The supporters of the petition that criticized ISU President Martin Jischke didn’t receive as big of a response from the ISU and Ames communities as they might have wanted.

Supporter Carl Mize said 150 people signed the petition, which charged that the ISU administration was responsible for creating “a climate of fear and repression” at Iowa State.

The petition, which was released to the public Feb. 9 and originally signed and written by several ISU faculty members and an ISU alum, stopped circulating Feb. 25.

It listed concerns with the ISU administration, specifically Jischke, and called for a state Board of Regents review of the university president. A portion of the petition also claimed that at Iowa State, research has taken precedence over undergraduate teaching.

Supporters said response to the petition from the university community was slow. It was available for ISU faculty, staff, students, alumni and concerned citizens to sign.

“We have about 150 signatures. But [from] outside the university, we’ve been interviewed by a number of newspapers from around the state,” said Mize, associate professor of forestry.

Bill Kunerth, supporter of the petition, attributed the number of signatures to the threat of retribution from the ISU administration.

“I am disappointed there were not more signers, but if all the people who supported the petition would have signed and not been afraid, it would have been a very impressive list,” said Kunerth, professor emeritus of journalism and mass communication.

But Jorgen Rasmussen, supporter of the petition, said he doesn’t see the lack of response as necessarily negative.

“This is not an election,” said Rasmussen, distinguished emeritus professor of political science. “If you have a couple hundred people, that’s an impressive number.”

However, the supporters are not giving up. “We might re-issue the petition in the future because there hasn’t been a big push,” Mize said.

Mize said he expects a lot of positive changes will come about due to the petition. “We’ve started a ball rolling and made it more public,” he said. “We’re sending a smoke signal.”

Kunerth agreed, saying that more attention is being focused on the perceived problems at Iowa State.

“If it did anything, it did nothing more than make clear the lack of attention paid to teaching at Iowa State,” he said. “I think it has done that, and it will become more obvious as time goes by.”

Mize said he was encouraged when the Government of the Student Body discussed the petition during its Feb. 23 meeting.

“[GSB is] supposed to discuss it again … Wednesday, and the president and [ISU Provost Rollin Richmond] might show up,” he said.

Mize said he places the power to change the university to everyday citizens.

“If you ask the citizens from Iowa, aside from sports, what is the most important thing Iowa State can do, it would be to work on undergraduate education,” he said. “Citizens need to become aware that research is more important than education here. I think they would be very unhappy.”