The university will not take action against student organizations that allow their leaders to stay in office while on conduct probation, an Iowa State official said Thursday.

Five student leaders were given conduct probation by the Office of Judicial Affairs for their parts in an unauthorized Nov. 5 rally. If the All-University Judiciary allows the sanctions to stand in the coming days, the students will be formally asked to step down from their leadership positions.

If they refuse, the matter will be turned over to the Dean of Students Office for review. It isn’t clear what happens from there, but Assistant Dean of Students Terri Houston said the student groups themselves are not in danger of university penalties such as funding sanctions.

Houston, who has spoken out in support of The Beardshear Eight, said the purpose of conduct probation is to send a message to students “to behave.”

“We hope the student obeys,” she said. “It’s an individual sanction on an individual member of a student group. The actions of one person are not really reflective of the other group members.”

The sanctioned students include Allan Nosworthy and Milton McGriff, both Government of the Student Body senators. Wednesday night, GSB passed two resolutions and a bill in support of Nosworthy and McGriff remaining as senators.

Nosworthy is also president of the Black Cultural Center. Meron Wondwosen, president of the Black Student Alliance, has also been given conduct probation.

Wondwosen, a senior in political science and French, said she has no intentions of leaving her position. “I have not done anything wrong. I took a position that was ethical and principled.”

Wondwosen said she has the backing of BSA members.

None of the students have been formally told they must leave their positions. Formal notification will come through the mail after the appeals process has run its course. After the AUJ, the students can appeal to President Martin Jischke’s appeal board and to Jischke himself. From there, appeals are taken up by the state Board of Regents.

“The university has no right to tell students who their leaders should be,” Wondwosen said.

Meanwhile, administrators say the controversy surrounding The Beardshear Eight — a label coined to identify the eight September 29th Movement members charged with misconduct this semester — has not spread much farther than the Ames-ISU community.

“Anything like this is an important issue, and we’re not playing it down, but it’s not an external issue yet,” said Murray Blackwelder, vice president for external affairs.

Blackwelder said that outside of an approximate 50-mile radius, the controversy isn’t much of an issue.

“The system works,” Blackwelder said, “and I expect the system to take care of the situation one way or another.”

Blackwelder said the controversy hasn’t proved to be a major issue for either prospective students or donors. In fact, he said, ISU is having it’s best year ever for donations.

John Anderson, interim director for university relations, agreed. He said he’s not expecting a negative backlash.

“This is a public university, and people have a right to speak their minds,” he said. “There’s nothing we’re going to do to suppress students from expressing their opinions.”

Nosworthy wasn’t so sure.

“I think it has the potential to be very good, and I think it has the potential to be very bad. Any university not interested in open and honest dialogue will create bad PR for itself,” he said.