The New York Times has an article about a creative writing scholarship given out to students at Ursinus College, just outside of Philadelphia. The school is the alma mater of J.D. Salinger, and the initial idea was to name the scholarship after the famously reclusive American author. As an added incentive, the winning student would get to spend the year in Salinger’s old dorm room. One week after the $30,000 scholarship was first announced in 2006, the school heard from representatives of the author who demanded that they stop using Salinger’s name. In 2011, the sixth student will be awarded what has come to be known colloquially as the “Not the J.D. Salinger Scholarship.”

As for the opportunity to sleep in Salinger’s dorm room, the NYT article characterizes the experience as a mixed blessing:

In theory, previous winners who have slept in Salinger’s room ” 300 Curtis Hall ” should have felt honored and humbled, although it was no bed of roses.

It’s a pretty tiny room, said Anton Teubner, a senior who slept there in 2007.

It is small, said Logan Metcalf-Kelly, the current occupant. But I don’t mind sleeping in it.

Late at night, Mr. Teubner said, I’d be in bed and there’d be these drunk freshmen yelling in the hallway: ˜It’s the room, it’s the room.’ Cut into my sleep.

On the other hand, for the lonely male freshman, there are benefits. Girls are interested in seeing the inside of Salinger’s room, Mr. Metcalf-Kelly said.

The article asks recent recipients of the “Not the J.D. Salinger Scholarship” which author’s dorm room they would choose to live in if given the opportunity. Responses included Dave Eggers (“A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius had the impact on our generation that Catcher in the Rye had on its generation”), Cormac McCarthy, and Bret Easton Ellis. The student who chose Ellis admitted it was not a typical response: A lot of kids my age don’t read Ellis anymore. He’s a little old. He was big in the ’90s.