Posing
With
Honors
OST PARENTS DREAM THAT
their child will attend an
Ivy League university. Ah,
the prestige. The contacts. The chance
to pose for Playboy magazine?
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To show that brains and beauty
often do go together, Playboy
devoted its October issue to The
Women of the Ivy League. Maga-
zine reps canvassed Harvard, Yale
and the like looking for fresh-faced
"collegiettes" to pose - and they
found plenty.
Playboy interviewed hundreds of
women but chose only 36 to appear.
"On the day I went, 50 to 70 girls
showed up," says Kelli Keller, a
Harvard junior. Keller was pho-
tographed nude, but each woman
was given the choice of posing au
naturel, topless or even fully
clothed. "I'm not ashamed of my
body," she says. "If people have a
problem with it, then it's their prob-
lem. They don't have to buy the
magazine."
At least two groups did have a
problem with it. A passel of naked
women Yalies greeted Playboy per-
sonnel by streaking. Their demon-
stration was intended to protest the
Ivy League issue, but the plan
seemed to backfire. Playboy opened
the 10-page layout with a two-page
streaker spread.
"A little controversy makes our
job easier," says Jim Larson, Play-
boy's managing photo editor. "It
makes news and helps make our
presence known."
An autograph session with the
Cornell U. posers drew another
such protest in early September.
About a dozen women picketed
the session,
accusing
Playboy of
encouraging
Women of the Ivy Leaf.
violence toward women. Mean-
while, dozens of Cornell men
stood nearby awaiting their per-
sonalized copies.
Danielle Helm, a Princeton
senior, found opinions mixed on
her decision to pose. "There were
some '[negative] articles in the
school paper, and some people felt it
was degrading to women," she says.
"But most people I talked to were
supportive."
Columbia U. junior Pamela
Shaw had an atypical motive for
. U U P
posing. "I'm 32 years old," she says.
"It's a bit of a kick to still be consid-
ered cute enough for Playboy."
Unlike some protesters, Shaw
doesn't see a contradiction in
attending a prestigious university
and posing for a men's magazine.
"It's not an either-or proposition,"
she says. "You can be serious and
intellectual and still be sensual and
beautiful."
DanAvery, U, of Maryland/llustration
by Miles Histand, Colorado State U.
1',
AYBE IT ALL STARTED IN THAT PET SHOP
where Dan Spinogatti worked for five
years. He liked breeding tropical fish and
even experimented with different ways to keep his
fish tank water clean.
The Buzz
" Richie Parker, the former New York City prep basketball
star convicted of sexual abuse last year, is attending classes
at Mesa Community College, Ariz., but is not playing hoops.
Parker was recruited by Seton Hall U., the U. of Utah and
George Washington U. but was shunned by all three after his
conviction,
* Anita Hill has hung up her beach towel and gone back
to the classroom at the U. of Oklahoma. After a one-year
unpaid leave from OU, Hill is now teaching two law courses.
She spent her time off living in Laguna Beach, Calif., where
she wrote two books.
" The female fight for Citadel access rages on. Nancy
Mellette, a 17-year-old North Carolina military boarding
school senior, has picked up where Shannon Faulkner left off.
Mellette's brother is a cadet at the Citadel, and her father is a
graduate. An exceptional athlete, Mellette is seeking to enter
the Citadel next fall.
" It's not basic training, but 590 students are beginning
their college semester at a run-down Army base that is slow-
ly being turned into a new university. Busy construction
workers outnumber students, and room numbers are spray
painted on the sides of buildings to point the students of Cali-
fornia State U., Monterey Bay, in the right direction'
" A small, soft-spoken 87-year-old woman has captured
the attention of the academic world with a gift that won't
soon be forgotten. Oseola McCarty surprised officials at the
U. of Southern Mississippi with a gift of $150,000 tobe used
as a scholarship for black students. This philanthropic ges-
ture itself isn't the amazing part of the story. The surprise is
that McCarty managed to save this money from her job doing
laundry for the past 75 years.
At any rate, the Paiute Indi-
ans of northern Nevada are glad
that this U. of Nevada, Reno,
grad student helped them clean
up water polluted by the tribe's
fish hatchery.
Spinogatti spent this past year
monitoring an artificial wetland
that he built with the help of the
tribe. He calls his plastic-lined
pond a huge fish filter.
The self-cleaning pond
works like this: A big plastic
lining is placed under the
horseshoe-shaped pond, and
about 3 feet of soil is backfilled
over the plastic to keep the
water from soaking into the
soil. Add a few water plants and
voila! The algae grows all by
itself, and the plants consume
the pollution.
"The algae blossom like crazy,"
Spinogatti says. "Magically, it
treats the water." OK, he's a scien-
tist. He doesn't mean magically.
Once the treated water gets to
nearby rivers - well, that makes
life a whole lot nicer for the in-
stream biota, he says.
Biota?
"Fish, bugs, critters - stuff
people get excited about," he
explains.
Although Spinogatti doesn't
consider himself a hard-core tree
hugger, he says there should be a
balance between environmental
and industrial concerns.
"People need to do things
smartly," he says. His plastic
"wetland," for example, is
good for the environment, but
it's also a cheap and easy reme-
dy for low levels of polluted
storm runoff water from cities
and farms.
And just how much water
does this water lover drink?
"Actually, I don't get off on
just water, unless I'm working
out," Spinogatti says.
Spinogatti's experiment in fish
filtering will earn him a master's
degree in December.
"This whole fish thing has
kind of come full circle," he says.
At least he's not fishing for
compliments.
Story and photo by Deidre Pike, U. of
Nevada, Reno
10 U- Magazie * Navember 1995