About 20 people congregated outside Student Services Friday in a final push for students to reclaim the $5 State News tax included in their tuition.

The effort to encourage students not to support the paper began almost two weeks earlier and was the result of ads by the pro-Israeli group campustruth.org that appeared in The State News beginning in late February 2003.

The protesters, who met at noon and dissipated shortly after 1 p.m., handed out informational fliers and shouted chants such as "State News sucks, take back your bucks," to make their cause known.

Protester David Mitchell said the endeavor was created by numerous on-campus groups, including Students for Economic Justice and Students for Peace and Justice, and that Friday was the last time they would protest the ads.

"We're using today as a closure on the whole event," the economics junior said. "I feel like it's been really successful."

As of Friday afternoon, about 220 students had requested refunds. Today is the last day refund requests will be accepted.

One of the half-page ads showed a split view with Israelis mourning the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on one side, and Palestinians celebrating the attacks on the other.

The phrase "There are two sides to every story, but only one truth" was printed at the bottom of each ad. Two other ads were published during the spring semester.

Michael Perez, co-founder of Students for Peace and Justice, said the advertisements violated the newspaper's advertising policy.

"We're just asking The State News to honor their policy," he said. "We find (the policy) adequate, they should just honor it."

A portion of the policy says The State News will not intentionally publish ads "attacking or criticizing directly or by implication, any race, sex, creed, religion, organization, institution, business or profession without firm justification and foundation."

English senior and protester Adam Seneski said the advertisements do not depict Palestinians correctly.

"I hope if people still read The State News, they'll at least be enlightened on the issue," he said.

Seneski said The State News staff had attempted to trick the students when they initially protested the ads.

"There was somewhat of an understanding that ads were to stop running," he said. "They stopped for a while and ran them again when they knew we would be busy with finals."

Marty Sprigg, general manager of The State News, said the protesters made their cause heard.

"They made an impact by getting quite a few people who probably wouldn't have sought their refund to get it," she said. "They did what they thought they had to do."

State News Editor in Chief Kevin Hardy said only about 10 percent of the paper's money comes from student taxes. He also said The State News received about $10,000 for the ads - a little less than 10 times the amount lost by the withdrawn subscriptions.

"It's more symbolic than anything," he said. "That number doesn't affect our newspaper."

Hardy added that the students had the right to protest the paper.

"We're not above criticism," he said. "The irony of the situation is that the right to assemble and protest is criticizing the right to free speech."