Updated 5/18/07 @ 12:34 AM CST

The decision to deny tenure to a professor at Iowa State has stirred controversy around the nation.

Guillermo Gonzalez, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, was denied tenure in April, raising questions about whether his application was denied because of his role as a highly publicized advocate of the contentious intelligent design theory.

His case was reviewed by several committees and university officials, including ISU President Gregory Geoffroy. Gonzalez has appealed his case back to Geoffroy. A final decision will be made by June 6, said John McCarroll, executive director of university relations.

Initially reported tenure records for Iowa State indicated that in the last academic year, 66 university faculty applied for promotion and tenure, and only three were denied. However, the ratio was different for the physics and astronomy department.

Eli Rosenberg, professor and chairman of physics and astronomy, estimated that 12 tenure cases have come up in the astronomy and physics department in the last 10 years, and a third of them have been denied.

Rosenberg said Tuesday that while he would not elaborate on the reasoning for denying Gonzalez’s bid for tenure, Gonzalez had been plainly given the reasons why his application was denied, and he said Gonzalez has every right to divulge or withhold that information.

Rosenberg also said ideology was not a factor.

John G. West, senior fellow and associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute – a think tank to which Gonzalez also belongs – was reported as having accused Iowa State of “ideological discrimination.” The Discovery Institute did not respond to requests for an interview.

“I think that it is utter nonsense,” Rosenberg said of West’s accusation. He was insistent that the university’s criteria are made very clear to the faculty who apply for tenure, and that Gonzalez simply did not meet those criteria.

Gonzalez declined requests for an interview.

The university’s physics and astronomy department tenure guidelines demands 15 “peer-reviewed journal articles of quality.” Gonzalez’ tenure vita claims he had offered up to 68, 25 of which were written during his time at Iowa State. However, Rosenberg said the department’s “rule” is really more of a guideline.

“The document actually says you can be promoted with fewer publications, and you can be denied with more. It’s not just a number-counting exercise,” Rosenberg said.

In 2005, there was a statement that was signed by more than 400 faculty members from Iowa State, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa stating that intelligent design is outside the scope of science and more appropriate to religious studies or philosophy. It is available in its entirety at the ISU biology department Web site.

Hector Avalos, associate professor of religious studies, helped draft that statement.

Gonzalez has released a statement on the Discovery Institute’s Web site, www.discovery.org, suggesting that the 2005 statement by Avalos and his colleagues was religiously motivated. However, Avalos said this was a misrepresentation, and that his statement was signed by individuals of religious persuasion including Christians and Jews, among others. Avalos said the Discovery Institute is politicizing the tenure denial unnecessarily.