To the editor:

In the past few days, committed faculty, alumni, students and their families have been distributing a petition to force a Board of Regents inquiry into the practices of Iowa State University President Martin Jischke.

Unfortunately, I must count myself among alumni from Iowa to California that now feel the need to speak up and out regarding the future of our alma mater.

This is not only about the future of Iowa State University but about Martin Jischke’s lack of vision.

Jischke is himself a director of a multinational oil conglomerate, Kerr-McGee, and, according to recent newspaper accounts, collects at least $30,000 dedicating his time and energy to that cause.

He sits on the board of a bank with which ISU keeps most of its money. And he spends an inordinate amount of time currying the favor of high dollar donors who seem to procure stadium box seats and sweetheart Memorial Union contracts as a result.

In the wake of all this high-power big business are your tax dollars, tuition and the proverbial cheap seats which are getting less and less attention these days. Especially in the classroom.

From 1993-94, expenditures for industry-driven research exceeded money spent on teaching at Iowa State for the first time in the history of the institution, according to ISU financial reports.

Tuition hikes continue — the highest in recent memory just this year. And, though Vice President Warren Madden has changed the picture in ISU financial reports, research is still number one at Iowa State — so much so that the Carnegie Institute labeled it a “Research I” institution, denoting an emphasis on industry-driven research.

Martin Jischke is grinning all the way to the bank — and on television.

His ad campaign urges the belief that ISU is doing better than ever, hiring more graduates, and dedicating more resources to teaching.

But the marble pillars in Jischke’s office and the short drive he takes in our Buick Park Avenue from the Knoll to Beardshear are obscuring his view.

Who knows better what’s happening in the classroom? Teachers who say they want more emphasis to be put on teaching and less time squirreling away working for Fortune 500 companies.

You might expect the opposite, but faculty and retired faculty like Carl Mize and Bill Kunerth actually care about teaching, the classroom and the public trust.

Jischke says undergraduate education at Iowa State is a priority—because he realizes Iowans demand no less— but faculty say it isn’t true.

Teachers and their assistants now suggest that ISU budget practices violate national higher education guidelines because the administration won’t allocate sufficient funding for smaller classes, more teachers and computer labs.

In contrast, research is now a bigger part of faculty promotion than teaching.

Letting a corporate guru like Jischke guard the public trust at Iowa State any longer is like letting the fox guard the hen house. We placed with the regents a public trust.

It is time for them to take a harder look at the $2 billion Iowans put into Iowa State in the last decade and our interests — not the relative pittance Jischke touts he has raised through high dollar donors.

To sign or obtain a copy of the petition, please contact Carl Mize at [email protected].

David Cmelik

Alumnus

Iowa City