New rules would prohibit students from participating in riots

New rules that clearly prohibit public university students from participating in riots will soon be in force. A legislative committee approved the rules yesterday (Tuesday); the Board of Regents will endorse the rules June 14th. Iowa State University legal counsel Paul Tanaka says the rules are an outgrowth of I-S-U’s review of the riots from erupted on campus last spring. “For many of our students, when we studied the issue, they indicated they didn’t know what the rules were,” Tanaka says. “We want to make very crystal clear what the rules (are), especially a student’s obligation to disperse from a violent riot like this.” State law says crowds are to leave the scene when a riot breaks out. Now, university disciplinary rules will say the same thing. “We heard comments from a number of police officers who were frustrated because as they told students to disperse, students wanted to talk to them or argue with them,” Tanaka says. “That’s not the proper behavior when we have an incident like this.” In the future, students charged with any riot-related misconduct may face suspension or could be expelled from college. The rules will apply to all the state universities — Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I. “In our studies of the issue, this is a national problem. There’s been a wide escalation in these events especially in the past 10 years,” Tanaka says. “There have been approximately 21 of these events each year in the past 10 years related to a (college) campus. We certainly don’t know why that’s occurring across the country, but it’s certainly something we want to resolve.” Senator Paul McKinley, a Republican from Chariton who is chairman of the Senate Education Committee, says he’s surprised the universities didn’t have such a policy in place. “I mean, some of those things seem to be a no-brainer,” McKinley says. “If somebody is egregiously destroying property or breaking what would be considered the law in any normal circumstance, you’d think there would be procedures to deal with those (students).”