"He said the standard expected of volunteers was: 'What would Ron Paul do?'"

And they say they are under strict orders: To look, dress, shave, sound and behave in a way that will not jeopardize Mr. Paul’s chances. Even before flying here on their own nickel, some students said they had been instructed to cover up tattoos and told that their faces should be fresh-shaved or beards neatly trimmed, wearing only nice clothes that one described as “business casual.”

“No tats,” another volunteer, Rocco Lucente, said as he ticked off the rules after arriving at the airport Tuesday night. No liquor, no drugs and, he said, no “fraternizing in the dorms, nothing like that.”…

“There was no partying that we saw or heard,” said Dave Sherry, the camp director, who emphasized that the Y.M.C.A. was simply renting out the camp and was not aiding Mr. Paul. On Wednesday morning the few hundred students ate breakfast, had a meeting and then left the camp, saying they did not expect to be back until after 10:30 p.m.

The requirements about personal conduct seemed to be a recognition that bringing in a cadre of outsiders carries risks in Iowa, a lesson Howard Dean learned the hard way eight years ago when thousands of intense and orange-stocking-hatted volunteers from out of state apparently rubbed many Iowans the wrong way, with Mr. Dean placing third in what was the beginning of the end of his campaign.