ASU is hot — in multiple ways.
The temperature is hitting upwards of 90 degrees in April, and bikinis and swim trunks are making their way out of the closets and onto the “student body.”
With weather like this, it’s no wonder you fear being arrested for wearing a shirt — how dare you? — or that ASU just received the “Hottest Girls” honorable mention by Playboy magazine in addition to snagging one of the Top 10 spots on Playboy’s list of party schools.
After being relegated to the No. 15 spot in 2009, the University made the jump to No. 6 this year, joining the likes of University of Texas at Austin (No. 1) and University of Miami (No. 4).
And yes, we beat out UA.
We can’t say we’re surprised at seeing ASU on the list, although we imagine Michael Crow is none too pleased with the ranking. In an interview with The Arizona Capitol Times last year, he said, “The party-school image is a joke. It is worse than a joke. We are so far past that.”
Yet there are more than 2,600 members of the “make ASU Playboy’s top party school” group on Facebook — a group that cajoles members to “post any and all wild party pics you have, and invite all your frat brothers, your sorority sisters, your GDI friends, even your parents if you’re friends with them (and wanna show them how tuition is put to use).”
We can safely say, ASU is not “past that.”
Crow might not be too happy about perpetuating the party school image, but more ASU students probably know about whether ASU is ranked by Playboy than what his job title is. Still Crow (the president — of ASU, not the country) shouldn’t be to quick to pooh-pooh this … um, “achievement.” The legendary party-school status is actually a huge draw for the school — hey, not everyone can wear a bikini to class. From a business perspective, playing up that “college experience” appeal attracts a lot of new students from all across the country.
And as liberating as it is to be among the party elite, the ranking doesn’t mean ASU has traded brains for beers. The Academic Ranking of World Universities still lists ASU as one of the top 100 universities in the world. At least Crow can put that on school billboards, even if he isn’t so pleased that his school was labeled a “den of debauchery” by Playboy.
Sure, this recent “accolade” is likely to induce some cringing, but having fun is part of the college experience. Experiencing college and succeeding academically are not mutually exclusive ideas — you can do both, even Playboy acknowledged that in its explanation of the No. 6 spot.
“The Sun Devils passed our three-day-weekend test: When we visited they seriously partied from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon, then drank a pot of coffee and made it to class on time,” the Playboy website said.
We wonder, would we have made it higher on the list if we’d skipped class altogether?
Safety should always be a concern when “getting the most of your college experience,” but saying that the “party culture” isn’t a part of ASU is just dishonest.
ASU by nature is very versatile — you can get anything you want out of this University, even if it’s praise from Playboy.
