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Harvard magazine to offer nude student photos
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by Stacy Waite
Friday, February 13, 2004
Harvard magazine to offer nude student photos
Students at Harvard University will soon have the opportunity to pose nude for a new campus magazine titled “H Bomb.”
A university committee that evaluates student organizations recently approved the magazine, which will offer fiction, sex advice and nude photographs of Harvard students.
The university does not endorse such behavior, according to Judith Kidd, associate dean of Harvard College, the undergraduate facility at Harvard University.
“Recognition of student organizations does not imply endorsement by Harvard of any political position or point of view,” Kidd said in a release.
The release also addressed media controversy accusing H Bomb of showcasing pornographic material, including the accusation of being a “porn magazine” by the university’s newspaper, the Harvard Crimson.
“The Committee (on College Life) will be reviewing the proposal with the students to make sure that there is a clear understanding that the organization will not be involved in the dissemination of pornographic material,” the release stated. “The proposal to publish [H Bomb] was approved [by the committee] based on the understanding that it would not include material that would be considered pornographic.”
The university also said no money from Harvard College would be used to fund the magazine.
“According to students, (the first issue will be released) sometime this spring,” said Robert Mitchell, director of communications of faculty arts and sciences at Harvard University.
The magazine’s creators, Harvard students Katharina Baldegg and Camilla Hrdy, described H Bomb as a magazine that will “serve as a popular forum for discussions about sex that is not otherwise available.” It will reach men and women of all sexual orientations, they said.
The publication of the magazine demonstrates the use of constitutional rights, said Robert Drechsel, UW professor of journalism and mass communication.
“[What is categorized as] appropriate is a matter of morality rather than censorship,” Drechsel said. “The matter would raise a free-speech question if it were at a public institution, but [at Harvard] it doesn’t raise the same questions.”
UW sophomore Gabe Horstick believes the topics covered in the magazine, including sex advice and feature art, would be an asset to students.
“I think it would be cool, and while it’s highly suspect, I think it will offer some highly valuable information,” Horstick said. “If [UW] had it, I’d read it.”
