College Criticized for Recruiting Postcard
 
AP - Dec. 14, 2004
 

CRETE, Neb. - A private college is raising eyebrows with a recruiting postcard that shows a man surrounded by women and says students have the opportunity to "play the field."

Doane College sent the cartoon postcard last week to about 13,500 prospective students in California.

One frame shows student playing football for the Doane Tigers, with a caption that reads: "Finally, a place where he could work toward the career of his choice. And also play the field."

The next frame shows him talking to a group of attractive women and is captioned: "And play the field some more."

Some faculty members say the postcards objectify women and could lead prospective students to get the wrong idea about the four-year, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

The timing for the postcard also is troubling to some. Doane football player Alan Branting, 19, has been suspended and is awaiting trial on a charge of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in May.

Administrators say the innuendo is harmless. The phrase "play the field" means to explore a variety of options, in relationships and other aspects of life, said J.S. Engebretson, the college's executive director of communications and marketing.

However, Christy Hargesheimer, an assistant professor of Spanish, said some of her students associated the phrase with sexual promiscuity.

"My concern is that it might attract the wrong sort of student," she said. "And it would also repel the students that we might be interested in."

Doane needed an edgy campaign to reach its target audience, said Dan Kunzman, the vice president of admissions.

"We had to get a little out of the box to catch their attention, to maybe get them to realize that the state of Nebraska isn't a 300-mile cornfield," Kunzman said.

Doane's campus in Crete, about 25 miles southwest of Lincoln, has about 1,010 students, plus 1,000 graduate students there and at other locations.

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Doane College: http://www.doane.edu/