Neo-Nazi propaganda fliers were slipped into copies of the most recent edition of Ethos while they sat on newsstands.

Ward Phillips, editor in chief for Ethos, said the staff suspect the notes were distributed Tuesday night, as they were discovered Wednesday morning – the first edition of Ethos this year hit stands Monday. He said 4,000 copies of the magazine were distributed, but he did not know how many magazines had fliers put in them.

ISU Police Officer Steve Oakland said the transit hub at the commuter lot was the only location the fliers had been found as of Wednesday afternoon.

Ethos staff affirmed the fliers were not sanctioned by the magazine and were placed without their knowledge.

“We want to make it perfectly clear it’s not our opinion,” Phillips said. “There was no way we could stop it.

“I don’t know how many kids it reached; hopefully it was minimal,” he said. “If it’s one person, it’s too many.”

On the version of the small, business card-sized note obtained by the Daily was printed a swastika and the words, “Black crime, white victim, are you next?”

Jerry Stewart, director of public safety, said another version of the note claimed “Hitler was right.”

“Generally, people are very insidious with this kind of thing,” said Evan Johnson, president of ISU Hillel, a Jewish student group. “There will always be people who have a radical viewpoint, and I wonder what their point is. People now are very sensible and don’t accept this kind of thing.

“That’s what the Jewish people live with,” he said. “Even at a university the size of Iowa State, inevitably, a fraction of the people will be disturbed – it may show itself in violence or hatred for a group of people.”

E-mail and phone messages to the Black Student Alliance were not returned Wednesday.

Thomas Hill, vice president for student affairs, condemned the incident.

“There really isn’t a place for this kind of thing, given all the things that we hold as values and the things we’re committed to, diversity and treating people equally, and embracing everybody,” he said.

The address of a Web site belonging to Gary Lauck, a neo-Nazi leader from Nebraska, was also included on the notes. Lauck spent four years in a German prison between 1995 and 1999 after being arrested in Denmark for mailing neo-Nazi propaganda, according to the Web site of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Hill said it appeared there were a couple of ISU students affiliated with the group. He said the university would not be following up with them, however, as it would imply guilt before there was an indication they were responsible.

Stewart said it could be difficult to show there was a criminal violation; however, the incident could involve criminal mischief laws if financial loss could be proven.

He said ISU Police are still investigating, but have not yet identified any suspects.