Officials at the University of Texas, El Paso are remaining quiet over a visit to the area by Playboy photographers for an upcoming spread on college women despite some community opposition to the visit.
Playboy photographers are scheduled to visit the area today and Tuesday where they will interview and schedule possible appointments with coeds who are seeking to be featured in an upcoming layout dubbed “The Girls of the Conference USA,” the El Paso Times reported.
But some community members say the school should stop the magazine from photographing its female students.
Alexa Siebel, a 19-year-old student at the school, said the magazine’s depictions of women create false expectations among men, but that she says there is nothing wrong with posing nude for the magazine.
But Roger O’Dell, executive director of the anti-pornography group Model Cities-El Paso, said Playboy’s visit should worry local residents, adding that pornography is like a toxin that spreads throughout a community.
But school officials said that what students do off campus is their business and that the school has no intention of getting involved in the matter.
Maggy Smith, vice provost of undergraduate studies at the university, said free speech is an important aspect of the school and that part of the educational process involves allowing students to practice free speech.
Students interested in being interviewed must be 18 and attend a university in the Conference USA. For more information, log onto www.playboy.com/pose.
