Cancellation of Moore speech costs college an academic honor

WASHINGTON -- Marion Deshmukh, a professor at George Mason University, was feeling good last fall as she finished the school's 177-page application seeking to establish a chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honor society. The university, growing in size and reputation, counted two Nobel laureates among its faculty, new majors had been added, and the library's collection had grown to more than 1 million volumes.

But the very day Deshmukh delivered the application, George Mason got some unwanted attention: Leaders of the state university in Fairfax County, Va., under pressure from conservative Virginia lawmakers, withdrew a speaking offer to liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, the outspoken director of ''Fahrenheit 9/11." The controversial cancellation of an event scheduled days before the presidential election made headlines nationwide.

The university president, Alan G. Merten, said it was Moore's $35,000 fee, to be paid with state funds, that prompted the school to pull out, not opposition to the filmmaker's rhetoric. But Phi Beta Kappa officials apparently were not convinced. The organization, citing concerns about academic freedom, promptly rejected George Mason's application, according to university professors involved in the process.

Phi Beta Kappa's second and final rejection, which came in January after university leaders launched an appeal for another chance, was a blow to the university, which has been working to cement increasing regard for the institution. Although the flap has not rippled through the academic circles like recent controversy surrounding Ward Churchill, a professor at the University of Colorado who has been criticized for calling victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack ''little Eichmanns," it has prompted debate on campus about freedom of speech and fiscal responsibility.

John Churchill, Phi Beta Kappa's secretary, would not discuss the society's decision, saying that all deliberations regarding schools seeking chapters are confidential.

In the weeks after the cancellation, the American Association of University Professors sent George Mason a sharply worded letter that accused administrators of canceling the speech to ''placate members of the state Legislature." Faculty members questioned Merten about the episode during a faculty senate meeting.

Several professors, including James T. Bennett, faculty senate chairman and economics professor, said they are disheartened that one result of the controversy is that the university will go at least another three years without a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. The society, the nation's oldest and largest academic honor society for students in the liberal arts and sciences, was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary and has chapters at 270 colleges nationwide.

''Phi Beta Kappa is the ultimate recognition of undergraduate academic achievement," Bennett said. ''We owe it to our students."

Bennett said most of his colleagues felt ''very strongly" that $35,000, to be paid by the state, was too much to pay for a speaker, and that Moore should not have been invited to speak on the state school's dime. Still, he said, he and many other professors felt that once the invitation had been extended, the university should have stuck by it.

''We really don't look good in the academic community," Bennett said. ''This gives the appearance of some outside meddling in the university."

Provost Peter Stearns said that the university ''fumbled a bit" by offering and then rescinding an invitation, but said Moore would have been welcome if he had appeared for a small stipend or if the event had been funded privately. He thinks Phi Beta Kappa rushed to an unfair judgment in a misguided effort to defend academic freedom.