SPOKANE, Wash. — A computer club at Washington State University is preparing for its first "nerd auction." But first, a few of its members will get their own upgrades.
Six sororities have offered makeovers for seven men who aim to raise scholarship money for women in computer science, and improve the image of computer geeks, organizer Ben Ford said.
"The newly fashioned nerds will then be auctioned off to the general public for homework help, computer help or a dinner date," the school said.
Women make up less than 5 percent of computer science students at WSU, reflecting national trends. The goal of the auction is to show that "computer science is fun and interesting and not just for nerdy boys," the school said.
Ford, 31, president of the Linux Users Group and a graduate student, said he's more than a "dude holed up in his basement lit up by the glow of his monitor."
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"We've got other interests and love to have fun," Ford said. "We want to show that to everybody else."
Reaction to the event has not been all positive. One person wrote on the Linux Users Group Web site that it was "offensively stereotypical and outrageously insensitive."
Ford, in a posting to the Web site, said people are missing the humor of the situation.
"We certainly don't believe in these stereotypes," he wrote.
"Think about it. We are nerds," Ford wrote. "We know how to calculate return on investment. This event is costing us thousands of dollars to put on and I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to pay that kind of money to make six or eight dudes happy for a night."
