The Penn State student group which manages the camping outside Beaver Stadium has renamed their organization from "Paternoville" to "Nittanyville." The group stated that they made the decision on their own and without consultation from the university and Student Affairs, but they had notified school officials about the decision. The change was put up to a vote and that resulted in the switch to Nittanyville. The group announced the name change in a press release:
"This is a decision undertaken by and made solely by the Penn State student officers," said president Troy Weller, a Penn State senior. "Our four major officers, plus our six organizational officers, met via conference call and after careful deliberation decided, by a vote, that moving forward the group will be named Nittanyville."
The Vice President of the group, Jeff Lowe, also spoke to StateCollege.com and provided further background on the reasoning for removing Paterno's name from their group and the encampment. Lowe indicated that they had talked about changing the name once the long-time head coach retired:
"We always have discussed the idea of changing the name once Joe was no longer the head coach," Paternoville Vice President Jeff Lowe said Monday.
[...]
"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.
It's a decision that will certainly make waves on campus, and continue the heated debate around the statue of Paterno outside Beaver Stadium.
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