Four Iowa State English professors were driven to act Thursday after learning the fate of two students who were tried before ISU’s Office of Judicial Affairs.

Eight students were tried for misconduct charges by the OJA. Two of the students were found guilty and received conduct probation, which prohibits them from holding leadership positions in university-recognized organizations.

The other six students will have to wait up to five days for the OJA’s decision. Four of the students could be suspended.

The professors began circulating a petition 15 minutes after learning of the verdicts.

The petition states: “Our signatures demonstrate our extreme discomfort at this harsh sanction against mature, heartfelt expression of ideas on this campus.”

Stephen Pett, an associate professor of English, said he had been assured by Dean of Students Kathleen MacKay that the students would not receive penalties that would interfere in their campus lives if they participated in an unauthorized Nov. 5 town meeting.

“This is sort of our worst fear, that the university would overreact and discourage the kind of free exchange that we all believe is fundamental to a healthy university,” Pett said.

Joe Geha, a professor of English, said he helped with the petition because of the outrage he felt about the treatment of free speech on campus.

“These people are really being beaten down with an iron fist,” Geha said. “The administration’s power is really being overused.”

Geha said administrators are trying to quiet the student leaders.

He said the faculty who sign the petition are protesting those actions.

“This is another case of them using their muscle to hush people up,” Geha said.

“The only tool we have is to protest.”

Though Geha had no idea how many people had signed the petition on Thursday, he did say professors were “signing it like gangbusters.” The petition will circulate until Monday, when a press conference will be held at noon in the Oak Room of the Memorial Union to release the names.

Pett said he and other petition organizers will explain what happened to the students who were charged.

Debra Marquart, an associate professor of English, said as a faculty member it is her duty to guide and support her students in the development and expression of ideas.

“Some of the students who have been handed down these harsh sentences have been my students, and I have known them to be some of the most gifted, responsible and innovative thinkers I have encountered in my experience in higher education,” Marquart said.

Fern Kupfer, an associate professor of English, was the other organizer.

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Excerpt from a petition circulating to ISU faculty and staff protesting the disciplinary actions the university has taken against members of The Movement:

“… Our signatures demonstrate our extreme discomfort at this harsh sanction against mature, heartfelt expression of ideas on this campus. This petition is intended to show our support for these students independent of our positions on the question of renaming Catt Hall.”