[1]WACO, Texas (BP)–A Baylor University fraternity was suspended from campus activities for a year and more than 50 students were disciplined after they appeared fully clothed in Playboy magazine.
About 50 men and four women wearing Sigma Phi Epsilon T-shirts and waving Baylor pennants posed for the magazine’s October issue on a sand volleyball court. University spokesman Larry Brumley told Baptist Press disciplinary actions ranged from reprimands to suspensions.
“Baylor University takes seriously its policies,” Brumley said. “The university has expectations that our students live up to a certain code of moral conduct. Baylor is a Baptist institution, operated with Christian oriented aims and ideals.”
A Baylor graduate posed nude in the same issue featuring universities in the Big 12 athletic conference.
A spokesman for Playboy told CNN that fraternity members had called the magazine about a month ago and asked editors not to run the photos. Brumley said the call was made “after they were taken to the woodshed.”
As a result of the suspension, Sigma Phi Epsilon will not be allowed to have any official activities and can’t recruit students. There are no fraternity houses on the campus and are not allowed under campus regulations.
[2]Brumley said Sigma Phi Epsilon has appealed the suspension.
Baylor has had at least two other run-ins with Playboy when individual students posed for the magazine in 1980 and 1996. This is the first time, Brumley said, that an entire organization has posed.
In the past, Baylor administrators have threatened to expel any student who poses for the magazine.
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