Controversy Hits Her Campus

Earlier this year, HerCampus.com made headlines on Harvard’s campus when four students launched a new online magazine for college women. Over the past week, though, Her Campus has been the center of attention at another nearby school—Wellesley College.

Her Campus Wellesley, the aptly-named Wellesley section of the site, came under fire for its “Mr. Wellesley Freshman” competition, based on Freeze College Magazine’s popular “Mr. Harvard Freshman” contest. Students from the women’s college were encouraged to nominate men from other schools to compete for the title. The winner would then vie in the Her Campus “Mr. Campus Freshman” contest, a nationwide search for “the coolest, sexiest, and funniest freshman in America.”

“Now you don’t have to remind me that Wellesley is a women’s college,” wrote Katie Chen, a freshman at Wellesley and a Her Campus Wellesley correspondent, in a post soliciting nominations, “but that isn’t going to stop us from putting forth our best boyfriends and guy pals from schools across the country to compete for the title of Mr. Campus Freshman.”

But some Wellesley students took umbrage at the prospect of nominating students from other schools—not only out of school pride, but also in defense of the transgender and transsexual communities on their campus.

Galen T. Danskin, an outraged Wellesley junior who called Her Campus’ attitude towards transgender people “really offensive,” said that anger on campus has been widespread and that a petition to end the Wellesley section of HerCampus.com has now garnered over 250 signatures from students.

Her Campus responded to the uproar on Wellesley’s campus by reorganizing the competition to address their readers’ concerns. Her Campus re-opened the contest for nominations again, renaming the contest “Mr. Wellesley First-Year” and inviting Wellesley students. Ultimately, seven Wellesley students were nominated, according to Her Campus co-founder Stephanie M. Kaplan ‘10.

In an e-mailed statement, Kaplan wrote that Her Campus was quick to respond to Wellesley’s objections.

“We are using the feedback we are receiving to inform how we approach these projects in the future, so that we can best embody our mission of serving college women,” she wrote. “Our intentions with this contest were never to offend, and we have reacted as quickly as possible in response to the feedback we have received.”