(bcw) Howard University administrators have halted publication of the university's student newspaper, the editor in chief and the university spokesman told Black College Wire this week. Drew Costley, a Howard senior and The Hilltop's top editor for the 2007-08 academic year, said the action was taken because of more than ,000 in outstanding printing costs. He also said ,000 is missing from the paper's account. Costley was reached in New Orleans where he was participating in alternative spring break to help Hurricane Katrina victims. Costley said administrators "went against protocol" and independently decided to stop publication of The Hilltop indefinitely after it was revealed that the newspaper owed its printer, The Washington Times, ,000 for printing during the fall semester. The Hilltop is the nation's only HBCU student newspaper that is published daily. Costley said the decision to stop publication resulted from an "illegal vote" taken without a quorum at a March 6 meeting of the policy board that governs the paper. Ron Harris, director of the office of communications, confirmed that publication of The Hilltop has been suspended. "The university administration is not happy that school newspaper is not being published. They're having conversations right now to discuss how did this happen, are there systemic problems, and what do we need to change to make sure it doesn't happen again." Harris also said discussions were underway to determine if the printing bills could be paid. During the March 6 meeting, Costley said administrators suggested stopping publication, but Costley said he motioned to continue publishing through March 21. "The board started discussing my motion without verifying what the words were. It somehow got twisted that my motion was to stop publishing," he said. After 45 minutes to an hour of "talking in circles," Costley's motion was passed and the meeting was adjourned without a solution to the financial problem, he said. At a board meeting on March 12, five pages of minutes from that meeting were approved after one minute of review. Costley said the minutes of the meeting stated, in error, that he had motioned for the paper to stop publication. "These administrators that sit on the board took it upon themselves to decide that the newspaper wasn't publishing any more," Costley said.

Join BBN for free to post a comment. If you already have an account, please login here to post a comment. You will be returned to this page after logging in.