Baylor to students: Thou shalt not disrobe

We know our friends up in Waco aren't as aggresively Baptist as they once were — they do dance now, you know — but Baylor still ain't gonna put up with co-eds baring it all for Playboy. Photographers from the magazine spent two days this week on the Baylor campus interviewing students for the Big 12 issue, which will appear in October. ("Big 12," by the way, refers to the football conference. Get your minds out of the gutter.)

Baylor prepared for the heathen onslaught last week by sending an e-mail to students warning them that appearing in Playboy could result in punishment from warnings to expulsion. "Associating with a magazine that is clearly antithetical to Baylor's mission would be considered a violation of the code of conduct," the e-mail said. A student who appeared in Playboy's Big 12 issue in 2002 was suspended, and the school's chapter of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity was also suspended for a year after 50 of its members appeared clothed (alongside four bikini-clad women) in the same issue.

Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey would not say how many women showed up but said the turnout was less than at other schools "because Baylor is a religiously affiliated school."

Hennessey said Playboy is "not looking to get any of these women at Baylor in trouble or kicked out of school."

Some Baylor students told the Chronicle they think appearing in Playboy should be their choice, but others said Baylor, as a private university, can regulate its students' conduct. "I do think it's a little ridiculous for the school to try to dictate what people do outside of school," grad student Sarah Tinsley said.