The September 29th Movement postponed a news conference scheduled for Tuesday after Iowa State President Martin Jischke agreed to meet with the Movement and several other organizations.

“We’re going to send our people and talk to him about the issues in an environment where we feel something can actually get done,” said Movement Spokesman Brian Johnson.

The meeting date has not yet been determined, but representatives from the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who had planned to attend Tuesday’s event, said they would return to Ames to participate.

Also scheduled to attend the 11:30 a.m. conference were the United Christian Campus Ministry of Ames and the ISU Black Faculty and Staff committee.

These groups, along with the SCLC and the Iowa-Nebraska and Ames branches of the NAACP, were to announce their support for the Movement Tuesday.

“We’re just trying to develop a climate that will make the campus more inclusive,” said George Jackson, president of the Ames NAACP.

Jackson said he is making efforts to contact Jischke so a meeting time can be set. “We’re hoping for a date as quickly as possible,” he said.

Jischke and Vice President for Student Affairs Thomas Hill were unavailable for comment Tuesday night.

Johnson also said the Movement wants to meet soon.

“[The meeting] is supposed to be within the next couple of weeks,” he said. “We’re excited about it. We want to get in there and have a chance to talk to him.”

The last session of talks on Oct. 29, between the Movement and the administration, broke down when U.S. Department of Justice Senior Conciliator Pascual Marquez walked out, angry that the Movement had tape-recorded the meeting. But despite that inauspicious ending, Johnson sounded a positive note for future discussions.

“The meeting in November broke down because the Department of Justice bungled it. This time [they] won’t get in the way, and we look forward to having a productive meeting with the president,” he said.

Johnson was unsure about the rules concerning the new phase of talks.

“As I understand it, there won’t be media actually in the room. But there’s no confidentiality, certainly, at this point,” he said.

Rev. Beverly Thompson-Travis, campus minister for UCCM, said she would be the sole representative of her organization at the meetings.