After an eight-day shutdown over a strip club ad, Hudson Valley Community College's student senate agreed to re-open the campus newspaper's offices Feb. 15.
The Hudsonian's editors and the student senate compromised on a second, prepaid publication of the ad, says the Albany Times-Union, but the Odyssey's owners agreed to a $250 refund in exchange for withdrawing the full-page ad.
One of the owners, Jeff Filer, himself an HVCC graduate, tells the Times-Union he wanted to attract dancers, not hurt the school, but he's benefited from the publicity around the shutdown. "I got my money's worth, I'll tell you that," Filer told the Times-Union.
Hudsonian staffers call it all a victory for the First Amendment. They're aiming to get its next issue out before the end of February. In what staffers of The Hudsonian are calling a victory for the First Amendment, the paper plans to interview three potential advisers Monday in the hopes of getting its next issue out before the end of the month.
But they need a new advisor - their last one quit in the ad fallout. The ad featured a model in a bikini and promised female students large salaries and bonuses to work as exotic dancers. And, with administrative backing, the student senate locked the Hudsonian's offices and froze its funding, under HVCC rules requiring clubs to have an advisor.
