By Jackie Burns
Carleton’s campus newspaper decided to give its student body a hard on last week.
A photo of a man swinging a bell from his schlong dressed the cover of the Charlatan, leading to some anger and a surge in the number of papers picked p.
“I actually saw people fighting over our paper, which is something that doesn’t happen very often,” said Chinta Puxley, news editor at the Charlatan.
But she said not everyone thinks the snapshot of the bare willie — which on some covers was defaced with bingo-blottings — was in good taste.
She said the athletics department took some issues off the stand, while complaints have spewed into the student council office.
Mike McCartney, VP international affairs at Carleton, said: “Most [of the complaints] were from mature students on campus with children, who had to bring them to the school.”
He didn’t find the flashed penis offensive, but could see how others could be turned off. “It was done for the sole purpose of trying to stir up a controversy,” McCartney said.
But Puxley said the cover shot was run in conjunction with a full-page entertainment story on the New Jim Rose Circus coming to Ottawa. “It’s not like it’s gratuitous nudity,” she said.
Puxley said the paper’s editorial board stands behind the decision to run the naked unit on the cover, and the staff has not discussed making a formal apology.
“It certainly made us realize Carleton’s a much more conservative campus than we thought it was,” Puxley said.
Heidy Van Dyk, president of Carleton’s student’s association, said the complaints have to be investigated before her council takes a stance on the issue. Van Dyk said she is meeting with the equity issues office before deciding what action to take.
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