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The poster of Playboy's Playmate of the year, above, made by Alex Polvi - a senior in computer science - was posted over the University Marketing achievement banner for Tim Leatherman.

'Playboy' project draws fire from university officials

Banner made by student in Janet Lee's women studies class recognizes Playboy achievement

By: Aleks Cherednichenko

Posted: 6/8/07

Most OSU students know the name Sara Jean Underwood. Underwood is an OSU senior who has been awarded the title of Playboy Playmate of the Year. What most students may not know is that a banner of Underwood's Playboy centerfold was briefly displayed by Covell Hall early Thursday morning.

Underwood's semi-nude profile was posted over the University Marketing achievement banner for Tim Leatherman - which hangs from a light pole located near Covell Hall. The banner was brought down by OSU facilities services just a few hours later.

This could have been a prank, but the entire affair was actually a class project for a women studies class taught by Janet Lee. Lee allowed her students to creatively respond to a news item of their choice. Alex Polvi, a senior in computer science, chose an article about Underwood's coronation as Playmate of the Year.

"He produced a banner and wrote an accompanying artistic statement," Lee said through an e-mail. "His point was that OSU has received recognition for the Beaver Playmate and they should be honest and recognize her as such in the same way they recognize other features OSU people."

"I was trying to get people to think of this is something we should recognize," Polvi said. After he explained his project to the students in his class, the majority were very supportive.

The banner was taken down and brought into the Office of University Advancement. "It was taken down because it was sufficiently provocative," said Todd Simmons, assistant vice president of university advancement. "It was an inappropriate use of university resources."

Two of Polvi's friends, Carly Stoughton and Heather Lonsdale, were also involved in the project.

"[Heather and I] came up with the concept of the poster, it was a pretty random idea, sort of started as a senior prank," Stoughton said. "It went perfectly with Alex's class assignment, and we all thought that Sara's accomplishment [as Playmate of the Year] was cool; we also thought she deserved recognition for it."

Stoughton and Lonsdale considered that the subject matter could be offensive and took precautions in ensuring the banner's tastefulness. The banner was made to resemble the original efforts of OSU's marketing campaign.

"We wanted it to look like the other posters," Lonsdale said. Some passing by the banner thought it was the real deal.

Some campus passers by believe the banner to be the real deal.

"I was saddened to see that the OSU marketing department chose to put up the women from OSU who happened to also be Playmate of the Year in Playboy - and to put her up naked with just her nipples blackened out. How immature," said Richard and Jules Cooper in an e-mail.

"I think that the reaction to this will go both ways, some will be good and some will be bad," said Lonsdale. "I think that there's no reason why [Underwood] shouldn't be recognized for her achievement."

Stoughton expected the banner to be taken down.

"I was surprised that it stayed up as long as it did," she said. "Just because she didn't invent something doesn't mean that she doesn't deserve recognition."

"From the point of view of the work we do in women studies, [Polvi's] poster critiques the ways universities have collaborated with the 'girls of the PAC 10' features and are complicit at least in terms of their silence, with this problem," Lee said through e-mail. "The poster was not to support pornography, but to critique its expression in the context of this intellectual community."