★ Playboy Ranks McGill Top Ten Party School

Playboy Ranks McGill Top Ten Party School

Canadian Universities Forum (discussion group)

Subject: Playboy Ranks McGill Top Ten Party School

Drink up! Playboy names McGill ´Top 10 Party School´
University´s semester from hell continues as mag seeks ´coed cuties´ for nude feature

PEGGY CURRAN
The Gazette

Friday, September 30, 2005

It´s not even October, but already McGill University has to be wondering if this @*#$&! semester will ever end.

Playboy magazine has just named Montreal´s answer to the Ivy League as one of the Top 10 Party Schools in North America. The only Canadian campus to make the grade, McGill shares chugalug laurels with such institutions of higher learning and advanced cheerleading as Florida State and the University of Georgia.

To celebrate, the 52-year-old men´s monthly is putting out feelers, so to speak, for nubile young women willing to bare all for their alma mater in the May 2006 edition. Gives a whole new meaning to striving for 4.0 scores. Then again, people do say they buy Playboy for the articles.

It´s bad enough that McGill is still grappling with an ugly hazing scandal. As homecoming weekend dawns, it´s being touted as a bastion of good times and hot babes. Never mind the objectification of women - somebody really should break it to those geeks in the chemistry lab!

By Monday, Playboy photographers will be parked at a downtown hotel, ready to snap Polaroids of "coed cuties" stripped down to two-piece swimsuits. By Wednesday, Playboy will narrow the field for a nudie feature of the McGill student or students with that certain je ne sais quoi - and a desire to share it all with the world.

According to publicist Theresa Hennessy, Playboy´s Top 10 list was compiled with help from students who act as "volunteer interns who help market and spread the word about Playboy."

The students serve as "eyes and ears" about happening places and people. Key criteria are the campus party scene, proximity to a big city, a school´s male-female ratio and off-campus entertainment.

In November 2002, the last time Playboy weighed in on the college party scene, a fellow from Arizona State claimed any graduate of the school "who said he has never taken a test hungover is a liar." Students from California State at Chico boasted of St. Patrick´s Day festivities "where keggers start at 6 a.m. and girls wear nothing but Heineken boxes." At West Virginia, "when the women get drunk, their shirts go flying."

Proud company, indeed.

Stately old McGill never asked to be so popular, aided and abetted by the fact that Montreal is a pretty cool place and Quebec is one of the few spots on the continent where drinking is legal at 18.

Kristine Greenaway, director of university relations, said McGill obviously has nothing to do with the Playboy designation.

"McGill prides itself on its academic achievements and its international student body," she said. "It does not see itself at all as a ´Top 10 Party School.´ "

As for Playboy, "it is just one of many businesses trying to get a share of the student market."

Hennessy said the photo session will be restricted to McGill students 18 and older.

Women whose pictures are used will be compensated "enough to pay for a really nice spring break or help with tuition."

Models won´t have to show more flesh than they are comfortable with, she said, but it is Playboy, and the bathing suits will eventually come off. "We are looking at some sort of nudity."

Hennessy said the location of the photo session will be guarded to protect the girls "from random guys" who might try to follow them.

Or, dare we suggest, creeps sneaking a free peek at something Playboy wants them to buy.

Still, what a stellar opportunity for the women of McGill to show how smart they really are - by keeping their clothes on.

[01-10-2005,14:35]
Anonymous