Scott Hagen thought his chances to play hockey at Iowa State were over.

But, Hagen, co-president of the ISU Men’s Ice Hockey Club, is breathing a sigh of relief, after a university suspension against the club was lifted this summer.

Now, he’s back on the ice at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena, readying for a new season.

“I just want to play hockey,” he said.

The hockey club was indefinitely suspended April 22 after the All University Judiciary Committee found the group responsible for contempt, misrepresentation and violation of recognition of university trademarks.

Following a year plagued by name-calling and vastly differing accounts of trademark violations among club members, coaches and advisers and university officials, the student group was able to gain good standing with the university this summer and was reinstated July 19.

The club is expected to open its season with two home games Sept. 9 and 10 at the ice arena.

Yet, Hagen said he is still unsure if there will be a season.

Currently, the club is waiting on approval of its game jerseys, season tickets, programs and other paraphenalia from the Iowa State University Research Foundation, which is responsible for management and licensing of university trademarks.

If current cooperation with ISURF officials continues, Hagen said, all should be approved by the club’s first game.

But the long and tedious process Hagen and the club went through this summer has caused the club some problems, especially as it waits for approval, he said.

“We’re treading water because we don’t have money to print and they won’t let us print until we have money for printing,” Hagen said. “I can’t go to an ad agency to print an ad when we don’t have a program for them to print in.”

He said the club makes $30,000 on average through ad sales, sponsorship and ticket sales in the first two weeks before the hockey season, giving the club an annual budget of roughly $20,000.

The group has also had to start with no money in its budget when the university froze its assets and funding sources as part of the indefinite suspension. Because of this, Hagen said he is asking club members to donate money to the club out of their own pockets to help with operating expenses.

Despite the budget woes, Hagen said he is happy with the outcome.

“The end result to be reinstated is our main goal, and I was thrilled to hear that because we’ll have a season hopefully,” he said. “It was an ongoing process, but it could have been a better process.”

But, some in the group maintain the indefinite suspension and long ISURF-approval process was harassment.

“During the last few years, hockey has been subject to a pattern of persistent persecution from ISURF – a pattern that has involved lack of cooperation, impeding, misrepresentation and prevarication,” said John Robyt, the group’s adviser and professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology. “[The university Judicial Process] it’s extremely punitive and they don’t care about the students. They act like the students have nothing better to do but jump when they say jump.”

However, Hagen said he has not been harassed.

“In one way it could be harassement, but on the other hand, they are asking for things they’ve been asking for the past four years that have been neglected,” he said. “The reason why we are having to go through so much is that we are trying to catch up on things that should have been dealt with before.”

Dean of Students Pete Englin said problems were not with university administration, but with the club adviser’s unwillingness to comply.

“As a student organization along with the other 600 student organizations, they are expected to comply with all university rules, policies and regulations,” Englin said. “If we are truly interested in following the Student Organization Resource Mannual, these problems wouldn’t have occurred and continued.

“Our continued expectation that these be followed often times gets characterized as harassment because we won’t look the other way.”

On Sept. 2 of that year, club coach Alan Murdoch, assistant professor of health and human performance, met with Zimmerman and Kenneth Kirkland, director of ISURF. In the meeting, Zimmerman specifically told Murdoch that the club needed to have its game uniforms approved if they used ISU trademarks.

The club did not comply, according to judicial records. Assistant Dean of Students for Judicial Affairs Bethany Schuttinga then contacted the club informing them the club was not in compliance with trademark rules concerning the use of letterheads, advertising, uniforms and the club’s Web site. In a Sept. 9 letter to the group, she gave specific indications of the steps the group needed to make to avoid disciplinary action, with an Oct. 14 deadline.

According to records and club testimony, the club failed to comply by the deadline and was charged with violations Oct. 28.

After an administrative hearing on Nov. 17 conducted by Schuttinga, she found the group responsible and placed members on conduct probation, restricting it from “on-ice” activity, except for games until the group gained compliance.

Durring the fall, it was also discovered that the club had ordered new warmup suits with ISU trademarks, but had not followed the approval process. According to records, the group was charged on Nov. 10. On Dec. 8, the club was found in violation and the club was placed on Conduct Probation and ordered to hand in the jackets by Dec. 17.

The club appealed to Dean of Students Pete Englin, who suspended the “on-ice” restriction pending appeal. On Jan. 16, Englin heard the appeal, where the hockey club, for the first time, admitted that it ordered and received new game jerseys, but had not used them.

Englin upheld Schuttinga’s decision and reinstated the “on-ice” sanction. The group failed to comply with the sanctions by practicing on Jan. 21, which it later admitted in testimony. The group had appealed the Dean of Students decision to Vice President for Student Affairs Thomas Hill, believing the appeal allowed it to practice. University regulations provide that sanctions remain in place during an appeal unless a deferral is granted.

Instead of seeking deferral, the club decided to practice, according to records. As indicated in their testimony, it did not comply because they felt they had “better knowledge than the Dean of Students as to what was the best interest of students and the university.”

Also, according to a letter sent by Schuttinga to the club prior to the Jan. 21 practice, the club was informed that unless sanctions were deferred, it could face further disciplinary action.

The group also admitted in testimony that it did not turn in all game jerseys and warmup jackets as ordered by ISU President Gregory Geoffroy March 8 in a decision denying its appeal.

In the club’s own written appeal Jan. 18, members indicated they understood their obligation to secure approval 45 days before game play. The club has also admitted to wearing unapproved jerseys on the ice.

Also, after receiving notice from Schuttinga in September claiming their letterhead was misleading about university affiliation, letters using the same letterhead were still sent to junior league hockey players in Decemeber, according to evidence presented in hearings.

The letterheads referred to the club as the “ISU Men’s Hockey Team,” Responses from the junior league players indicated they were confused as to the club’s status. One player wrote that he “[couldn’t] wait to continue my hockey career at the NCAA level.”

This was exactly what the university’s regulations guarded against, Englin said.

“They can use athletic marks, they just need a qualifier that makes is readily apparent they are a student organization. Other sports groups use the word club as a qualifier and they had not, until now,” Englin said.

However, Robyt said ISURF was impossible to work with and made compliance with trademark rules difficult.

“I offered to be copied at the beginning of any submission so I could assist in moving approval process along if it was delayed. They have yet to submit one submission of any kind for me to evaluate how quickly they are being served,” Englin said.

Hagen said Englin also e-mailed and talked with him over the phone while Englin was on vacation with his family at Disney World to help the club reach reinstatement.

“I wish the group was getting better advice. I have never in my life in the Dean of Students Office encountered anything like this,” Englin said.