Two things ASU is famous for, whether for good or bad, are finally coming together:
Business and beauties.
According to a front-page article in Friday's The State Press, MBA students Malcolm McLeod and Chris Clark are the founders of M&C Publishing and Production Company, which is putting out a swimsuit calendar featuring female ASU students. "Arizona College Girls: Featuring Girls of ASU" goes on sale today for $9.95. Wait, $9.95?
Wouldn't it just be cheaper to visit the Student Recreation Center's "playboy" pool once it warms up again?
But the problem is not just with the price. What does this say about ASU? Some might argue that we are a beautiful campus, and this is just another way of proving that.
I guess there is no harm in that. Why not prostitute your bodies, girls?
Thanks to our climate, there's that year-round tan to show off, and who likes to be taken seriously, anyway? It's not like we need funding and seem to be losing it to more serious campuses like UA, which receives more funding per student than we do.
But who wouldn't want to fund women showing off their rock-hard bodies in bikinis?
Maybe if this weren't an institute of higher education that wouldn't be an issue. But as a state-funded school, ASU's reputation could weigh on its ability to obtain respect and funding in the legislature, which has not approved ASU's budget in 20 years, said Alan Carroll the University's associate vice president of budget planning and management.
And Sen. Harry Mitchell, D-Tempe, doubts that ASU will get the full amount of funds that administrators are asking from legislators this year.
"If higher education was a priority, we would find ways of getting it done," Mitchell said.
The founders of "Arizona College Girls: Featuring Girls of ASU," were quoted as saying, "a lot of the resources at ASU are the girls. We wanted to find a way to harness the resources."
Please tell me my student loans and five-year educational plan does not boil down to a diploma from an alma mater whose main resources is "girls."
Isn't this a research institute?
Maybe that is why attorneys for the university aren't allowing the calendar to carry the ASU trademark. They are right to withhold the permission to use the logo, but the calendar undoubtedly will tarnish ASU's reputation anyway.
All I can come up with is a true lack of culture when students of a top-ranked business school come up with half-naked girls and call it a "quality product."
Come on guys, that's as old as time.
Catherine Portillo is a journalism senior. Reach her at catherine.portillo@asu.edu.
