HVCC sits down exclusively with 13Investigates to respond to lawsuit from faculty union

By WNYT

Did HVCC have a campus safety study done after stabbing incident?

Hudson Valley Community College exclusively sits down with 13Investigates after the college’s faculty union filed a lawsuit, over not sharing a new campus safety assessment.

The college is not budging on releasing that security assessment.

Last summer, HVCC hired an outside consultant to examine campus safety and security, in the hopes of better understanding any potential threats.

Dennis Kennedy, HVCC’s Director of Communications and Marketing, said this assessment is a proactive step to protect students and another tool in their safety tool kit.

The union that represents roughly 300 faculty members asked for a copy of that report. However, they were denied.

HVCC responds to lawsuit

ONLY ON 13: HVCC leaders sat down with 13Investigates to explain their side of a lawsuit they were slapped with. That lawsuit was filed by the faculty union for not handing over a copy of a campus security assessment recently done.

During the process of putting this story together, 13Investigates asked the school several times for comment and always got a statement. Tessa Bentulan asked HVCC why they decided to do a sit-down interview now:

“I think it’s important to share our perspective. The college has taken every proactive measure to ensure the safety of its students,” Kennedy said. “We don’t believe that the community should be left the impression that this report is not doing that. We commissioned this report to take the extra step and get additional information on how we could protect our community.”