The September 29th Movement accepts the offer of an open meeting in the Daily’s offices with President Jischke.

All we ask is that both sides follow the spirit of the conciliation process, which is to work to find mutually agreeable resolutions. This does not mean that we “expect to get our way on everything,” as some have alleged. We understand that compromises are necessary. In fact, to get into the meeting of October, The Movement made seven compromises. The administration made two. Rather, it means that both sides make a sincere commitment to work toward resolution. By accepting your offer, we signal our ongoing commitment to that effort.

It would seem the Daily has finally recognized a problem that has continually plagued our efforts to get anywhere with President Jischke. Without a record of the meeting, or third-party observers, the truth of what really happened gets buried in an avalanche of confusion and accusation, and nothing gets resolved. Like you, we have had enough.

Last fall we were excited at the prospect of the conciliation process as defined by the Department of Justice. But the process broke down when the Department of Justice walked out. And why did they walk out? They walked out because The September 29th Movement refused to be manipulated into accepting secret, off-the-record meetings with President Jischke.

But the conflict continues. Just a week ago, President Jischke cried foul over a miscommunication based on a bad assumption. You see, we assumed that President Jischke would not mind if discussions of his response to The September 29th Movement actually included us, especially since he has repeatedly said that he is always willing to meet with students. We offered the president an easy way to get back to the table with us, and he turned us down. In fact, for the moment, he hasn’t even been able to arrange a meeting with the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other civil rights groups that asked for a meeting with the president close to a month ago. And although President Jischke bought two tables at the recent NAACP banquet here in Ames, he could not bring himself to make even a brief appearance last Friday night.

Now President Jischke says that he would “prefer” not to meet with us until the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Education has finished their review of Iowa State. The September 29th Movement did not bring on this investigation. We are participating with it at the request of the OCR. In fact, the Office of Civil Rights has openly said that meetings between The September 29th Movement and the administration would not effect their investigation. In other words, the OCR doesn’t care if we meet. They will not even be here to conduct their investigation until April 24. That is three months away. It is delays of this kind that have caused this conflict to drag on for two and a half years.

We have a strong interest in meeting, because we’ve had to deal with this kind of stalling for years. The president says he is willing to meet, but when it comes down to setting up a meeting, you’d better have two or three months to haggle. And when the meeting finally happens, you’d better be ready to get bullied into doing things the president’s way: off the record and in secret.

So, we would be happy to conduct these meetings in the Daily’s offices. We’ve always been willing to make all of our statements on the record. We accept your offer. Just tell us when and where.

Brian C. Johnson

Senior

English and philosophy