Joe Paterno's Alma Mater, Brown, Takes His Name Off Award As Penn State wrestles with questions about whether it should remove Joe Paterno's name and likeness from prominent spots on its campus, Paterno's alma mater has already made a decision. Brown - which Paterno graduated from in 1950 - has removed Paterno's name from a coaching position and an annual award. It is debating his status in the university's athletic hall of fame in the wake of the child sexual abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky and Paterno's role in it. "In light of the outcome of the Sandusky trial and the findings of the Freeh Report, the university has been reviewing these tributes to take appropriate action," Brown said in a statement Tuesday, referring to the report of the investigation by the former F.B.I. director Louis J. Freeh that was released last week. The Joe Paterno Outstanding Male Freshman Athlete Award had been given annually by the university since 1993. This year's award was given without Paterno's name as the university considered what permanent action it should take. It has now stripped his name from the award. The former tennis player Eric Thomas won the award in 2004. He called the move surprising, but said, "you could sort of see it coming, with the way people have wanted to disassociate themselves with the Paterno name." Since the release of the Freeh report, there has been a debate about whether Penn State should remove a statue of Paterno that stands outside the football stadium. The university's library also bears his name. Penn State is still considering whether Paterno's name and statue will stay. A university spokesman told reporters Tuesday that a decision on the statue would be made in 7 to 10 days. There were reports Tuesday that a plane flew over State College pulling a banner that said, "Take the statue down or we will." As for Brown, its head coach position had officially been known as the Howard D. Williams "17/Joseph V. Paterno "50 football coaching chair, but that title was eliminated this year "due to issues that predated the Penn State matter," the university's statement said. The board of directors of the university's hall of fame is also reviewing Paterno's status. He was inducted in 1977, and his 14 career interceptions are a program record. He also began his coaching career at Brown, as an assistant overseeing the quarterbacks. Gerald Massa, the hall of fame's treasurer, said the Paterno question would probably not be discussed until the board's next meeting in September. "It's difficult to hear," Massa said of the university's statement, "and this is a controversial issue, so I prefer not to say any more." The Brown graduate Dan Rosen, who won the Paterno award in 2007 as a hockey goalie, admitted he did not even known Paterno was an alumnus until he won the honor. The award "meant more coming from the school, the athletic department and my team more so than the name on the award itself," Rosen said, adding, "Obviously it's a very complicated and very bad situation." On Monday, the Penn State student group that organizes the encampment outside Beaver Stadium before football games said the encampment's name would be changed from Paternoville to Nittanyville. It was to eliminate "distraction," said Jeff Taylor, a senior at Penn State and the student group's vice president. Though the decision has been met with praise and criticism, Taylor said the public pressure - on the players when they visit the tents, on the new coach Bill O'Brien were he to visit and on the students - would be too much if Paterno's name remained. "You can't remove Joe completely from history; that's something that doesn't even make sense," Taylor said. But you want, at least, to allow Bill O'Brien to come into the discussion and return to normalcy.