CSUN Again Probes Playboy Magazine Removal : Media: The adult publication was discontinued by bookstore’s former manager last spring. A decade ago its removal drew national attention.

Administrators at Cal State Northridge, where a fight over the short-lived removal of Playboy magazine a decade ago drew national attention, said Wednesday they are investigating why the magazine had once again been taken off the bookstore shelves.

The bookstore’s former manager, who left the university in September, had discontinued the adult magazine last spring, claiming that more were being stolen than sold. But some campus staff members who fought the original ban on censorship grounds are again questioning the latest action, saying they have received inconsistent explanations about the removal.

“We’re trying to confirm why we’re not selling the magazine,” said Don Queen, executive director of the University Corp., the nonprofit campus group that runs the bookstore. “If it was a legitimate business reason, that’s one thing. If someone was doing it to try to get us not to sell it, that’s another thing.”

The university drew nationwide attention in late 1984, when feminists on campus convinced the bookstore’s governing board to remove sexually explicit magazines. But the ban was unanimously repealed a short time later after a loud backlash from students and faculty members complaining about censorship issues.

Although the magazine was dropped again months ago, the issue was reopened last week by two leaders of the original anti-censorship ban. A campus newspaper also carried an article on the topic Tuesday. Queen said he knew of no student complaints over the issue.

Virginia Elwood, a university librarian, said she and sociology professor Veronica Elias met with Queen on Friday concerned that censorship might again have been the motivation behind the elimination of the magazine.

“It’s a very good periodical,” Elwood said of the magazine, citing in particular its in-depth interviews with famous people. “And I don’t believe in censorship,” she said. The campus’ Delmar T. Oviatt Library has carried Playboy for years, both in paper and on microfilm format, she said.

A spokeswoman for Chicago-based Playboy Enterprises Inc., which publishes the magazine with a 3.4 million U.S. circulation, said it is a popular periodical among college students and that the company regularly fights censorship attempts. Terri Tomcisin, Playboy’s director of corporate communications, said the company is looking into the CSUN matter.

Queen said he noticed the Playboys had disappeared months ago while browsing in CSUN’s bookstore and questioned Lew Herbst, who was then running the bookstore. “To the best of my recollection, he said they were stealing more than they were selling,” Queen said Wednesday.

Elwood said she was also told by other bookstore employees that the magazine was removed because it was persistently taken from shelves and found strewn about the store and that sales were low.

Herbst left the university in September and could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But Dean Calvo, who now oversees all the nonprofit corporation’s retail operations including the bookstore, said he believes the campus should offer the magazine. And aides said they’re considering restoring it elsewhere, perhaps behind the counter in a nearby campus store.

“I think certainly these things ought to be offered. They should be able to be purchased without undue time and effort. I don’t really have a problem with it,” said Calvo. Because of staff turnover, he and the other current supervisors are new to the bookstore.

Elsewhere in the area, officials at UCLA said their campus bookstore has carried Playboy, Penthouse and Playgirl for years without controversy. But at the University of Southern California, bookstore buyer Peter Goff said adult magazines have not been carried for years. He said they didn’t sell well and speculated that students were embarrassed to buy them.