls, room keys, police patrols, lighting up walkways at night, and education programs.
- “Before the 24-hour lockdowns on residence halls and I.D. cards, the male resident halls were never locked.” – Officer Frank Ball of the Penn State Police Department (25 years at Penn State)
- “Bands of thieves would go around the residence halls and push on the doors. If they opened and no one was there, they would take anything they wanted.”
- I can use specific statistics about crime on campus to show how often crimes are reported.
5.) Common Crimes on Campus:
- Theft, alcohol laws, and drug laws are the biggest reported crimes on campus.
- Two burglaries have already been reported in East Halls this year.
- Bike thefts have greatly increased recently
- “Bike theft, for some reason, has been huge in the past year. The numbers of bikes reported stolen have skyrocketed.” – Officer Ball
6.) Crime and Safety in East Halls:
- “I think East Halls are generally pretty safe, there really isn’t that much crime. I mean, there’s always something going on, but never really anything major.” – Ryan Blatz, 4th year student, RA at Pennypacker Hall
- “Not really. Actually, East is less safe than the other resident halls because of all of the freshman here that are more likely to commit crimes than other students.” – Ryan
- East Halls are actually “the biggest area of concern” for the campus police. Most police calls come from east.
- Most people on campus in one area, more freshman – “new people”
-Use statistics about crime: how they have increased or decreased over years and how they compare to other places on campus.
7.) Safety Measures/ Crime Prevention:
- I.D. card system used to get into residence halls.
- “It works very well and has helped in a lot of ways.” – Officer Ball
- Piggybacking – someone letting into a residence hall behind them, whether they live in that residence hall or not – allows for anyone to get into a protected residence hall
- “It is a big problem. It’s just so natural do and so easy.” – Officer Ball
- Locking room doors can prevent a lot of crime such as theft.
- Logan, 1st year student left room unlocked by accident and roommate got mad: “He got really upset about it.”
- Lighted walkways are very important at night.
- Emergency phones are actually being taken out because of cell phones and cell phone tracking
- Crime prevention education programs are available from the campus police
-Ways to prevent crime: “Always lock your doors, even if you’re just going to the bathroom. Never leave your things behind and watch your alcohol consumption.” – Officer Ball
8.) Conclusion:
- Safety is a big issue at Penn State for both students and the school.
- Much can be done to prevent crime by students, faculty, and the police
- More things are being done to help prevent crime in the future, such as new safety measures like increased police patrols and more security cameras
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Journal 5
For my investigative report, I am looking into safety at East Halls: how safe people feel, the amount of crimes that occur at East, and what is being done to help make the campus safer. Out of all of the places at East, a large amount of crimes occur in the dorms. Most of the dorms at East are very similar and have similar ways of keeping the residents safe and keeping unwanted people out. In order to get in, a student from the building needs to swipe their I.D. card at the entrance. This seems like a great safety measure, as anyone who doesn’t live in the building can’t get in without someone from the building letting them in. There’s even a very loud and obnoxious alarm that goes off when the door is open for a certain amount of time to make sure that anyone from outside can just walk right in. The problem is that even with these safety features, it is still fairly easy for anyone to get in whatever dorm building they want by either pretending to live in the building and have someone open the door from them, or by “piggybacking” and having someone who lives in the dorm let someone in the door as they walk in, even though they don’t know them. Now that they are in the dorm, they are able to commit whatever crime they had planned, whether it is finding an empty, open room to steal something, or a whole different kind of crime, like indecent exposure, both of which are crimes that have occurred in East Halls in the past two months.
I asked my R.A. Ryan, a fourth-year student at Pennypacker, a few question about safety in East Halls. When I asked him if he thought if East Halls were safe, he said “I think East Halls are generally pretty safe, there really isn’t that much crime. I mean, there’s always something going on, but never really anything major.” I then asked him if he thought East was safer compared to the rest of campus, and he said “Not really. Actually, East is less safe than the other resident halls because of all of the freshman here that are more likely to commit crimes than other students.” I also asked Richard, a first year student in my dorm, if had heard about any crimes that had occurred in East. He told me that “A couple weeks ago in Packer, some drunk, naked guy barged into a room and tried to get into bed with some random girl who was sleeping. I don’t know if he was arrested or not, but he was cited for underage drinking.”
I found out many interesting facts about safety at Penn State on the campus police’s website, www.police.psu.edu. One thing I found out was about Penn State’s Auxiliary Police, which uses students to “provide extra eyes and ears to the police and deter misconduct and criminal behavior through visible patrols.” These Auxiliary Police Officers patrol around residence halls, including East, and report any suspicious activity or crimes to the campus police to take care of. Also on this website, I found that if someone has witnessed a crime on campus and wants to report it anonymously, he or she can use Penn State’s “Silent Witness Program” to email the details of the crime to campus police. In "Policies, Safety, & U,” an annual crime report published by Penn State, many of Penn State’s crime statistics and safety procedures are detailed. According to the report, liquor law violations and larceny (theft) are the two most commonly reported crimes on campus. The report also details many of the ways Penn State works to prevent crime, such as the Penn State Police Walking Escort Service that has police escorts available “from dusk to dawn” 365 days a year, the 2,700 walkway lights that provide safe roads and paths to use at night, and the more than 200 emergency phones places all around campus.
One thing that I want to look further into for my report is how safety in East really compares to other places at Penn State, which I can find out by looking at police and crime reports from places all over campus and from different years. Another thing I really feel like I should to do is interview someone from the campus police, whether it is an officer or someone who works for the police, as they can probably answer many of the questions I have and probably give me many great details and facts about crime and safety in East Halls and at Penn State.
I asked my R.A. Ryan, a fourth-year student at Pennypacker, a few question about safety in East Halls. When I asked him if he thought if East Halls were safe, he said “I think East Halls are generally pretty safe, there really isn’t that much crime. I mean, there’s always something going on, but never really anything major.” I then asked him if he thought East was safer compared to the rest of campus, and he said “Not really. Actually, East is less safe than the other resident halls because of all of the freshman here that are more likely to commit crimes than other students.” I also asked Richard, a first year student in my dorm, if had heard about any crimes that had occurred in East. He told me that “A couple weeks ago in Packer, some drunk, naked guy barged into a room and tried to get into bed with some random girl who was sleeping. I don’t know if he was arrested or not, but he was cited for underage drinking.”
I found out many interesting facts about safety at Penn State on the campus police’s website, www.police.psu.edu. One thing I found out was about Penn State’s Auxiliary Police, which uses students to “provide extra eyes and ears to the police and deter misconduct and criminal behavior through visible patrols.” These Auxiliary Police Officers patrol around residence halls, including East, and report any suspicious activity or crimes to the campus police to take care of. Also on this website, I found that if someone has witnessed a crime on campus and wants to report it anonymously, he or she can use Penn State’s “Silent Witness Program” to email the details of the crime to campus police. In "Policies, Safety, & U,” an annual crime report published by Penn State, many of Penn State’s crime statistics and safety procedures are detailed. According to the report, liquor law violations and larceny (theft) are the two most commonly reported crimes on campus. The report also details many of the ways Penn State works to prevent crime, such as the Penn State Police Walking Escort Service that has police escorts available “from dusk to dawn” 365 days a year, the 2,700 walkway lights that provide safe roads and paths to use at night, and the more than 200 emergency phones places all around campus.
One thing that I want to look further into for my report is how safety in East really compares to other places at Penn State, which I can find out by looking at police and crime reports from places all over campus and from different years. Another thing I really feel like I should to do is interview someone from the campus police, whether it is an officer or someone who works for the police, as they can probably answer many of the questions I have and probably give me many great details and facts about crime and safety in East Halls and at Penn State.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Journal 4
In This American Life’s radio broadcast titled "#1 Party School,” the radio show does a report on how alcohol plays a role in the life Penn State students, faculty, police officers, and residents. The reporters make the object of their report obvious to the audience and easy to understand. They discuss the issue of drinking at Penn State thoroughly and use terms that make sense. They decided to discuss this issue because Penn State had just been ranked as the number one party school in the nation for the year by Princeton Review, which they saw as a reason the do the report. Throughout their discussion, they give many facts and specific details about how drinking and being in possession of alcohol affects the many different groups that are involved with the issue at Penn State. For a large part of the radio show, they use interviews with many different people around the campus to show how students drinking alcohol effects them. The quotes and statements that they get from these people give great detail and firsthand experience about how they are affected by the issue. There are also many specific pieces of data that are used, such as how about three out of four Penn State students drink, which really helps to put in perspective how many people are really effected by this issue.
One thing that I really liked about the radio broadcast was how many interviews they conducted from a large range of people with different views on the issue. These included residents of State College, students (even students who were drunk at the time,) a pizza delivery man, local business and bar owners, a police officer, and even Graham Spanier. All of these people show different perspectives on the issue, whether they are tired of all of the drunk people messing with their yard like the State College residents, or are happy to have the students there, like the bar owner, even if they are a little rowdy. Then, there are the perspectives of those who are trying to change the issue, such as Graham Spanier, who acknowledge that there is an issue but say that it is almost impossible to find a solution. Because they interviewed so many different people, I think just about every perspective was represented through some kind of quote or statistic. By the end of the broadcast, the reporters wanted the audience to see how students drinking alcohol effected Penn State, but most of all, what can be done about the issue, either by the administration of the school and the police, or by the students themselves.
I think that the podcast was mostly well done and I enjoyed listening to it and I really liked all of the interview recordings, especially the ones that were done “on the street,” such as the one interviewing drunk people on the street and the ride with the police officer. One thing that I didn’t like was how some of the interviewers were trying to force their negative opinions while conducting the interviews and presenting the broadcast. Throughout the radio show, they talked about how much drinking was going on at Penn State and how rowdy drunk people could be on the weekends, but that is probably all they focus on. I know that’s the point of this radio broadcast, but they barely ever show any positive examples of what Penn State is doing. Also, for example, when interviewing the one student on her 21st birthday, the one reporter almost tried to make fun of the girl for spending her birthday drinking when asking her questions. One thing that I would have liked is for the people giving the interviews to try and keep the actual interview as balanced as possible without trying to force their beliefs while conducting the interview.
One thing that I really liked about the radio broadcast was how many interviews they conducted from a large range of people with different views on the issue. These included residents of State College, students (even students who were drunk at the time,) a pizza delivery man, local business and bar owners, a police officer, and even Graham Spanier. All of these people show different perspectives on the issue, whether they are tired of all of the drunk people messing with their yard like the State College residents, or are happy to have the students there, like the bar owner, even if they are a little rowdy. Then, there are the perspectives of those who are trying to change the issue, such as Graham Spanier, who acknowledge that there is an issue but say that it is almost impossible to find a solution. Because they interviewed so many different people, I think just about every perspective was represented through some kind of quote or statistic. By the end of the broadcast, the reporters wanted the audience to see how students drinking alcohol effected Penn State, but most of all, what can be done about the issue, either by the administration of the school and the police, or by the students themselves.
I think that the podcast was mostly well done and I enjoyed listening to it and I really liked all of the interview recordings, especially the ones that were done “on the street,” such as the one interviewing drunk people on the street and the ride with the police officer. One thing that I didn’t like was how some of the interviewers were trying to force their negative opinions while conducting the interviews and presenting the broadcast. Throughout the radio show, they talked about how much drinking was going on at Penn State and how rowdy drunk people could be on the weekends, but that is probably all they focus on. I know that’s the point of this radio broadcast, but they barely ever show any positive examples of what Penn State is doing. Also, for example, when interviewing the one student on her 21st birthday, the one reporter almost tried to make fun of the girl for spending her birthday drinking when asking her questions. One thing that I would have liked is for the people giving the interviews to try and keep the actual interview as balanced as possible without trying to force their beliefs while conducting the interview.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Journal 3
In “Shitty First Drafts,” Anne Lamott describes the beginning of her writing process and what she does to get started when writing an article or paper. When I’m first writing a first draft of the paper, I feel like I go through many of the same things. When I first sit down to write my first draft, for me the hardest part is getting started. I will usually sit there just thinking about how to start off my paper. Eventually I’ll write something down, but after looking at what I just wrote for a few seconds, I usually erase it and start completely over. For example, when writing this journal entry, I completely re-wrote the first sentence twice after analyzing my first two sentences, and I had a similar experience when writing my narrative. But usually after that, like Anne, I take a quick break. Once I have an intro I like written down, the rest of the paper seems to come easy, even if it isn’t really that great. When writing my narrative, getting started and writing the intro paragraph was probably the hardest part because in the intro you’re supposed to give the basic idea of your paper and basically summarize it. In the body paragraphs, you’re then supposed to explain in detail what you wrote in your opening paragraph. Once I wrote the opening paragraph to my narrative, I used my outline and wrote about three pages worth of my paper without stopping for any breaks because it just felt so much easier after getting over that first “bump.”
After thinking about what Anne wrote, I feel like writing a rough draft first is really the best way to begin writing a paper. In high school, when writing a paper, I would almost always write my paper all at once, usually in one sitting. As I was writing, I would look over what I typed as I was writing the paper and correct anything I wanted to change right there. Once I finished the paper, I would look over it once to see if there were any spelling or grammar mistakes and then I would be finished. The problem when doing this is that, for me, it would take me a really long time since I am figuring out what to writing and also making sure the paper is good enough to be handed in. Basically, I would be writing a rough draft and a final draft all at once. Starting out by writing a rough draft is much smarter. For me, the point in writing a rough draft is getting all of my ideas down, which is the hardest part of writing a paper. After I have all of the information I need to write the paper down, I just need to reorganize it and put it in to better words to make it presentable. As I finished writing the rough draft for my personal narrative, I thought to myself “it’s not really that great, but at least I have all of my ideas down.” The thing is, it’s not supposed to be ready to be handed in, it’s just supposed to be a start on my paper.
After thinking about what Anne wrote, I feel like writing a rough draft first is really the best way to begin writing a paper. In high school, when writing a paper, I would almost always write my paper all at once, usually in one sitting. As I was writing, I would look over what I typed as I was writing the paper and correct anything I wanted to change right there. Once I finished the paper, I would look over it once to see if there were any spelling or grammar mistakes and then I would be finished. The problem when doing this is that, for me, it would take me a really long time since I am figuring out what to writing and also making sure the paper is good enough to be handed in. Basically, I would be writing a rough draft and a final draft all at once. Starting out by writing a rough draft is much smarter. For me, the point in writing a rough draft is getting all of my ideas down, which is the hardest part of writing a paper. After I have all of the information I need to write the paper down, I just need to reorganize it and put it in to better words to make it presentable. As I finished writing the rough draft for my personal narrative, I thought to myself “it’s not really that great, but at least I have all of my ideas down.” The thing is, it’s not supposed to be ready to be handed in, it’s just supposed to be a start on my paper.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)