The September 29th Movement sent a letter to Iowa State President Martin Jischke Wednesday night threatening “direct action” if he does not arrange a meeting within 48 hours.

No date was specified, but Movement spokesman Brian Johnson hinted that something would happen on Monday.

The letter expresses “extreme disappointment” with what the Movement calls Jischke’s failure to set up a conference involving the Movement and several other civil rights and religious organizations.

In its last paragraph, the letter sets a deadline for Friday at 5 p.m. At that time, if no meetings have been arranged and no response has been received, the Movement will have “no choice but to resume the execution of direct action,” it states.

However, Vice President for Student Affairs Thomas Hill said the president has already responded.

He said Jischke and George Jackson, president of the Ames NAACP, have been “sending correspondence and phone calls and they’ve been trying to put some things together.”

The Movement’s letter states Jackson made four phone calls to Jischke’s office between Jan. 22 and 26 and then sent a letter Monday in an attempt to choose a meeting date.

They claim the president made no response to Jackson’s correspondence.

“You have not yet replied to any of these efforts to arrange a meeting,” the letter states.

“Your failure to respond to the efforts of Dr. Jackson can only be seen as an insult to the NAACP and the other organizations [that were to be involved in the talks]. Furthermore, it clearly constitutes an attempt to indefinitely postpone efforts at a mutually agreeable settlement,” it states.

Jischke said he was requested to meet with the groups on Jan. 20, however, due to a state Board of Regents meeting he was unable to attend.

Since then, he said, he has traded short notes and a letter from Jackson on Jan. 26.

Jischke said he has been preparing a draft to send to Jackson and hopes to mail it to him this week.

“My schedule is pretty busy and pretty complicated,” Jischke said.

“I’ve had a request for a meeting and I’m trying to find a way to schedule that meeting. We’re in the middle of that process and I’m trying to honor that request.”

Hill also said Jischke is “trying to make some things happen. As he has always said, and he has been very consistent about this with me, he is willing to meet and to have some conversations. When they occur has to be worked out.”

Previously, groups including the Ames and Iowa-Nebraska branches of the NAACP had requested a meeting on Jan. 20, but Jischke said that day did not work for him.

At that time, he asked Jackson to work with him to arrange a future meeting.

Hill said the slow progress of events over the past week is not surprising.

“This is typical of how you arrange things with the president. There is nothing unusual about this process,” he said. “They’re going back and forth requesting times and trying to match schedules. Both of them are busy, and it gets complicated.”

In addition, Hill said the eight-day wait since Jan. 20 is “very short for the president of a university, especially when he doesn’t have a lot of options.”

He urged patience in what has become a long, drawn-out situation.

“The biggest thing we can do is work through it, and stick with it until we can work it out,” Hill said.

In addition to the other requests, the letter also outlined two concessions from the Movement.

“We are now willing to meet with you without a mediator or conciliator present,” the letter states, a 180-degree switch from their previous demand for a third party.

Also, the Movement has dropped its absolute insistence on the presence of a tape recorder or stenographer.

The letter states, “We are now willing to concede even this point in trust of the reputations of the organizations listed above,” referring to the NAACP, UCCM and the other groups participating in the planned talks.

The letter was also sent to Jackson, Hill, ISU Diversity Adviser Derrick Rollins, Iowa-Nebraska NAACP President Robert Wright, UCCM’s Beverly Thompson-Travis, The Black United Front and The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (both of Kansas City) and 13 media outlets, including the Daily, the Ames Tribune and The Campus Reader.

Hill said he had not received the letter as of 5:30 p.m. on Monday.

Jischke was unavailable for comment Monday night.