Black leaders told to leave offices

Tim Frerking
February 6, 1997

Three of Iowa State’s most visible black student leaders have been barred by the Office of Judicial Affairs from holding leadership positions in student organizations.

The students — all members of The September 29th Movement charged with misconduct violations for their involvement with an unauthorized Nov. 5 rally in Beardshear Hall — were notified of the verdicts through the mail Wednesday.

All three hold high-ranking positions in registered student organizations. The students are as follows:

* Meron Wondwosen, a senior in political science and French. She is president of the Black Student Alliance and a member of The Movement.

* Allan Nosworthy, a graduate student in English. He is a Government of the Student Body senator, president of the Black Cultural Center and chairman of The Movement.

* Milton McGriff, a graduate student in English. He is a GSB senator and spokesman for The Movement.

The latest OJA rulings are the last for the famed “Beardshear Eight,” a label coined for the eight Movement members who were brought before Iowa State’s internal judicial system this semester. Another 15 students were given disciplinary reprimands last semester. The reprimands carry no tangible sanctions but they do remain part of a student’s permanent university record.

The September 29th Movement is not a registered student organization, therefore the students cannot be removed from their positions in The Movement.

Wondwosen, Nosworthy and McGriff were found guilty of unauthorized use of university facilities and failure to comply with proper order. They were found not guilty of a third charge, disrupting the rights of others. Last Thursday, all pleaded guilty to the first charge and not guilty to the others.

In addition, Theresa Thomas, a sophomore in graphic design, received a disciplinary reprimand Wednesday. She was found guilty of of the same charges.

Tip of the iceberg?

The real battle may be just beginning.

Wondwosen said she will not step down from her position until the end of her term or unless the students who elected her ask her to leave office.

“I was elected by the Black Student Alliance of Iowa State University, and I will give that office up when my term is up in April 1997, or when my constituents tell me they no longer want to me to serve as their president.

“If I have done something that was wrong, that was unethical or immoral, then I should be stripped of my title, but I followed my conscious, my principles, and I chose to speak the truth,” she said.

Nosworthy and McGriff also said they will not leave their Senate positions.

“I’m going to sit. Anybody who wants to remove me should talk to my attorney or talk to the [Department of Public Safety] to have me removed,” McGriff said.

GSB Senate Vice Chairman Jamey Hansen said the Senate is not required to honor the sanctions under the GSB Constitution. “Basically, it says that the students get to choose who they want by their own standards. What kind of student government would we have if we let the administration say who can or cannot be a student senator?”

Hansen also questioned whether student senators are considered members or officers of GSB.

Dean of Students Kathleen MacKay said student senators are considered members of GSB, but she pointed out that the Student Information Handbook states, “While under conduct probation, a student may not serve as an officer of a student organization or a member of a university committee or council.”

MacKay said GSB is considered a university council and, therefore, GSB members who receive conduct probation can no longer hold their student government positions.

GSB President Adam Gold said he will back any ruling made by the OJA, but Hansen said Gold has no authority over the seating or removal of senators.

“Although Gold has no say on the matter, it would have been nice to have him support students, rather than having him back the administration,” Hansen said.

Appeals coming

It isn’t yet clear how the university will go about removing the students from their positions, or if it will ever come to that. Maggi Moss, attorney for The Movement, said Movement members plan to appeal the OJA decisions to the All-University Judiciary. Students have five class days to file an appeal. The AUJ has 10 class days from when it receives an appeal to hold a hearing.

MacKay said the sanctions go into effect once the students receive their letters informing them of the OJA ruling, but the sanctions are suspended once appeals are filed.

Moss said the verdicts are flawed, in part, because the OJA was inconsistent, handing down different punishments for the same charges.

MacKay disagreed. She compared the OJA’s decisions to speeding charges. If a person is caught driving 100 mph and another is driving 160 mph, she said, they face the same charges, but different punishments.

Jon Tollefson, co-chairman of the AUJ and a professor of entomology, said AUJ hearings are normally reserved for the most serious cases.

“The cases that are referred to in AUJ hearing boards are frequently severe enough that if guilt is found, it would be less common that a disciplinary reprimand is used, in my experience,” he said.

The AUJ consists of 36 members with three co-chairmen or co-chairwomen.

Each is heard by five AUJ members: one chairman or chairwoman, who is either a faculty or staff member; two faculty or staff members; and two students.

System problems

Movement members have continually called for open OJA hearings. University officials denied those requests, citing federal statutes, even though the students have agreed to waive their privacy rights.

According to the Student Information Handbook the university cannot deny a request for open AUJ hearings.

MacKay said some sections of the handbook may need revisions.

Nosworthy said he hopes the hearings will bring attention to problems with closed procedures.

“Obviously, this situation will have to reform the judiciary system because there are discrepancies,” he said.

Moss, a noted civil-rights lawyer from Des Moines, said the university violated the students’ rights by closing the OJA hearings.

“I don’t think that was something, by the rules, should have been done. I don’t understand the secrecy,” she said.

“It’s something that should be open.”

University officials, who have been reluctant to comment on the hearings, said they closed the hearings on the advice of Paul Tanaka, the university’s lawyer.

Moss also said she doesn’t understand why the university is punishing Movement members for exercising their rights to free speech. She added that the OJA punishments are “extremely harsh.”

“I’m still trying to figure how the university can take such talented students and take away their student offices while we still have a basketball player [Kenny Pratt] who is in trouble with the law is still playing basketball,” she said.

MacKay said all students are treated the same under the system. “Any student who violates university policy must be held by the same procedure,” she said.