University’s reputation tarnished by calendar

Two Bauer students have started a business that has placed our University in a spotlight, albeit a tiny one. These two enterprising Cougars have created a calendar that features scantily clad female UH students posing in bikinis and less-than conservative attire.

Campus Calendar Girls bills itself as a charitable organization, but in reality it only donates 10 percent of its revenue to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Wounded Warrior Project. While we can’t condemn anyone for donating to two noble causes, using the guise of charity to exploit female students is offensive to our campus.

This is primarily because it sheds a negative light on the women of our University and devalues their achievements as students at a Carnegie-designated Tier One Research Institution. Having a calendar full of provocatively-posing students undoes the work the current administration has done to refine our national academic reputation and increase the prestige of our University.

This calendar brings a kind of attention to UH that isn’t in keeping with the achievements and advances we’re making every day on a national level. In fact, it creates the illusion that students here aren’t as concerned with education as they are with social standings.

Furthermore, it tarnishes the reputation of the Bauer School of Business, which is a nationally-ranked business school. Surely Bauer students have more to offer than this — there’s nothing original or interesting about exploiting women to make a quick buck. Such a reputable business school should be teaching its students to be innovative in their approach to applying their degrees. There are certainly students at Bauer whose ideas are more deserving of recognition than those responsible for Campus Calendar Girls.

While they should undoubtedly be applauded for the success of their start up, that success is tainted by the fact that a cheap idea is what earned them the limelight.

Tags: Bauer School of Business, Cougars, Tier One