A simple mistake has attracted statewide and national attention to the ISU Government of the Student Body and its efforts to protest the educational budget cuts that are pending in the Iowa Legislature.

The mistake, a byproduct of time constraints and political stress, has been exploited across the front pages of many Iowa newspapers and was ridiculed on the Rush Limbaugh show last week.

Protest signs, bearing the names of hundreds of concerned ISU students, had three misspelled words: “affordibility, legislture and capital.” The words were printed on papers taped to the signs that were supposed to have been removed before the rally in Des Moines on March 28.

While the oversight has attracted as much, if not more, attention than the students’ plea to the legislators to vote against the budget cuts, the spelling errors were not an issue during the protest, said Ben Golding, GSB president-elect.

“On Tuesday, it did not interfere with our message,” he said. “To see it on the front page really took away personally from the people who put a lot of time in it.”

The repercussions of the national attention directed at the spelling errors may fall on the university as a whole, said some faculty members.

Russ Laczniak, associate professor of marketing, said society tends to adopt the views of the media according to what is aired as positive or negative.

“A big deal has been made out of this by the media, and as a result, the rest of society might see it as a big deal, too,” he said. “I think a lot of students have gone out and fought for what they believe in, and unfortunately, what’s picked up on is the negative side.”

What Laczniak described as a “negative phenomenon” is a product of the media, he said.

“I think it might have negative repercussions simply because it has been publicized so much,” Laczniak said. “People remember more and are influenced more by negative things.”

John McCarroll, director of University Relations, said the mistake was an isolated case that does not reflect on the students’ effort.

“This is the kind of thing that gets attention because it is one of those little bits of irony,” he said. “Some people like to play it up and say education is not as good as it should be.”

McCarroll said the students should be commended, rather than criticized, for their united effort against the proposed budget cuts.

“I think the students were strong in their case, and they really deserve credit for reaching out like that,” he said.

Some faculty members said if the national attention to the spelling errors does affect the image of the university, the impact will be temporary.

“I don’t think it will be very long-lasting,” said Thomas Decarlo, associate professor of marketing. “People will poke fun of it, and it will go away.”

Other faculty members said it is not fair to criticize the student leaders for the mistake because spelling errors are not unique to college students.

“It’s hard to judge because I think we all have made grammatical or spelling errors in documents that have been embarrassing,” said Paul Lasley, professor of sociology. “I’m not sure that, besides the initial embarrassment, it will have made a lasting impact.”

Despite whatever attention the errors have drawn to Iowa State, the student leaders are forging ahead with their protest. They are taking a second trip to Des Moines on Wednesday to lobby the state senators against the proposed education budget cuts.

“There was a lot of opportunity for us to make mistakes,” Golding said last week. “If that was the biggest mistake we made, I can live with it.”