A group of ISU students is demanding that ISU President Martin Jischke resign from the Board of Directors of Banker’s Trust of Iowa, saying there is a conflict of interest.

Ed Snook, senior in English, and Jeremy Varner, senior in history, are the main collaborators in the call.to/jischke campaign.

Jischke was asked to serve on the Board of Directors for Banker’s Trust in 1993, two years after he became ISU president in 1991. In 1997, Iowa State’s general account was consolidated from five separate accounts into one at Banker’s Trust.

ISU Treasurer Joan Thompson said the banks bidding for the ISU account were: Firstar, Norwest, First National, Banker’s Trust, Boatmen’s Bank and Brenton Bank.

She said her office and the Purchasing Office were responsible for choosing the bank, and there was no involvement by the President’s Office.

Jischke said he sits on the Board of Directors for several not-for-profit organizations, including the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant colleges, the Big XII Board of Directors, the Special Olympics Board of Directors and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. He also sits on two corporate Boards of Directors — Banker’s Trust and Kerr-McGee.

“I think that this is not an uncommon practice, and I certainly believe that the way I have disclosed my activities and the way I have conducted myself has prevented any conflict of interest for Iowa State,” Jischke said. “I wouldn’t do it otherwise.”

However, Snook said Jischke shouldn’t be allowed to serve on any board of directors, not just Banker’s Trust.

“He is on a number of corporate boards, which all, in my opinion, should be questioned,” he said.

Jischke: No conflict of interest

Jischke said there are several reasons university presidents are recruited for boards of directors.

“University presidents bring experience in providing leadership to a large organization,” he said. “Presumably, they have some input as to how such organizations can improve themselves.”

Jischke said university presidents are also attractive because they typically understand research.

“They understand how centrally important education is, research is,” he said. “Today, universities are so important to the long-term state of our country and our economy.”

Snook said Jischke should not be involved with Banker’s Trust because state code prevents a public official from taking anything of monetary value from a non-university entity engaged in business with the university.

Although he receives no financial compensation for serving on the boards of nonprofit organizations, Jischke said he takes in annually about $45,000 for his service to Banker’s Trust and Kerr-McGee.

Varner said he doesn’t believe Jischke can concentrate on Banker’s Trust and Iowa State at the same time.

“He has an interest in making Banker’s Trust make as much money as possible since he’s on the board of that company, and at the same time, he’s supposed to fight for the students,” he said. “He can’t fight for the best interest of both at the same time.”

Jischke said sitting on the Banker’s Trust Board of Directors creates no conflict of interest. He said he has disclosed his position as director to the Board of Regents, making it a matter of public record.

“I don’t believe there’s any conflict of interest at all,” he said. “I have asked the board chairman for permission to do so and was given such permission.”

Jischke said he leaves the room and does not participate in any decision regarding Iowa State at Banker’s Trust to avoid a conflict of interest.

Varner said leaving the room during decisions regarding Iowa State is not enough.

“[Even] if he can prove that he can remove himself from all decisions made, that’s still not acceptable,” he said.

Snook said he believes Jischke should concentrate on his role as president.

“It takes a sizable amount of time away from their professional duties as a public servant,” he said.

Jischke rejected the idea that his activities as a director detract from his ability to act as president.

“It’s a relatively small amount of time,” he said. “The opportunity to see how other large, complicated organizations try to improve themselves is a learning experience. I think in no way has this detracted from my duties as president.”

De Waay appointment

Call.to/jischke organizers also object to the appointment of Robert De Waay, executive vice president of Banker’s Trust, to the Board of Directors of the ISU Research Park.

Jischke said many of the directors for the Research Park are in the fields of banking and real estate because they guide the Park in business decisions and finances.

“There is no compensation whatsoever. It is really a compensation for the university,” he said.

Varner said he has been organizing the effort to force Jischke to resign from Banker’s Trust. He said he and Snook are focusing on the distribution of information through the Internet, fliers and leaflets, which will be distributed at Veishea.

Varner also said they have been holding nightly meetings for planning. Varner estimated about 20 people attended Tuesday’s meeting.

“We’ve gotten a lot of support, and a lot of professors have e-mailed us,” he said. “But a lot of them said they don’t want their name released. Maybe that has something to do with the atmosphere of fear and repression that the [faculty] petition talks about.”

Snook said they may consider planning a long-term campaign after Veishea.

“If after Veishea, if something dramatic hasn’t happened, if there’s been no resignations, then we’ll sit back and plan a more long-term campaign. The goal is to make Veishea an informational extravaganza,” he said.

Copyright questions

The call.to/jischke Web page is a parody of the ISU Web page, and some of the images on the page look like exact replicas or appear to be taken from the ISU Web page.

Varner said they created the images resembling those on the ISU Web page themselves. He said he is not aware of having violated any copyright laws.

“If the university tells us there’s a copyright problem, we’ll address it,” he said, “but so far we don’t know that there is.”

John McCarroll, director of University Relations, said the creators of the Web site could face some trouble in regards to copyright if they copied images from the ISU site.

“It’s not appropriate to lift actual material, and we will certainly take a look at that,” he said. “You can do a parody, but it’s evident they have lifted things right off.”

McCarroll said the university wants to secure its property.

“We certainly want to protect our copyrighted material, so it’s not just lifted by anyone who wants it,” he said.

Paul Tanaka, director of University Legal Services, said he had not been able to analyze the copyright situation and was unwilling to comment.

“I think it’s unfortunate that they would take another person’s work,” he said.