Students lobby to have MU join with Pink
Students say the clothing line could bring publicity to MU.
Published Oct. 24, 2008
Pink fever is sweeping MU's campus.
Many students are actively competing in a nationwide contest for MU to be the next collegiate partnership with Pink.
According to Victoria Secret's Pink Web site, Pink is currently looking for a four-year university to join its collegiate pink collection. Freshmen Taylor Combs, a Maneater reporter, created the Facebook group "Vote Mizzou for Pink Collegiate Collection," to muster MU support and generate more votes.
"My motivation was really to get the word out," Combs said. "I had known about the Pink Collegiate Collection for a while and I thought all the clothes were really cute, so I wanted Mizzou to be a part of it. When I saw that students could vote on the schools, the first thing I thought to do was create a Facebook group to get people involved. I think it's amazing how quickly the group grew. I first invited about 50 of my friends and the next day it had grown exponentially. The response has really been amazing."
Other group members understand the importance of the competition.
"It's important to me that MU is chosen by Victoria's Secret because I'm very proud of my school and beyond this I think having both MU and Pink on attire would be great," senior group member Jessica Powers said.
MU students said they want their school represented in the clothing line for a number of reasons.
"Other than the fact that (the University of Kansas) has already been chosen, which is just wrong, I think MU should be chosen by Victoria's Secret because it would give the school more publicity nationwide," sophomore Amy Tesch said. "Also, it will give the students another set of clothing designs that are surrounded around school spirit."
MU is one of six Big 12 schools not in partnership with Pink.
"I think that since a lot of other major universities, especially others in the Big 12 like Kansas and Nebraska, are represented, Mizzou deserves the same opportunity," junior Christina Stiehl said.
Beyond MU's rivalry with the University of Kansas, it is a consensus among many of the Facebook group members that having MU in the Pink Collegiate Collection will be highly beneficial to the university.
"I believe MU being in the collegiate collection would definitely benefit the university. First off, many girls would be more willing to wear Mizzou merchandise if it were presented in a cute and fashionable way like Pink would definitely do," freshmen Lacee Cofer said. "Also, girls in the process of choosing a college would see the college in the Pink collection and it would spark their interest. I feel like MU gains most of its popularity from football and the School of Journalism, so this would be one more outlet to get the word out that Mizzou is a great place to be educated."
The contest is ongoing and is looking for the university with the most votes. Drexel University is taking the lead and MU isn't in the top 25. There is a link in the Facebook group's page that will lead those interested in voting to Victoria Secret's Web site. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, MU was in 40th place.