Pennsylvania State University has reportedly rejected a donation from former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who tells National Review Online that he tried to donate his papers to the university, but the powers-that-be in Happy Valley turned them down.
“I don’t know where they are now,” Santorum tells NRO. “Off in a warehouse or something. They didn’t want ’em.” Penn State officials have not responded to a request for comment, but the university’s library lists “papers of alumni” as one of its major collecting areas.
The Penn State library system holds collections and papers that touch on a variety of controversial individuals and subjects, including a collection of posters that document student opposition to the Vietnam War; a special collection classified as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer History, which contains the personal papers of a number of individuals; and the personal papers of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.
This is not the first time Santorum, a 1980 graduate of Penn State, has found himself at odds with his alma mater. In February, Santorum told a radio talk-show host that, as a college student, his grades were docked because of his conservative views. “I can tell you a professor who docked my grades because of the viewpoints I expressed and the papers that I wrote,” he said. “There’s no question that happened.”