Blue & White and Red All Over

A tipster has whispered a disquieting rumor to the Almanac: Penn State McKeesport Campus might not be for very much longer. That is to say, "McKeesport Campus."

Rumor has it, according to this source, that the university's board of trustees is mulling a decision to rename the campus "Penn State Allegheny."

The idea? Why, to distance the campus from Our Fair City!

(Gee, thanks. With friends like these ...)

I've been trying to tell the Tube City Tiger that this might just be a trial balloon that someone is floating, but he still spent most of the night growling at his poster of Joe Paterno.

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As it turns out, PSM's student newspaper, The McKeesport Collegian, had a front page story about this very topic.

Students in a public relations class were asked to analyze the last six months of media coverage "trying to determine whether or not the name McKeesport has given the campus 'a bad rep.'" The coverage is being categorized as "positive" or "negative," though the Collegian story doesn't indicate what the tally was.

(Given that the period would include both the Tanya Kach case and the now notorious Whizzinator microwave incident, I have a feeling the tally would go against Our Fair City.)

The Collegian reports that the information is being sent to Penn State President Graham Spanier, who will determine "whether or not Penn State McKeesport should become Penn State Allegheny" or some other name.

(This is an ideal place for the Almanac to remind you, our Alert Reader, that opinions expressed in the Almanac are not those of the editor's employers or of any group for which the editor does work. In fact, sometimes, the editor is not sure they're his opinions, either.)

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Now, the argument for renaming the campus goes like this: If the name "McKeesport" is associated with decline and crime, then prospective students will be less likely to consider PSM. (About 800 students are currently enrolled there.)

A PSM professor, Dr. Delia Conti, voiced a slightly different concern at Penn State's faculty senate meeting back in December.

"I have a houseful of seniors, and they talk about Penn State (University Park) or Penn State Erie," Professor Conti told Spanier. "They never talk about Penn State McKeesport, Penn State New Kensington, Penn State Beaver, Penn State Fayette. They go to Erie, not because of the beautiful city or the weather, but because there are four thousand students.

"Why not make the bold move and have a Penn State Pittsburgh? I know it would take a lot but it is not hard to figure out why students are picking (State College) and Erie, and not McKeesport."

Spanier said that the university is "looking very broadly" at the question, and some sort of change in how Penn State markets its southwestern Pennsylvania campuses "is conceptually consistent with the kinds of issues that are on the table."

Penn State is "not really thinking about changing anybody's name right now," Spanier said. "I do not want to get people nervous about that."

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Well, too late, at least for the Almanac's hyper-sensitive McKeesport Anti-Defamation Detector. With our tipster's report, and the Collegian story, the alarm went straight to Code Orange.

Sure, I'm more than a decade removed from choosing my own college experience, but I understand that teen-agers are apt to chose a school for any number of superficial factors:

• Does the college have a neat website?
• Does it have good sports teams?
• Are the students of the opposite sex "cute" or "cool"?

If Penn State McKeesport, or New Ken or Beaver, are at disadvantages, it's because they're suburban campuses.

Unlike Oakland or State College, you can't walk off campus and find a coffee house or a wild party. There are no bars nearby (moms and dads probably appreciate that more than the students) or fraternity and sorority houses. And of course, there are no major conference sports on campus.

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Any student who wants the "rah-rah" big school experience is going to be disappointed at McKeesport Campus, and desperate to transfer to University Park. They're going to be dragged kicking and screaming to any suburban campus --- no matter what you call it.

Conti's comments back in December make that clear --- students go to Erie not because it's called "Penn State Erie," but because there are 4,000 students on campus.

You can call "Penn State McKeesport" anything you like, including a "meatball hoagie," but when prospective students make their first campus visit, they're going to realize that Eden Park Boulevard is not exactly Beaver Avenue in State College in terms of student life.

On the other hand, a lot of students specifically want to attend a small, suburban college because they're afraid of being lost on a big, urban campus, and because they want personal attention from the faculty and staff.

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If the marketing value of a name change is dubious, the disadvantages are clear --- at least for the Mon-Yough area.

Taking the name "McKeesport" off of our regional campus would send a terrible message to the outside world about the city's future just as Mayor Brewster is trying to get his "McKeesport Renaissance" into high gear.

And Penn State McKeesport's 10,000 alumni might take it as a signal that they aren't important, or that their heritage has somehow been marginalized.

It also would be deeply unfair to all of the McKeesporters --- the Shaws, the Bucks, and hundreds of less prominent, but no less important families --- who donated money and time to bring Penn State to our area in the 1940s and '50s, and to keep it here since then.

Take, for example, the Crawford Trust, named for the founder of McKeesport Tin Plate Company. Since 1971, it's donated nearly a half-million dollars to Penn State McKeesport.

People in "Pittsburgh" or "Allegheny" didn't raise the money to bring the campus here --- McKeesporters and residents of the surrounding communities did.

(I also wonder how many Mon-Yough residents are Penn State sports fans specifically because they view the university as "their" school, even if they didn't attend it.)

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Anyone who knows Penn State's reputation --- and who has seen the generous investments in recent years, both in money and in "brain power" at the McKeesport Campus --- should have no question that the campus provides excellent educational value.

The university is already marketing its Western Pennsylvania campuses under the banner "Penn State Pittsburgh." In this writer's opinion, that's a smart move. It enables students from Philadelphia or Scranton, who don't know where New Kensington and McKeesport are, to place the campuses geographically.

For that matter, since Penn State McKeesport now has students from more than 20 states and several foreign countries, grouping the five Western Pennsylvania "commonwealth campuses" under the "Penn State Pittsburgh" banner helps students in Zanesville and Zaire find them as well.

But marketing the campuses as "Penn State Pittsburgh" is one thing.

Dumping the name "McKeesport" from our local campus would be quite another.

McKeesport has always been proud of Penn State.

Please, Penn State: Be proud of McKeesport, too.

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To Do This Weekend: Kennywood's open! If you feel like riding, just jump in your car! The roller-coaster capital is right where you are! And so forth. Call (412) 461-0500 or visit Kennywood's website. ... Port Vue Pub, 305 Laredo St., presents Matt Tichon on Saturday. Call (412) 664-0399 ... Charleroi Art & History Center hosts its second-annual regional art contest. The opening reception is tonight. Call (724) 483-4060. ... The Harold Betters Quintet plays the Boston Waterfront, 2422 Saint David Drive, Elizabeth Township, tomorrow night. Call (412) 751-8112.