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Penn State Ice Cream frozen out
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Revenge is a dish best served cold. So is ice cream.
The first salvo from McKeesport, in response to Penn State University's decision to change the regional campus's name from Penn State McKeesport to Penn State Allegheny, will be to take on Penn State Ice Cream.
City Council Vice President Darryl Segina, who is chairman of International Village, is showing the university the gate, at least to the city's popular three-day festival of food and entertainment in Renziehausen Park called International Village.
For years, Penn State has sold its famous ice cream as one of the vendors at the festival.
Not next year, Mr. Segina said.
Mr. Segina said it wasn't just Penn State that irritated him, but the letters in the local newspaper from people who grew up in McKeesport, graduated from Penn State McKeesport and now live in White Oak who applaud the name change.
"That put me in a bad mood," he said.
And so, as village chairman, Mr. Segina said, he has a vendor who can take Penn State's spot.
Councilman Dale R. McCall had a longer-term idea. He noted that the city had named the street leading to the campus University Drive, which gives the campus a University Drive address.
"Let's change it to McKeesport Boulevard or McKeesport Drive," Mr. McCall said.
The chancellor of the state university's McKeesport campus, Curtiss Porter, said the name change was to reflect the fact that the campus serves a much wider area than McKeesport and its surrounding towns.
But now even Allegheny College in Meadville, Crawford County, has weighed in. Allegheny College President Richard Cook has written to Penn State President Graham Spanier, asking that Penn State not change the name of the McKeesport campus because of the confusion it could cause.
The McKeesport campus currently has 814 students, both full- and part-time, in degree programs with about another 120 students in continuing education programs.
McKeesport Mayor Jim Brewster, a member of the campus's advisory board, advised council against changing the name of the street to the school, saying he was trying to persuade the university's administration to change its decision.
First Published October 12, 2006 12:00 am
