Two men, graduate students with views similar to many on the Iowa State campus, have taken an activist role that has imprinted their names across the minds of students, faculty and the administration.

John Scriver, one of the more vocal people opposed to the McHub controversy, sits in his room in a pair of blue jeans, black boots, a black T-shirt worn under a gray henley and a flannel shirt wrapped around his waist.

He runs his hand through his long blonde hair that is pulled back in a ponytail and talks about when he became disillusioned with the sociology department at ISU.

“I was at a conference in St. Louis,” he said. “Everyone was dressed up in their suits and we were staying at a $180 a night Marriott Hotel.”

Many of the sociologists were walking to the hotel from a night of dining when they spotted a homeless man.

Scriver stopped and talked with the man and found out he was from ISU. “No one stopped to talk with him,” Scriver said.

“I saw this homeless guy come out of his box.” The sociologists committed to solving the problem of homelessness walked on by, he said.

“The sociologists talked more about themselves than social problems,” Scriver said.

He said many of the professors at ISU are the same way. “They have administrative aspirations over solving America’s social issues.

“There are a handful of professors who are altruistic,” he said. “I am fortunate to work with some fine people.”

Scriver said he hopes to finish his master’s program by next year. Against one side of the wall of his room is a stack of books about four rows wide and about three feet high.

A Peavey bass guitar stands in its case against another wall. On a wooden post-it board, a small Soviet Union flag with its hammer and sickle crossed is stuck in the corner.

Unlike many male college students, there is no sign of basketball players jumping through hoops with their shoe endorsements. No smiling, bikini-clad women holding a bottle of beer. No sign of multi-national corporations selling products on the walls of his room. Especially, no sign of Nike.

“My last semester at South Dakota State University I was a teacher’s assistant for a theory class. One day, the emphasis of class was how many independent countries have enough wealth to help the smaller countries that are in dire need of economic development,” Scriver explained.

He came home from that lecture only to listen to an appalling story about life.

“I was watching CNN and something was happening. A young reporter, who I haven’t seen on the channel since this report, was doing a report on the shoe and garment industry exploiting third world countries.”

Scriver said many of the shoes he sees students wearing everyday on campus were involved in this practice. including Nike, Puma and Saucony.

“These girls were hunched over,” he said. Their bodies resembled a question mark. The girls ranged in age from as young as 13 to 18-years-old, Scriver said.

“The reporter asked one of the bosses for the two younger girls to have sex with him and he gave the guy $80.

“They were getting anywhere from $100 a trick and they gave the money to someone else,” he said.

“These girls lost their virginity to Japanese tourists and American servicemen,” Scriver said. The girls sobbed when they told their story to the reporter. Their chests heaving with every gasp of air, he said

“That day I went from a bleeding-heart liberal to a socialist,” he said.

Scriver said he lost a little faith in the system of justice. He thought the show would air in its entirety on CNN, but it was canceled and he never saw the whole program.

“I felt guilty about the whole thing, running cross country and all,” he said. “Here I was wearing Nike shoes. I felt guilty for being ignorant.”

Scriver has since then written an article about the work conditions Nike has put young children through which was published in the Drummer.

Another graduate student, Allan Nosworthy, chose to take action after being a number cruncher in New York for Gov. George Pataki.

“I was a budget examiner in New York and we were reducing money for child care and block-grant funding,” he said. “That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Nosworthy moved to Anchorage, Alaska and San Diego before coming to ISU. He said he prefers not to use all-encompassing words like “they.” He did not grow up ducking bullets in New York and he wants to see the black and Hispanic communities become a tighter knit group.

He sits at Cafe Lovish eating a plate of veggie nachos. He faces the window toward the street and quotes Malcolm X.

“I view myself as a black man in North America, but more specifically Jamaican, Cape Verdian and Dominican,” Nosworthy said of his own heritage.

“In New York, you see some of the most dire situations of black and Hispanic people,” Nosworthy said.

“My mother raised me right in a society that could raise me wrong.”

Nosworthy just sits in his chair. His hair pulled back to show his face. The sides of his head are shaved. He has a youthful appearance.

No sign of stubble breaks his chin. He rarely moves around in the chair and his fingers are interlaced the same way Santa Claus would when holding his hands together over his stomach.

“I’m aware of where I came from,” he said. His mother raised him in Mt. Vernon, N.Y.

“She lived in a situation that she knew would be difficult to raise a mixed child in a neighborhood that would classify me as different,” he said.

“I think that’s the way a lot of ‘folk’ women raise their children,” Nosworthy said referring to Hispanic and black mothers.

“When you know what you are, you’re always looking for the truth,” he said.

Right now, Nosworthy is a graduate student who is one of the leaders of the September 29th Movement and a GSB senator.

In the midst of everything, he finds time to immerse himself in other issues dealing with the black and Hispanic culture.

“What I really identify with is the community on campus,” he said. “It seems to be tight knit and that could be because we’re in Ames.”

Nosworthy is quick to denounce the thought that he is the leader of the movement to change the name of Catt Hall.

“What’s important to note about the September 29th Movement is that it was founded on collective leadership,” he said.

Any title the media has given him is cosmetic, he said. “In our [members of the movement] heads everybody is serving. Everybody is leading.”

Another issue on the mind of Nosworthy is the Jack Trice Field/Cyclone Stadium controversy.

“Jack Trice Stadium. The first athlete to die in competition,” he said.

“If he had blond hair, blue eyes, there is no question. It’s called John Smith Stadium.

“Dark skin, kinky hair,” he pauses, “very inconsistent.”

Both men want to help the community by giving with more than smiles, handshakes and promises. They want to talk, work and give with their heart to anyone who has a passion for life.