Victoria's Secret wants to get in your pants

Last week Penn students got out the vote to help decide the next president of the United States.

This week they are again being asked to cast their ballots. But this time, it's to decide if Penn will display its Quaker pride on its underwear.

Offering everything from hooded sweatshirts to underwear, Victoria's Secret's PINK line of loungewear recently teamed up with 31 schools to form the Pink Collegiate Collection.

Students whose four-year university is not featured on Victoria's Secret clothes or dorm gear can vote once a day online for their institute of higher education to be part of the next collection. However, it appears unlikely that Penn will be one of the newly selected schools in the line.

In fact, the Ivy League has yet to make an appearance on the roster of schools represented.

"I thought it would be cute to have Penn stuff from Victoria's Secret and I'm hoping we could get to the top spot," said College sophomore Calina Cuevas, who last month started a Facebook group urging her fellow students to vote Penn to the top of the list.

Currently at number 76, Penn still has a ways to go before it can beat out such heavy hitters as Michigan State and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which boast about 1,400,000 and 2,400,000 votes respectively. Vote totals are only posted for the top-25 schools.

"I think it caters more to the party schools," said University of Maryland junior Shira Dickstein, whose school is part of the line.

"It would probably do better in a school like that rather than a smaller liberal-arts college which would not appreciate it," she added.

While most of the colleges currently featured in the line are state schools with established sports programs, some smaller, lesser known schools are climbing up the voting ranks - Zion Bible College is ranked in seventh place, Bob Jones University in 12th. Both are religiously affiliated schools.

Most surprising, however, is the number one school - Penn's neighbor, Drexel University, which is about 2,000,000 votes ahead of it's nearest competitor.

"Most of Drexel students are boys," said Drexel junior Monica Singh, "so I think it's amazing there's a 2,000,000-vote difference."

However, Singh added, "A lot of my friends do wear Victoria's Secret on a regular basis."

How this school of 13,000 undergraduates managed to rise to the top of the loungewear pack is anyone's guess.

"It's terrible, I don't understand how they're doing it," said College sophomore Shina Alade. "They must have a group that's very devoted."

Alade would love to see the Penn crest on Victoria's Secret collegiate line, as would many of her peers.

"A lot of my friends are very devoted Victoria's Secret underwear fans," she said, adding that she would "absolutely buy PINK clothing if it had Penn on it."

Most students weren't as convinced as Alade, however.

"When I think of something I want that says Penn," said College senior Erini Mantis, "the first thing that comes to mind isn't underwear."

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