HAND-DELIVERED

February 11, 1998

Martin C. Jischke
President
117 Beardshear Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50010

Dear President Jischke:

In response to your letter of February 2, 1998, we express our strong preference for a series of meetings between our parties, to be scheduled immediately and to begin within the month of February.  Since your letter of February 2, we have made our preference for meetings abundantly clear, both through conversations you and your representatives have had with Dr. George Jackson, and in news publications such as the Iowa State Daily and the Ames Daily Tribune.  We do not believe that there could have been any confusion on your part regarding our insistence for meetings with you, but, because you have requested this letter, we are delivering it to you to make our position clear beyond any possibility for misunderstanding.  Because we have already expressed our preference for meetings through other means, we hope that your response to this letter will be prompt.

Again, our requests are very simple:

We would like to schedule a series of meetings between the Ames Branch of the NAACP, the Iowa-Nebraska Branch of the NAACP, the UCCM, representatives from the Black Faculty and Staff, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, as well as your office and representatives of The September 29th Movement. We would request that the meetings be scheduled before the close of the week.  We would request that the first meeting occur before the close of February, and that a majority of the meetings occur before Spring Break.

We understand that your schedule is very busy.  As a consequence, we are willing to schedule meetings for the evenings, for the weekends, or for any other times that would match your schedule.

We request that the content of the meetings be recorded for review by the citizens of Iowa upon completion of all meetings.  However, we are willing to forego recording if you insist against it.

It is not necessary to wait for the completion of the compliance review being conducted by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Education.  Representatives of the Department of Education have confirmed that their investigation into the climate at ISU was not prompted by complaints made by The September 29th Movement.  Furthermore, they have stated that meetings between your office and the Movement would not interfere with their investigation.  Considering that the OCR will not be on campus to conduct its investigation until late April, it would be an unnecessary delay to wait for the completion of their investigation to resolve the issues between us.

You have, in the past, expressed a preference for less structured meetings, similar to the meetings described by our proposal above.  You have also said that you are always willing to meet with students.  As a consequence, we see no reason why meetings between your office, The September 29th Movement, and the organizations listed above, should not proceed immediately.  Thank you.

Sincerely,
 

Brian Johnson
for the Central Committee, The September 29th Movement

cc:  Dr. George Jackson, NAACP Ames Office