A UCLA STUDENT POSTS AN OFFENSIVE VIDEO AND GETS A HARSH LESSON IN REALITY.

By Alexandra Cuerdo
From HUSTLER MAGAZINE September 2011

Hot. Fucking. Mess. That’s what Alexandra Wallace is. She’s the University of California, Los Angeles, student-turned-dropout behind the videotaped racist rant “Asians in the Library,” which she ignorantly posted on YouTube. What followed was a media explosion—including 6 million views, a dozen death threats and countless headlines.

We’ve seen this before. Celebrity misspeaks fill a weekly quota in the tabloids. Fanatical rage posts flood YouTube on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. But the viral “it” factor is an elusive bug. It took the perfect storm—of poor timing and even poorer judgment—to stoke Wallace’s 15 seconds of fame to a sky-high fever.

On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami hit northern Japan—claiming thousands of lives and triggering a nuclear disaster. On that same day, Wallace trash-talked Asians’ supposed inability to teach their children to “fend for themselves.” In the video she called herself a political science student with “American manners.” Versus, of course, the “hordes of Asian people that UCLA accepts into our school every single year.”

Wallace went on to declare, “In America we do not talk on our cell phones in the library! I swear, they’re going through their whole families, just checking on everybody from the tsunami thing.” Then, as the cherry on top of the shit-show sundae, the perturbed blonde imitated an “Asian” language. Her disparaging line “Ohhh! Ching chong ling long ting tong?! Ohhh!” inspired a Web site, aptly named Ohhhching chonglinglongtingtong.com, and T-shirts, all proceeds of which were donated to Japanese relief funds. Wallace’s tirade also turned the limelight to Jimmy Wong, who racked up a zillion YouTube views with his tune “Asians in the Library.” Wong’s catchy refrain “Ching Chong/It means I love you” made it to iTunes and recently earned him an interview with National Public Radio.

So why did Wallace do it? LA Weekly suggested a classic con: the publicity stunt. Some sleuthing revealed that Wallace sought fame. She aspired to model professionally, she loved Jersey Shore, and a month before her cause célèbre she’d planned a series of “comedic videos” similar to “Asians in the Library.” The Sacramento Bee found her father’s Facebook profile, which let slip that Wallace was even searching for domain names for a future blog—maybe AsiansInTheLibrary.com?

But those dreams changed once she became a YouTube sensation. Hackers on forum giant 4chan posted Wallace’s e-mail, phone number and address the day after her infamous rant. Her Model Mayhem profile—an online portfolio to attract employment opportunities—was so flooded with outraged spam that it was taken down. Multiple Facebook groups reposted Wallace’s personal information and encouraged viewers to respond directly to the outspoken student.

In a formal apology published in UCLA’s Daily Bruin, Wallace explained how she wanted to “produce a humorous YouTube video” but in stead offended “the entire Asian culture.” She made a “mistake” that caused “the harassment of my family, the publishing of my personal information, death threats and being ostracized from an entire community.”

Guess no one told Wallace that the Asians she offended are everywhere these days. And that they—along with UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and many others worldwide—would see the derogatory clip and counterattack.

Today Wallace reigns as the new face of institutionalized, not-so-secret racism. She’s the living, breathing flaw of the Internet Age: the video we can’t stop sharing, the wreck we can’t stop watching, the bitch we can’t stop shaming. In two minutes and 52 seconds—the running time of “Asians in the Library”—Wallace flung her college career down a black hole.

But we’re missing the bigger picture. We live in a culture that’s at once sensitive and desensitized. We’ve taken her words person ally. We’ve gotten angry. And although it’s okay—and understandable—to be pissed off, there’s a limit to the madness. There’s righteously annoyed, and then there’s calling Alexandra Wallace a “slut that deserves to die.” Let’s face it: Not many of us would be so forward in person. Online raging is so much easier to do, but it doesn’t make it any better or the words any nicer.

Maybe when we can own our rage, we can find a better way to express it. Beau, an original cast member of the Tony award-winning Def Poetry Jamon Broadway, gave it a shot. Imitating Wallace’s emotional voice, he examined the reasons for her racism in a posted video of his own. “If only these Asians would learn English,” Beau said. “If only they understood that I’m here too. That I share this place with them, that I belong here, that the hordes and swarms invading the system I’ve learned remember who I am as the world changes.”

And then Beau—looking right into the camera, like Wallace did the fateful day she aired her dirtiest laundry online— concluded, “I’m so afraid I’ll have to fend for myself, without what I’ve been told was mine.”

Beau got to the heart of Wallace’s anxiety—that the Asian hordes, whether at UCLA or anywhere else, are the bad guys and that they all want a piece of the pie she rightfully owns, the one we call America. But we know better. America is for everyone. And if you want a piece, you’ve just got to shut up and take it.
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Alexandra Cuerdo, the daughter of Filipino immigrants, attends UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. “I’m a writer, director and decent cook,” she says. “And really, I don’t even go to the library.” Attention college reporters: If you have an idea for a story involving your school— streaking, stripping, partying, pranks, protests, political or censorship issues, etc.— please contact us at Features@LFP.com. If you get the green light, Larry Flynt will send you a check with his name on it. Besides the financial windfall, a HUSTLER story will look good on your résumé.

by Sam Sullivan
from HUSTLER Magazine August 2010

WRESTLING WITH OLD-SCHOOL MORALITY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is more than a renowned educational center in the Midwest. Like institutions of higher learning from sea to shining sea, UNL is also a place where the young at heart and eager of mind can strike back at the rigid morality of their forefathers. Two sterling examples: a pair of UNL wrestlers opting to model in the buff for a gay Web site and a Sigma Chi fraternity pledge literally putting his ass on the line.

“When you cleave the meat off the bones of the Midwest, the bones are just as hard,” says Micah Persell, a UNL political science major. Oddly profound wisdom.

Is the University of Nebraska-Lincoln especially depraved? No. But the common conservative vision of the Midwest as a wholesome utopia, free from the burdens of coastal sin, hardly stands up under the evidence. Beneath the illusion of freshly pressed-and-starched piety lies the same kind of sexual indiscretions found in any of the demonized big cities far from Lincoln. Here in the supposedly squeaky-clean capital of Nebraska, a pickup truck has come to be a double entendre, and one of the most popular hangouts for UNL students (especially coeds) is The Q, a gay bar on Ninth Street.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has another interesting distinction: the Scarlet Project, a Web site dedicated to digging up the school’s proverbial dirt. While more like a traditional lowbrow gossip rag, the Scarlet Project broke the gay-porn scandal, which was further sensationalized by the Lincoln Journal Star and ESPN. It turns out that FratmenTV.com paid cold, hard (pun intended) cash to two UNL wrestlers, who were booted off the team after it was revealed they had individually modeled nude for the gay Web site. (It’s worth noting that over the years a litany of Cornhusker jocks have engaged in far more egregious activities without facing dire consequences.)

Regarding the aforementioned Sigma Chi incident, it’s no secret that things often get out of control when fraternities and sororities recruit prospective members and later welcome them into the fold. But there’s something unique about what earned the UNL chapter of Sigma Chi a suspension: hiring a stripper who allegedly used a vibrator to anally penetrate a rush pledge during an initiation ceremony. Yes, those Greeks sure know how to have fun.

Perhaps a modern-day Sinclair Lewis from Nebraska will write a heartwarming tome about the joys of frat house buggery. And maybe, in due time, a political candidate will follow in the footsteps of John McCain and Sarah Palin, vowing to bring the heartland’s cherished values to the rest of America, including free subscriptions to FratmenTV.com.

The Midwest, it might be said, is only depraved by the standards of cultural relativity: A given transgression looks worse because this part of the country is perceived as a bastion of virtue. Helping fortify that notion is neocon Glenn Beck’s The Real America: Messages From the Heart and Heartland. But taking the book as gospel, which many appear to have done, makes it easy to overlook that transgressions abound nationwide, even in the cornfields of the Midwest.

Finally, the University of Nebraska- Lincoln campus is adorned with religious outposts meant in part to bolster the faith of students who, living away from home for the first time, might be tempted to stray from their family-values upbringing. A dual world emerges, one where the bones of the university are laden with meat, and another where they are picked dry not by ravenous vultures but something more insidious: cold, hard facts. While the Midwest is reputed to be the “real America” because of its inhabitants’ virtues, perhaps it deserves that designation because of its inhabitants’ faults.

Sam Sullivan is a University of Nebraska- Lincoln sophomore majoring in general studies with an interest in criminal justice and journalism. In his spare time the Hebron native, who aspires to be a full-time writer, is a “dedicated muckraker” and YouTube contributor.

Attention college reporters: If you have an idea for a story involving your school—streaking, stripping, partying, pranks, protests, political or censorship issues, etc.—please contact us at Features@LFP.com. If you get the green light, Larry Flynt will send you a check with his name on it. Besides the financial windfall, a HUSTLER story will look good on your résumé.

LEARNING THEY’LL HAVE TO PAY MORE TOSTAY IN SCHOOL, CALIFORNIA COLLEGE STUDENTS EXPRESS THEIR RAGE.

by Emily Kelley for HUSTLER Magazine – June 2010

Uncertainty continues to reign at California’s public colleges and universities. Many students may drop out—but not because they loathe lectures, writing term papers and boning up for exams.

In July 2009, after lawmakers had slashed education budgets statewide by hundreds of millions of dollars, the California State University and community college systems raised tuition fees 20% and 30% respectively. Then, just before Thanksgiving, the University of California announced a 32% tuition-fee increase for all ten UC campuses. Of course, students were outraged, and they demanded to be heard.

Back in July, hundreds of CSU students gathered outside the chancellor’s office in Long Beach to adamantly voice their disapproval. By late November, UC students were echoing their sentiments.

“We did have several protests which were organized over Facebook and had quite large turnouts,” recalled Jon Seibert, 21, a chemical engineering major at UC San Diego. There were also walkouts, sit-ins and even building takeovers at several other UC campuses, including Berkeley, Santa Cruz and UCLA. But it’s not just higher fees that are angering students and faculty members alike. “It upsets me that tuition is going up,” complained Gina Alessi, 20, a graphic design student at CSU Fullerton, “but at the same time they are cutting classes left and right and mandating furlough days [for faculty and staffers]. Why are we paying more and getting less?”

The answer is simple. CSU, the nation’s largest university system with 23 campuses, was hit by a $584-million budget cut. As for the University of California, state allocations were reduced by $637 million for the 2010-11school year. By increasing tuition, it expects to raise about $505 million to help offset the money lost.

Meanwhile, CSU and UC students have been forced to deal with the downside of the budget cuts. “The number of classes offered has been diminished, and funding for several student associations has been severely cut, “said Seibert, a member of the UC San Diego crew team. “Several of the local crew teams have lost funding, which affects the amount of racing my team will be able to do this year.”

Although students at California’s community colleges have had their tuition fees increased by only $6 per unit, they are also impacted by the budget cuts. “A friend of mine just told me that he tried to pick up classes at three different community colleges and was shocked to learn that all the classes he wanted were filled,” said Anibal Ortiz, 23, a Pierce College communications major who hopes to transfer to CSU Fullerton.

“The way this budget is coming down, some things are already targeted,” added Dr. Joy McCaslin, Pierce’s interim president, in an interview with this reporter. “The state chancellor’s office is asking us to reduce classes and our student services. We’re having to cut programs—we’re not eliminating anything.”But not just students are suffering; so are faculty members. “I think the furlough days have really upset a lot of people,” said Alessi. Under the CSU chancellor’s plan, nearly all of the system’s 47,000 employees will be forced to take two furlough days a month along with a 10% pay cut.

There have not been any recent mass protests, and some students wondered if they’d been effective. “I feel they have opened a lot of eyes to what is happening but are not solving the problem,” said Lorna Brennan, 21, a nursing student at CSU Chico.

Seibert understood why students exercised their right to protest but also acknowledged a grim reality: “The decision [to raise tuition fees] is necessary due to economic conditions, not driven by greed or caused by state finances being squandered on useless earmark projects. The protests were never going to have an effect. The situation is unfortunate, and I doubt many that approved [budget cuts]were happy about it.”

As the old saying goes, it’s always darkest before the dawn. But for cash-strapped California college students, it’s high noon, and the sun isn’t shining.
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Emily Kelley, an award-winning high school journalist from Paso Robles, California, was accepted into CSU Northridge but enrolled at Pierce College to save money. Now a sophomore, she is News Editor of Pierce’s student newspaper, The Roundup, and a blogger at Internships.com.

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STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE GIVE DEPARTING HEAD COACH LANE KIFFIN A RIOTOUS SEND-OFF

by Bradley Merritt
for HUSTLER Magazine – May 2010

Lane Kiffin’s surprise resignation showed those outside Knoxville just how serious the Big Orange Nation takes its football. As soon as ESPN spread the news he would be succeeding Pete Carroll at the University of Southern California, around 1,000 enraged UT students quickly took to the streets.

Some torched Kiffin’s promotional “It’s Time” T-shirts, and a mattress was set ablaze. The legendary Tennessee Rock was defaced with “Fuck Lane Kiffin” and other derisive slogans. Cops donning riot gear and firefighters rolled in, but campus police—many of whom are Vols fans—had little intention of stopping the mayhem. After his impromptu farewell press conference, Knoxville’s new public enemy number one had to be escorted by lawmen through the heckling crowd gathered outside the Neyland-Thompson Sports Complex.

In the meantime a group of UT football players began to lash out against their former coach. They were understandably angry, in shock and looking for answers. Most of all they were defiant. Tennessee football is a proud program, one steeped in tradition, and players scoffed at the notion that Kiffin was the key to its revival. There were shockwaves at USC as well.

Many wondered why a program that enjoyed one of the greatest runs in college football history would hire a head coach whose combined record over the past three years with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders and UT was 12-21. They understood the interest on Kiffin’s part. After all, he’s a West Coast guy with a West Coast wife, but why, they wondered, would USC bring back Carroll’s former protégé when so many proven candidates were available?

The answer is likely the same as when UT hired the guy: bloodlines. With Kiffin as a young, brash figurehead, USC gets two key members of his UT staff: defensive guru Monte Kiffin (Lane’s father) and recruiting ace Ed Orgeron. That type of package deal will always land an underqualified coach a big-time job.

Vols fans hope they have the last laugh. They see Kiffin as little more than a snake in the grass and a program wrecking ball. With USC facing possible NCAA sanctions, the UT faithful would like to see Kiffin get his comeuppance. At the very least they’re taking solace in the fact that as Kiffin slithers his way toward the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, he’s doing so with an infant son named Knox.

Which takes us to UT athletic director Mike Hamilton, who figuratively wet the bed. Two days after announcing he was seeking a proven national recruiter to replace Kiffin, the A.D. hired Louisiana Tech’s Derek Dooley. In his first head-coaching job, he chalked up a three-year mark of 17-20. So now an inexperienced coach who couldn’t secure a winning record in the Western Athletic Conference has what it takes to revive Tennessee’s program in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference? Of course Dooley had a sterling reputation as a recruiter at LSU, but got it by representing Nick Saban, not himself.

With a need for the Vols to recruit nationally, Dooley seemingly doesn’t have the name recognition to walk into a promising player’s home and beat out SEC heavyweights. When word came out that he’d be running the show, the general sentiment of the Big Orange Nation was: Who’s that guy? Is he related to Georgia’s old coach?

By hiring Lane Kiffin for one mediocre season and replacing him with Derek Dooley, Mike Hamilton has effectively set the Tennessee program back for years to come. The only answer now is to scrap the whole thing and start over, new athletic director and all.

Bradley Merritt, a senior majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing, is sports editor of the University of Tennessee’s student newspaper, the Daily Beacon. The onetime collegiate football and baseball player is a chief contributor to FireMikeHamiltonNow.com and has also written for ESPN.com.

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MAY 2010 – HUSTLER Magazine


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Scores of San Diego State University students are rounded up in a sweeping drug bust. 

During finals week of the spring semester, 95 San Diego State University students— and 30 others—were arrested on assorted drug-related charges in a series of raids conducted by federal and local lawenforcement agencies. The roundup culminated a year-long undercover sting operation targeting dealers and buyers at SDSU, particularly members of several fraternities.

At the residences of students and non- SDSU-affiliated individuals, investigators confiscated up to $100,000 worth of cocaine, marijuana, Ecstasy, psylocibin mushrooms, illicit prescription drugs and other substances. They also seized $60,000 in cash and various weapons, including a shotgun and three semiautomatic pistols.

According to the District Attorney’s Office of San Diego County, 54 SDSU students were arrested by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, who suspected a direct connection to the originally targeted traffickers. The remaining 41 were arrested by campus police officers for minor offenses uncovered between January and May 2008. Officials said these suspects were not necessarily connected to the drug ring, but were arrested in accordance with the university’s zero-tolerance drug policy.

The D.A.’s office also noted that one student apprehended in the raids—Omar Castaneda- Arce, 36—is a documented gang member with suspected ties to Mexican drug cartels. Officials also said that the suspect had served three years in prison for a previous drug offense. Searching Castaneda-Arce’s home, investigators reportedly discovered a kilogram of cocaine.

Campus police and the DEA initiated the undercover investigation, dubbed Operation Sudden Fall, in response to an SDSU coed’s death by cocaine overdose in May 2007. When a San Diego Mesa College student succumbed to oxycodone and alcohol poisoning at an SDSU fraternity in February 2008, authorities were prompted to step up their efforts.

“This investigation spotlights two tragedies,” said the DEA’s Special Agent in Charge, Ralph W. Partridge. “The tragic drug overdose deaths of two college students and, secondly, the shattered futures of those students who choose to engage in the illicit sale and usage of myriad controlled substances.”

During Operation Sudden Fall, DEA agents posing as students made more than 130 separate drug transactions with members of SDSU fraternities, and several members of Theta Chi and Phi Kappa Psi were among those arrested. Officials said that in some fraternities, nearly all of the members were aware that drug sales were being conducted within their own frat houses.

Two days after the raids, SDSU suspended six fraternities—Theta Chi, Phi Kappa Psi, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Mu—pending further investigation.

On the day of the bust, SDSU President Stephen L. Weber announced: “Certainly today’s arrests underscore the scope of the challenges universities face as we fight this major societal problem.We are determined to remove people from our community who have placed our students at risk and to see that they are turned over to the criminal justice system.”

Although Weber publicly hailed the arrests as a victory for San Diego State University, others have called the investigation unnecessary and ultimately ineffective. Following Operation Sudden Fall’s highly publicized conclusion, some campus groups have raised concerns over its impact on university life.

At a rally prompted by the raids, members of Students for Sensible Drug Policy—a national awareness organization committed to reducing the harms caused by drug abuse and drug policies— criticized the undercover operation. Randy Hencken, president of the organization’s SDSU chapter, believes the bust will likely have little effect on student drug use in the long run.

“We’ve seen those big piles of drugs and money on our TV screens before, over and over again, for the past three decades, and the availability of drugs has not changed,” Hencken proclaimed. “So long as students have the desire to use illegal drugs, and so long as the prohibition of drugs sustains a lucrative black market, drug stings will do little more than create openings for others to step in and supply these drugs.”

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Reza Farazmand is a University of California, San Diego junior majoring in political science and is news editor of the school’s student-run newspaper, The Guardian.

Attention college reporters: If you have an idea for a story involving your school—streaking, stripping, partying, pranks,protests, political or censorship issues—contact us at Features@LFP.com.

As coed Robin Carol recounts, no one bothers with clothes during Tufts University’s most off-the-wall ritual.

At staid and prestigious Tufts University, even the purest, most innocent freshman has heard of the Naked Quad Run. The origins of this unique event, recently renamed the Nighttime Quad Reception (NQR) by the Boston area school’s administrators, have become clouded over the years.

One prevailing story is that the Naked Quad Run began as a protest after men and women were allowed to share a dormitory. But Sergeant Robert McCarthy of the campus police department disagrees. “It started a long time before West Hall even thought of becoming coed,” maintains McCarthy, who has worked at Tufts for 35 years.

Seth Ammerman (Class of ’76) dates the Naked Quad Run as far back as 1973. “Streaking had been going on for a number of years around the country,” he recalls, “but with individuals or small groups. This was the first one at Tufts with hundreds of people—and coed, which was great.”

Ammerman believes that students took part en masse in the nude dash primarily as an entertaining outlet to relieve stress and “to tweak authority.” The Tufts alumnus recollects, “Some people said that they were protesting for peace or against war or changes at the university. That was picked up by the media, but really, it was just to do something fun.”

McCarthy remembers streaking episodes in the ’70s, but says that the Naked Quad Run in its current form as a release from exam nerves began later. “In 1980, [students] made a thing about the ‘Loud Hour’ [during a traditionally mandated 23-hour quiet period], to make as much noise as you can,” the police sergeant recalls. “Come ten o’clock, people were opening windows and putting speakers out. Noise travels on top of that hill, and we got complaints all over [the neighboring towns of] Medford and Somerville.”

To contain the symphonic deluge, the administration encouraged students to run around the campus’s quad instead. One particular group had a unique interpretation of these instructions. “Fifteen or 20 guys from West Hall came out naked, ran once, went back in the dorm, and that was it,” McCarthy says. “Then every year it was the same thing.”

When West Hall became coed in 1987, the event grew in popularity. “The quad was packed with people, and ten o’clock comes,” McCarthy continues. “At first there were probably 50 guys running. Then here comes 25 or 30 girls, and everyone starts cheering. It got bigger every year.”

Unfortunately, bigger didn’t always mean better. The Naked Quad Run’s existence was jeopardized in 2002 after several students were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning and assorted injuries. University President Lawrence Bacow sent out a stern e-mail stating that “the combination…of alcohol with a mad dash through an icy, hilly campus at night cannot continue.”
However, support for the unabashed spree prompted various university organizations to examine how it could continue more safely. Police involvement and the sanctioned Nighttime Quad Reception have proven to be successful.

“A lot of people got involved, like the Senate and the Dean’s Office to make it a controlled event, and it’s gotten better,” Sergeant McCarthy points out.
Ammerman cites the presence of intoxicating beverages as the biggest change to the event over the years, but one current student understands the need to imbibe. “People drink alcohol to feel comfortable in situations where they feel awkward,” sophomore Ben Strauss asserts. “That is a problem, but I don’t think that’s any worse for the Naked Quad Run. It’s funny because I was sober last year for NQR, and I had a very fun experience anyway.”

A new chapter in NQR lore coincided with the ability to post pictures or videos on the Internet. “[In the 1970s] there weren’t people around staring,” Ammerman says. “Everyone who came out was involved. These days, with cell phones and everything, you’ve got to be more wary.”

“I get worried as years pass,” senior Katie Winter reflects. “With YouTube and Facebook, something may show up years after the fact. I make sure to run where there are lots of people running around too.”
Even with these technological drawbacks, NQR probably won’t be vanishing any time soon. “It’s evolved over the years,” McCarthy declares. “I don’t think it’s going to [disappear]. It’s hard to stop it, and if it’s going to happen anyhow, we try to do it as safely as possible.”

Looking back, Ammerman admits that during his college years he wouldn’t have expected NQR to endure as a Tufts tradition. “I thought maybe it would come and go like many fads do,” he observes, “but I think the moral of the story is that college kids like to run around naked.”

Sophomore Robin Carol has been writing for the Tufts Daily since she was a freshman. The international relations major remained completely dressed during her coverage of the Naked Quad Run.

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Attention college reporters: If you have an idea for a story involving your school—streaking, stripping, partying, pranks, protests, political or censorship issues—contact us at Features@LFP.com.

A St. Cloud State University off-campus bookstore tries to boost sales—and ends up precipitating a major censorship dust-up. Making herself available to cover the story is student Becky Kuschel.

A seemingly innocuous article of clothing caused a major uproar on the campus of Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University. During the first week of fall classes, Campus Book & Supply gave customers a free T-shirt bearing a message that touted the establishment’s inventory of used texts at affordable prices. Rankling some students and women’s organizations were the three lines of text emblazoned on the front of the white cotton shirt: “I’M CHEAP/I’M USED/I’M AVAILABLE.”

Although the words were positioned directly above the image of a book, the meaning seemed to vary among beholders. “It’s talking about the person wearing it,” insisted Kira Nelson, a senior marketing major. “It’s disgusting!”

Jared Fossum, also a marketing major, said his reaction when he first saw the shirt was that the message was “not what they’re intending.”

Both Nelson and Fossum claimed they would never wear the bookstore’s shirt. Not sharing those sentiments was Derek Lossing, a graduate business student who also holds down a job as director of sales and marketing for a private company. “I would wear the shirt,” he said with a grin.

“It’s a T-shirt marketing a bookstore. There is only a problem with the shirt if you’re looking for a problem.” Lossing added that he did not feel the T-shirt would say anything about him personally were he to wear it, and he did not find it derogatory toward men or women. As Lossing pointed out, “The bookstore was giving them to everyone shopping there, not just a specific demographic.”

The Women’s Center, along with Women’s Action and similar groups, quickly reacted to the message on the shirt. “We did generate a petition and gathered signatures, which we will mail to Campus Book & Supply,” admitted Women’s Center Director Jane Olsen.

In the meantime she also expressed the center’s views in a letter to Campus Book & Supply: “‘I’m cheap, I’m used, I’m available’ sends the message that women and men are available for sex any time and with anyone. It’s demeaning to both women and men.”

Olsen, who doesn’t feel the Women’s Center petition infringes on First Amendment rights, stated, “Just as Campus Book & Supply had the right to produce and distribute the T-shirt, others who found the T-shirt offensive have the right to express their disagreement with the message on the shirt.”

Mark Zsoter, the regional manager for Matthews Book Company—the operator of Campus Book & Supply—had only heard positive reactions from students. He said he was unaware that the context of the shirt was taken by some to mean gender instead of books. The wording, Zsoter explained, was taken from another store that  had used the message as a slogan for its books. Zsoter said the T-shirt is no longer available. 

To help challenge sexist advertising, Olsen urged students to get involved in organizations like Women’s Action or Students for Sexual Consent. The Women’s Center, she said, is “talking with students [and] in classes about the harm coming from advertising and media messages such as this.”

“This shirt is a marketing tool being used by an off-campus business,” Lossing observed. “It has, from an outside perspective, been effective in marketing that particular bookstore. Of course, people are going to see a double meaning in the Tshirt. If they weren’t supposed to, Campus Book & Supply would have handed out shirts that said, ‘I’m highlighted, I have bent corners, and you can purchase me on Division Street!’ Would this be as effective a marketing tool as the current shirt? Probably not.”

Becky Kuschel is a mass communications major at St. Cloud State University. She also plays a mean violin.

Attention college reporters: If you have an idea for a story involving your school—streaking, stripping, partying, pranks, protests, political or censorship issues—contact us at Features@LFP.com.

Noah Cohen and Stephanie Takach chronicle a Drexel University coed and her preppy boy toy who lived the high life via cyberfraud.

The jet-setting (and allegedly illicit) odyssey of Jocelyn Kirsch, 22, a senior at Philadelphia’s Drexel University, and her boyfriend Edward Anderton, 25, is now history. On December 5, 2007, the cohabitants of a high-end condo were arrested on charges of conspiracy, forgery and identity theft after a neighbor informed authorities that the duo had opened a credit card account under her name just three weeks after moving in.

An investigation soon discovered that the suspected con artists had netted more than $100,000 while indulging themselves with fancy clothes, the latest technological gadgets and luxury getaways. Photos recovered from their condo showed the couple smiling and relaxing in Paris, the Caribbean and other exotic locales.

Friends said Kirsch—the daughter of a Winston-Salem, North Carolina, plastic surgeon—was no stranger to accusations of thievery. Suspicions of dishonesty date as far back as 2002, when Kirsch was a counselor at Camp Cheerio, a children’s summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains. “Honestly, when I heard about it, I wasn’t shocked at all,” former camper Megan Rahn declared. “We had a couple of incidents of stealing at our cabin.” According to a bunkmate, Kirsch snatched some food, a pair of rainbow flip-flops and a fellow counselor’s cell phone.

Said another, anonymous Camp Cheerio alum, “Stuff started to disappear. Then Jocelyn got fired.”
Former college friends insist that Kirsch’s deceit went far beyond petty theft, and the police investigation bore this out. At Kirsch and Anderton’s residence, investigators reportedly seized four computers, a scanner, two printers, keys to neighbors’ mailboxes, dozens of credit cards and an industrial-size machine for manufacturing IDs. Billing statements for one neighbor and the passport of yet another were also uncovered, as well as a closetful of designer clothes, three safe lock boxes, around $18,000 in cash, a tome titled The Art of Cheating: A Nasty Little Book for Tricky Little Schemers and Their Hapless Victims and a newspaper article with the headline “How to Spot Fake IDs.”

Neighbors might not have been the only ones being scammed. A source close to the investigation believes that Anderton—a University of Pennsylvania grad and onetime financial analyst originally from Everett, Washington—was also being fooled by the seductive Kirsch. “I always wonder why she stayed with him,” the source said. “She could wrap any person around her finger.”

Former friends recalled that Kirsch—a former sorority sister—would flirt with gal pals’ guys and developed relationships while dating Anderton. Despite her flirtatious nature—according to both the police and friends of the couple—Kirsch was allegedly able to convince Anderton not only to take a final exam for her at Drexel, but also to eventually become her alleged accomplice in the elaborate identity theft scam.
Meanwhile, Drexel University administrators have issues of their own to deal with. Kirsch, an international area studies major, allegedly pretended to be an adjunct professor in order to get a free parking pass, and—according to a staffer—she allegedly made use of computers at the school’s Language and Communication Center. “That wounded my pride,” the staffer said, “because I thought I had a pretty good BS detector.”

Kirsch—whose provocative attire, remarkable figure (reputedly enhanced) and long, dark hair inevitably turned heads—got in more hot water when she strode into Giovanni and Pileggi, an upscale Philly hair salon, to be fitted with a set of auburn-brown extensions. The coed paid with a $1,700 check, and when it later bounced, a salon employee tried to contact her by phone, then with a text message.

Kirsch allegedly replied by text: “Hello. You don’t know my name, but I know yours. I also know your nice place…and how you get home at night. You’re the one who should be worried.”

“The hairdresser made a police report after the incident,” a police source said. “Kirsch was charged with terroristic threats, along with other charges when she was locked up.”
Kirsch’s high school boyfriend said that she was always trying to be someone she was not. “Jocelyn was always sucking the life out of every person she met,” he recalled. “When one group of friends or individuals would find out who she really was, she would sneak away and immediately get another group of friends.” He also remembered that when Kirsch worked as a lifeguard at a water park, she feigned a South African accent to dupe friends into thinking she was foreign.

Kate Agnelli, Kirsch’s best friend in high school, confirmed the ex’s story: “She felt the need to lie, and I think that is Jocelyn Kirsch. She is not comfortable with the truth or who she is.”
After being released on bail in excess of $100,000 each, Kirsch is reportedly staying with her father, while Anderton returned to Washington State. The defendants, dubbed “the Bonnie and Clyde of Identity Theft” by police, were briefly reunited in a Philadelphia courtroom on February 12.

Noah Cohen, a senior studying communications and criminal justice at Drexel University, is editor in chief of the campus newspaper The Triangle. Majoring in communications, freshman Stephanie Takach is The Triangle’s assistant news editor and a contributor to the New York Post and CBS Online.

Attention college reporters: If you have an idea for a story involving your school—streaking, stripping, partying, pranks, protests, political or censorship issues—contact us at Features@LFP.com.

Rhonda K. Baughman ruminates on a murdered coed with a secret sideline that made her more “newsworthy.”

When Emily Sander, 18, disappeared, few of her classmates at Butler Community College in Kansas noticed. When her body was found six days later, 50 miles from the El Dorado campus, it got minor attention in local papers. When it was revealed the quiet brunette had been living a secret life as an Internet model named Zoey Zane, Emily Sander became good news. Sexy news.

“PORN STAR MURDERED!” screamed Chicken Little headlines.

“SEE DEAD PORN STAR PUSSY!” squawked random blogger trolls.

Much of Zoey Zane’s personal information and photography have been removed from the Internet, but this hasn’t entirely stopped the necrophile crowd from creeping in. No doubt, postmortem hits for Zoey Zane have exceeded those when Sander was alive. Odd, one might think, for someone deemed a porn queen or star on the basis of a few scant details of her foray into online nude modeling. But then equally odd were the words queen and star. Uh, what were all those movie titles again? Emily Sander was neither royalty of adult entertainment, nor, truthfully, was her Internet site naughty enough to warrant star status.

Notably, the facts of this case seem entirely unrelated to Sander’s extracurricular endeavors. One night, Sander met Israel Mireles, 24, at a bar in El Dorado. They left together, without Mireles’s very pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend, Victoria Martens. Six days later, Sander’s body was found. Mireles was charged with capital murder, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy, the clues being a missing bedspread and a copious amount of blood in his motel room. The suspect’s flight to Mexico caused a stink: The Federales insisted the Yanquis not seek the death penalty. U.S. authorities promised the worst they’d demand would be life in prison.

Neither the public nor Sander’s classmates have details of her death, but it has been stated that nude modeling had no connection to her fate. In fact, the only reason anyone outside Kansas even heard about her demise was because of the young woman’s cyberspace activity. It’s only Emily Sander’s risqué alter ego that has given the case national attention.

Welcome to the erratic pulse beat of America’s Heartland—Sander in Kansas, myself in Ohio, both of us barely blips on radar screens, average students in the middle of nowhere: free spirits, the invisible class, women in transition. Sander was one of thousands of anonymous faces and bodies floating in the ether. She may have dreamed of parlaying her sideline into something else. Who knows? To be human is to dream. I can tell you, as both a student and instructor, all students have some kind of dream; otherwise we wouldn’t be students.

Reactions to the story at my school, Antioch University McGregor, and at the one where I teach remain as nonchalant now as at the story’s initial break in November 2007. It’s business as usual. People love good tragedy, enjoy hashing particulars or making some up, especially if bare breasts and a flash of ass are involved. Get the story, report the facts, quickly move on to the next one.

At least in the headline of reporter Roxana Hegeman’s AP article, the word student preceded porn star. Nothing I read mentioned that Sander also worked as a secretary. In the U.S. we tend to let our vocations define us. Some of us forget that the actual person is a separate entity from his or her job description.

What 18-year-old—student or otherwise—doesn’t need extra money? Moreover, Sander’s cheeky poses, bikinis, nudity and bright smile hardly constitute porn. The word porn itself is hysterically relative anyway. Whether or not hard-core exposure of Sander as Zoey Zane ever existed isn’t really important.

An overused quote remains the only evidence regarding Sander’s personal life: “She enjoyed it,” recalled Nikki Watson, one of her friends at Butler Community College. “She was a young teenage girl, and she wanted to be in the movies and enjoyed movies. She needed the extra money. Nobody in El Dorado knew besides her close friends.”

Apparently. And Emily Sander is no longer here to tell us about it.

Rhonda K. Baughman, a graduate of Antioch University McGregor in Yellow Springs, Ohio, now attends Chicago’s Argosy University and teaches creative writing at Brown Mackie College. She is also an online movie critic and poetess whose My Transvestite: A Novella of Love & Death, Porn & Revolution is soon to be rereleased by B&R Publications.

Attention college reporters: If you have an idea for a story involving your school—streaking, stripping, partying, pranks, protests, political or censorship issues—contact us at Features@LFP.com.