Students who might have exposed themselves for the camera at a Lansing nightclub probably won't face academic repercussions, administrators say.

"There's no policy against stupidity," Provost Lou Anna Simon said of the latest "Girls Gone Wild" production.

Footage for the video series, which shows college-age women flashing the camera, was taped Wednesday at The Dollar Nightclub, 3411 E. Michigan Ave., in Lansing.

"People exercise their First Amendment rights of expression in a variety of ways," Simon said. "We can't control people's behavior off campus."

But participation in Wednesday's events may affect the university's reputation, Simon said.

"We all as individuals contribute to a collective reputation," she said.

Students can be academically reprimanded only if their off-campus ventures are illegal. No direct policy prohibiting participation in risqué films exists at MSU, Simon said.

Students shouldn't face repercussions because participation in "Girls Gone Wild" isn't illegal and doesn't violate the school's conduct policy, said Henry Silverman, president of the Lansing branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I don't see where the university has any role to play on something off campus," he said. "Students are free to participate in this if that's what they want to do and they're free to protest if that's what they want to do."

On March 27, 1999, then-sophomore Eva Roberts was charged with inciting a riot by baring her breasts. She spent 17 days in jail her involvement in the 10,000-person riot, which followed a loss by MSU's men's basketball team in the NCAA Tournament's Final Four.

Silverman said Roberts was not punished for indecent exposure, but rather for helping to incite the riot. People at Wednesday's "Girls Gone Wild" event wouldn't break Lansing's indecent exposure law because they weren't in a public place.

But producers could find themselves in trouble if the MSU logo is used.

Indiana University officials threatened legal action against an adult film company, which taped a pornographic film on the school's campus in October. The university argued its emblems were illegally used, but did not pursue further action.

Jennie Grant, president of the adult film company, Shane's World, said her crew spent a few days at a residence hall on the Bloomington, Ind., campus after receiving an invitation from a student. Grant said her company also has filmed pornographic movies at universities in Arizona and California.

"It's been our experience that they haven't been too excited to see their students in the videos," Grant said, adding two students involved in the Indiana filming were "heavily punished" but not expelled.

Grant said her company picks schools to film pornographic movies based on student invitation, although "the schools we have been to have had reputations for being party schools."

Last fall, MSU ranked 12th on the party school list distributed by The Princeton Review and 20th on a similar list by Playboy.

Melissa Sanchez can be reached at sanche96@msu.edu.