Northwestern needs a Bunny. Now.

Upon hearing that Playboy magazine was coming to Evanston nextweek to conduct interviews for its Fall 2003 “Women of the Big Ten”pictorial, I couldn’t help but crack a grin.

See, everyone was dumbfounded when Tommy Nevin’s Pub, 1450Sherman Ave., was named Playboy’s College Bar of the Month lastyear, suggesting that NU actually had a decent social scene.

Ha. Surely you jest.

Now we might even transform one of our wondrous Wildcats into aPlayboy Bunny. We also may have someone interesting to stalk on Ph.But Playboy’s visit makes me realize something: For a school tryingto promote a sense of community, our individualistic obsession withreputation is what we should be ashamed of — not some girl posingin her birthday suit.

But many people on campus have a tough time envisioning nude NUstudents, even though 17 have posed for the Playboy since 1977.

“Is this what we want women at NU to be known for?” said MaryDesler, associate vice president for student affairs. Many studentsalso think that Playboy’s visit to NU was a worse idea than AdamForsyth’s Associated Student Government campaign.

“I am all for the exploration of female sexuality,” saidKimberly Mosser, a Medill junior.

“Women are the most beautiful creatures on the planet. Butcoming to one of the premier universities in the world to look forwomen who want to take it all off is insulting.”

Mosser said although she doesn’t think posing nude is inherentlywrong, linking that behavior to NU is.

“I am paying $100,000 for this college’s reputation,” she said,”and (Playboy’s visit) isn’t helping it.”

But Vickie Cook, co-coordinator of last week’s Take Back theNight rally, said she isn’t worried about NU’s reputation.

“People who are really going to care about our reputation won’tbase their opinion on Playboy anyway,” said Cook, a Weinbergjunior. She added that although pornography has the potential to beextremely negative toward women, the key factor is whether or notwomen are independent in their decision to pursue it.

Regardless of your views on pornography, if women at thisuniversity make an informed, rational decision to affiliatethemselves with Playboy, then more power to them.

The deeper problem is that students and administrators havebecome so focused on academic reputation they cannot comprehend whya student would consider doing something so risqu�. If our”reputation” wasn’t such a big deal, then perhaps students would bea little more open-minded — and a little less open-booked.

Maybe Playboy is just what NU needs to remind us not to takeourselves too seriously.

The possibilities would be endless.

So endless, in fact, I’m considering calling up Playgirlmagazine and exploring a modeling career to make ends meet. I’veeven devised a studly porn name for myself: The Cuban Missile.

But for some reason friends keep advising me not to hold mybreath. After all, I have to watch my reputation.