PENN-sieve

When I went on my campus tour of Penn State when I came here for my interview, the guy giving me my tour said that for the right amount of money Penn State would sell anything. He was refering to the Center of Student Leadership which is named the MBNA Center of Student Leadership. I am beginning to figure out just how prominent corporate sponsorship is at Penn State and how it effects me.

We are a Pepsi school which means we can never have Coke products at a program and the campus big wigs are discouraged from drinking Coke at any time. I can drink Coke products in my apartment if I want to but I am never supposed to have a Coke in my office. We even have to drink Pepsi water (Aquafina) which I seriuosly dislike because it often tastes funky. I so prefer Coke's Dasani. Thankfully I can just bring a Nalgene bottle of filtered water to work.

I remember when I was at Northridge and how it was often so hard to get donations from big firms because they choose to donate products, services, and money to UCLA and USC. It was so frustrating because CSUN did not have a budget anywhere close to the big schools so we really could have used corporate sponsorship. At Penn State, the intramural sports program is sponsored by Nike; leadership and community service programs receive assistance from Bank of America, and the list goes on. Being at a large school where so many resources are available because companies are willing to lend a hand is nice (it's one of the reasons I wanted to work at a big school) but it still makes me sad for the little schools where the assistance would mean so much more.