I didn’t watch the game this weekend. I didn’t have to – I already knew the score.Penn State 1,000,000 – Ohio State 0.Let me explain. I am not a person who knows or cares much about football. Weekends, I prefer to read work, go hiking or travel. Being a professor, I also enjoy university campuses, and universities are what I do care about. So a few weeks ago when I found myself at Penn State to attend a conference, I took a tour of the place. At the library, I ran across something that surprised me – a new wing being built, to be called the “Paterno Library.” Paterno, I thought, that sounds familiar. So I investigated further, asking around to find out what the deal was. You may have already guessed it. Penn State is naming the new wing of their library after their legendary football coach, Joe Paterno. My instinct was to be outraged, and to assume that Penn State was putting together a sports library, or a library of video clips of practices and games over the course of Nittany Lion history. Hah, I thought, at least at Ohio State we only name streets, not academic buildings, after our famed football coaches.But I was wrong. It turns out that Paterno has recently given $1 million to the library for an extension of its academic purpose. Being as beloved as he is, he will surely be successful in the second half of his campaign – spearheading fund raising for the library among alumni and fans. The Penn State campus, and the students’ academic experience, will be changed forever thanks to their football coach.In the meantime, as fall quarter gets into full swing here at Ohio State, I notice lines of students waiting to use library computers. I see the threadbare carpet in the hallways of the Main Library and worry about folks tripping. I hear colleagues and students complaining about dust and dirt, about missing and misshelved books and about broken or slow elevators to the eleventh floor. I watch trolleys of books being carted away for storage elsewhere. I get messages from the library bibliographers asking where I think we can cut back on book acquisitions. And I wonder where our million dollar donor might come from.But now I do know the score: Paterno $1,000,000 – Cooper $0.
Angela Brintlingerassistant professor Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures