Past issues of Playboys were scattered on tables in a suite of the Holiday Inn while Oprah Winfrey spoke to Barbara Walters on the bolted down television and a well-groomed Yorkshire terrier and shih tzu watched attentively as female Iowa State students filled out applications on Tuesday afternoon for an opportunity to bear it all in Playboy’s pictorial, “Women of the Big 12.”

One by one the women were escorted to the bedroom to have Polaroids taken by a small, wrinkled man, Playboy’s photographer, David Chan.

Chan said he hasn’t yet decided how he plans to capture the essence of the ISU woman, but he is considering a photograph with an ISU building backdrop.

“Don’t worry, President,” Chan said. “I don’t believe in doing nude in front of buildings.”

Nearly 100 ISU women interviewed for a position in the October issue of Playboy.

The turnout has been “very good, we got plenty coming in” even though it’s the middle of dead week, Chan said. “We’ve got a good turn out for the whole pack” of the Big 12 schools.

For the “Women of the Big 12” issue, Chan said there are no set qualities that he looks for in women.

“We want a good variety,” Chan said. “I think [ISU women] are the closest to the girl next door.”

So far ISU women have rated favorably when compared to the other Big 12 schools. “I think they are just as good as Texas,” Chan said, adding that ISU is the 11th school they have visited — Missouri is next.

The women who pose do not necessarily have to completely disrobe for this issue.

“They have choice of nude, semi nude and clothing. It’s not like shooting a playmate or a celebrity,” Chan said.

The ISU women who pose for Playboy may not have to be as nude as a Playmate, but they will also not be as well paid.

“We don’t know yet [how much they will be paid]. We’ll decide when we finish, but in the past up it has been up to $500. Each year it is different,” Chan said.

Aside from the $500, there may be other opportunities for the women who pose, Chan said. In the 19 years Chan has been shooting college pictorial he has found about 14 Playmates, but there are other opportunities, as well he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Playboy suite in the Holiday Inn was predominantly populated with blonde white women. Chan said there is little he can do to make the pictorial more diverse.

“It’s hard to do. So far only one black [had interviewed] and no oriental,” Chan said.

Though he would like to have a broad range of women, he said, “I’m not going to put them in just for token’s sake … they have to come on their own.”

Chan is not bothered by critics of Playboy who suggest it degrades women.

“I think they have the right to say what they want. This is a learning opportunity for people to think about what they want to say,” Chan said. “In a couple years, you’ll be out in the working force and you’ll have to think for yourself.

“The pros will come here and the cons will stay home. It doesn’t matter for me,” Chan said.

In the past, Chan said the only school Playboy has had difficulty with has been Baylor University.

“Every time we go there we have trouble,” Chan said. Women who chose to pose could face expulsion. “We only use the ones who are seniors. We don’t want to jeopardize anybody.”

Thomas Thielen, ISU’s vice president for student affairs did not have a problem with Playboy’s presence at ISU.

“I think it is the individual student’s right to choose to pose for Playboy or not,” Thielen said.

Thielen said ISU is an open campus and though he wasn’t sure of the legal implications of banning Playboy, he was “not sure we could stop that if we wanted to and I’m not sure we would want to.”

Two or three women will be chosen for the Playboy pictorial, Chan said, unless he chooses to do a group shot. Choices will be made in the next week and Playboy will return to the area for the shooting.