Penn State students have pitched tents outside Beaver Stadium in order to score the best seats for that week's football game for nearly 20 years. Starting with the 2005 home game against Ohio State, the name of that tent city became known as Paternoville, and it was eventually recognized by the university as an official campus organization. But in what Ben Jones of StateCollege.com is calling "the first significant step in sanitizing Joe Paterno from university imagery," the group has decided to change its name to Nittanyville.
And, yes, the damaging revelations in last week's Freeh Report triggered renewed discussions that led to the change. Here's what Jeff Lowe, the group's vice president, told Ben Jones:
"The idea of being in the middle of a political war over the name, due to our association with Joe Paterno, has to lead to threats, hate mail and efforts from people outside of Penn State to try and ruin our ability to run an effective organization," Lowe said.
The Nittanyville group is also planning to donate some of its fundraising to a newly established children's protection center. But to judge by the comments on the group's Facebook page, the name change is not going over well among some Penn State students.