Liz Stuewe, a Kansas University senior, is among those featured in the Kansas University Women

It started off as a way to counteract the “Women of KU” calendar, a 12-month exhibition of bikini-clad Jayhawk women.

But now in its fifth year, the Kansas University “Women of Distinction” calendar has developed a following of its own.

“I think it really has taken on a new life,” says Liz Stuewe, a senior and president of the KU Commission on the Status of Women. “It’s something people look for and don’t necessarily associate it as being a counterpoint to the ‘Women of KU.'”

The 2007-08 “Women of Distinction” calendar is available starting today at locations across campus, including the KU Bookstores and the Student Involvement and Leadership Center in the Kansas Union.

Stuewe, a 2004 graduate of Lawrence High School, is one of 22 women featured in this year’s poster-sized calendar. She is co-president of the student political party Delta Force, involved in the Dole Institute of Politics and on the state board for Kids Voting Kansas.

Others photographed for this year’s calendar include students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Stuewe says it’s refreshing to see a calendar “showing women in these distinguished roles, instead of the other ways we see them in the media, overly sexualized.”

That was the goal in the beginning, and it’s the same way now, says Kathy Rose-Mockry, director of KU’s Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center.

“Our goal was to raise awareness of the importance of women’s accomplishments on campus and in the broader community,” Rose-Mockry says.

“That’s something the calendar has contributed to.”