The eight members of The September 29th Movement who received sanctions from the Office of Judicial Affairs for their involvement with a Nov. 5 unauthorized rally plan to appeal today.

Allan Nosworthy, a graduate student in English and chairman of The Movement, said the students, known as the Beardshear Eight, plan to appeal for several reasons, chiefly, uneven sentencing.

Five of the students received conduct probation sanctions, which bar them from holding leadership positions in registered student organizations. Three others received disciplinary reprimands. Last semester, 15 students received reprimands for their parts in the rally.

“The most important point, in layman’s terms, is the punishment doesn’t fit the crime when compared to other cases where conduct probation was given to students,” Nosworthy said.

He said the five students who received conduct probation should have been given written reprimands.

Other grounds for appeal, he said, involve issues of free speech, open hearings and unfair presentation of evidence.

The students had requested open hearings. Those requests were denied.

The students may also cite in their appeals an article in last Friday’s Daily about upcoming changes in the Student Information Handbook.

In the article, Dean of Students Kathleen MacKay called for a “complete review” of the handbook. She said several recent cases have shown a need for policy revision.

“It seems like the handbook wasn’t prepared to deal with a case like this, and it certainly should be,” Nosworthy said.

One Movement member, Paul Stucky, who was given a reprimand in December, had his appeal for an All-University Judiciary hearing denied by a unanimous AUJ decision last week.

“Having students’ rights violated apparently wasn’t important,” said Milton McGriff, spokesman for The Movement.

Stucky plans to appeal to the President’s Appeal Board.