Johnson-Arbor and Proctor both expressed frustration with Harvard's response to the recurring phone harassment.
"University directory is not letting us make our phone numbers unlisted, so random people are calling and saying obscene things. They can get our room numbers," Procter said.
"Harvard's been really uncooperative," said Johnson-Arbor. "I'm concerned for my safety."
Amidst all the tumult, many wonder what inspired the Harvard students to pose for Playboy. For Keller and Johnson-Arbor, the publication's presence in the household prompted the decision.
"One of my childhood memories is walking across the playground with a friend and talking about what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I said, "Well, I want to be a Playboy model.' I had seen my dad's magazines around," Keller said.
Johnson-Arbor's exposure to Playboy enterprises came from her mother.
"[Being in Playboy] always seemed mysterious. My mother was in it, and my godmothers worked at the club. Pretty much all my mother's friends were affiliated with Playboy," Johnson-Arbor said. "When I talked to them about this, they all said it was a really positive experience."
Proctor's decision, however, was influenced not by her home but by the environment she found at Harvard.
"It's nice to be able to succeed at something. It's nice to be able to stand out somehow," Proctor said. "Everybody was a star in high school and it's nice to find one little way to be a star here, because I'm certainly not a star in academics."
Throughout it all, the models say they have looked to their friends and family for support. For Johnson-Arbor, that support took a tangible form during the autographing session on Wednesday. Her boyfriend, J. L. Abernethy '96, brought her flowers.
"I told Kelly I'd come and visit her to show my support, and I thought it'd be nice if she got a dozen roses," he said. "She's been through a very stressful week."
Abernethy said he had no qualms about Johnson-Arbor's decision to pose. "I think [the picture] glorifies her. I think she looks absolutely gorgeous in the magazine. The layout they did of her was very tasteful."
Proctor found her peers were not always so supportive. She said that not only did her boyfriend break up with her, but she also received pressure to step down from her position as co-chair of the campus Native American association.
"[My boyfriend's] a senior and he was supportive of me in the beginning. He took my audition pictures," she said. "But as I started to get more attention, people started teasing him and he couldn't take it."
All three women said they under went a lengthy photo shoot for the Ivy League issue.
"Mine was on a yacht in Boston Harbor. It was about 7 or 8 hours. I guess I tried on 5 different outfits and a bunch of different poses," Keller said.
"The photo shoot lasted 10 hours and it was very painful," Johnson-Arbor said. "I had to hold my body in these contorted positions, point my toes and arch my back for four or five hours at a time. I was really sore afterwards.