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 The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has canceled William Ayers' speech at an educator's conference next month. The university cited security concerns as the reason.
It's the latest development in a stormy Nebraska debate over the man who is both nationally recognized as a distinguished professor of education and a self-described radical from the Vietnam War era.
"The university's threat assessment group monitored e-mails and other information UNL received regarding Ayers' scheduled Nov. 15 visit, and identified safety concerns which resulted in the university canceling the event," read a four-paragraph statement issued by UNL.
UNL refused to provide specifics on the threats, but Board of Regents Chairman Chuck Hassebrook of Lyons told the Lincoln Journal Star that law enforcement officers expressed concerns about the potential for violence during Ayers' speech.
With those concerns in mind, Hassebrook said, "I think it's the best outcome."
No everyone bought into the university's excuse for canceling Ayers appearance. "The university is doing the right thing here, even if they can't be forthright about the reason," Nebraska Attorney General John Bruning told the Omaha World-Herald. Bruning objected publicly to the Ayers invite, but said. "If we can provide security for the president of the United States, security is a cop-out."
UNL education professor David Moshman, told the World-Herald Ayers should have been allowed to speak and felt the university caved to political pressure from Gov. Dave Heineman, Bruning and others. Moshman said the cancellation will hurt UNL's academic reputation within higher education circles.
Ayers' radical past
Ayers, 63, spent 10 years as a fugitive in the 1970s when he was part of the "Weather Underground," an anti-Vietnam War group that protested U.S. policies by bombing the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol and a string of other government buildings. Nobody was hurt in the attacks by the defunct organization, which the FBI labeled a "domestic terrorist group."
Today, Ayers and his wife -- fellow former Weather Underground fugitive Bernardine Dohrn -- live in suburban Chicago, where according to the Chicago Sun-Times, they moved after surrendering in 1980. Federal charges against the two were dropped because of improper surveillance, so they avoided prison.
Ayers' scholarly present
Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was scheduled to deliver next month's keynote address at UNL's College of Education and Human Sciences student research conference.
Ayers is the author of "To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher," which in 1993 was named Book of the Year by Kappa Delta Pi, an honor society in education.
"We are pleased to offer this opportunity for our students and faculty to hear a nationally acclaimed scholar, researcher and advocate for children and urban education reform," said Marjorie Kostelnik, dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences last week, before the furor over Ayers' scheduled appearance at UNL surfaced.
Controversy surfaces
Since then, Ayers' connections to Sen. Barack Obama - the two served on a Chicago board together years ago - have emerged as a focus in the presidential race, making his name much more widely known.
The subject flared up again during Wednesday's final presidential debate when McCain said Obama needs to explain the full extent of his relationship with Ayers, whom he called "an old, washed-up terrorist."
By several different accounts, the two men were not close, and Obama has repeatedly denounced Ayers' radical activities.
Ayers has declined repeated requests for interviews. This week, he opened his front door a crack to tell an Associated Press reporter, "I'm not talking, thanks."
Ayers friend and Chicago political strategist Marilyn Katz was quoted as saying Ayers should not be a campaign issue. She noted Ayers' work with Mayor Daley to overhaul the Chicago Public Schools and likened him to Black Panther-turned-U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.
"What Bill Ayers and Bobby Rush ... did 40 years ago has nothing to do with" the presidential campaign, Katz said. Ayers "has a national reputation. He lectures at Harvard and Vassar. He writes the textbooks that are the standard for innovative approaches to reaching inner-city youth."
The UNL angle
When news of Ayers' appearance at UNL broke Thursday, donors threatened to withhold financial support to the university unless Ayers was disinvited. One such donor: the Gilbert M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Foundation in Omaha, which has provided millions to NU in the past 40 years.
UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman, in a statement Thursday, defended the decision to invite Ayers to speak, citing Ayers' nationally recognized expertise in educational reform.
"In this instance, it is unfortunate that a lecture directed toward an academic subject has become implicated in a political campaign," the chancellor said. "Nothing in his presence suggests that the university supports his personal or political philosophy or condones any of his former conduct."
Other University of Nebraska officials disagred with chancellor Perlman.
Omaha Regent Randy Ferlic released a blistering statement. He said, "If the university invites Ayers to speak on educational reform, perhaps the university might want to consider inviting Osama bin Laden to speak about religion."
"While I believe that the open exchange of ideas and the principles of academic freedom are fundamental to a university, I also believe the decision to have Ayers on a program . . . represents remarkably poor judgment," said University of Nebraska President J.B. Milliken.
UNL's invitation to Ayers represented poor judgment from the start, Hassebrook told the Lincoln Journal Star. "My concern has been not with what he was going to say about education. It was that he's an unrepentant terrorist," he said. "(UNL) did the right thing."
Statements from political leaders also urged UNL to rethink its decision."This is an embarrassment to the University of Nebraska and the State of Nebraska," Gov. Dave Heineman said. "Bill Ayers is a well-known radical who should never have been invited to the University of Nebraska."
Rep. Lee Terry, a Republican, and Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, also issued statements condemning Ayers' selection.
Ayers supporters
Ayers does have supporters. "He gives of himself greatly to his students. He gives of his time, his energies, his commitment," Pamela Quiroz, an associate professor who works in UIC's college of education with Ayers told the Associated Press late Friday. "He is just a superb individual."
Quiroz is among more than 3,200 people, mostly academics, who have signed an online petition protesting the "demonization" of Ayers during the campaign for the White House.
The petition, which has circulated through university faculties across the nation, says critics of Ayers, an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, are trying to "intimidate free thinking and stifle critical dialogue."
Ayers "built an extraordinary life," said Lawrence Grossberg, a University of North Carolina Chapel Hill communications studies professor who was interviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times. "He has become one of the leading scholars in the field of education. (People are) excoriating him for things he did 40 years ago and misrepresenting what he has done since, in order to make someone else suffer. That doesn't seem very American to me."
 William Ayers published works:
* Education: An American Problem. Bill Ayers, Radical Education Project, 1968, ASIN B0007H31HU
* Hot town: Summer in the City: I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more, Bill Ayers, Students for a Democratic Society, 1969, ASIN B0007I3CMI
* Good Preschool Teachers, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0807729472
* The Good Preschool Teacher: Six Teachers Reflect on Their Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0807729465
* To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0807732625*To Become a Teacher: Making a Difference in Children's Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0807734551
* City Kids, City Teachers: Reports from the Front Row, William Ayers (Editor) and Patricia Ford (Editor), New Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1565843288
* A Kind and Just Parent, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0807044025
* A Light in Dark Times: Maxine Greene and the Unfinished Conversation, Maxine Greene (Editor), William Ayers (Editor), Janet L. Miller (Editor), Teachers College Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0807737217
* Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader, William Ayers (Editor), Jean Ann Hunt (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), 1998, ISBN 978-1565844209
* Teacher Lore: Learning from Our Own Experience, William H. Schubert (Editor) and William C. Ayers (Editor), Educator's International Press, 1999, ISBN 978-1891928031
* Teaching from the Inside Out: The Eight-Fold Path to Creative Teaching and Living, Sue Sommers (Author), William Ayers (Foreword), Authority Press, 2000, ISBN 978-1929059027
* A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0807739631
* Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment, William Ayers (Editor), Rick Ayers (Editor), Bernardine Dohrn (Editor), Jesse L. Jackson (Author), New Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1565846661
* A School of Our Own: Parents, Power, and Community at the East Harlem Block Schools, Tom Roderick (Author), William Ayers (Author), Teachers College Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0807741573
* Refusing Racism: White Allies and the Struggle for Civil Rights, Cynthia Stokes Brown (Author), William Ayers (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), Teachers College Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0807742044
* On the Side of the Child: Summerhill Revisited, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0807744000
* Fugitive Days: A Memoir, Bill Ayers, Beacon Press, 2001, ISBN 0807071242 (Penguin, 2003, ISBN 978-0142002551)
* Teaching the Personal and the Political: Essays on Hope and Justice, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0807744611
* Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 2004, ISBN 978-080703269-5
* Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970-1974, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones, Seven Stories Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1583227268
* Handbook of Social Justice in Education, William C. Ayers, Routledge, June 2008, ISBN 978-0805859270
* City Kids, City Schools: More Reports from the Front Row, Ruby Dee (Foreword), Jeff Chang (Afterword), William Ayers (Editor), Billings, Gloria Ladson (Editor), Gregory Michie (Editor), Pedro Noguera (Editor), New Press, August 2008, ISBN 978-1595583383
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