The state chancellor of higher education will meet Friday with Republican lawmakers outraged about Millersville University hosting a controversial education expert next month.

GOP state Reps. John Bear, Scott Boyd, Tom Creighton Bryan Cutler, Gordon Denlinger, Dave Hickernell and Katie True have called on the university to cancel the March 19 lecture by Bill Ayers, a noted expert on urban education and former Vietnam-era radical.

Thus far, the university has not backed down. But John Cavanaugh, chancellor of the state System of Higher Education, has agreed to meet with the seven Republicans to discuss their concerns.

"He understands that Bill Ayers is recognized as one of the pre-eminent experts in the country on urban education," Cavanaugh spokesman Kenn Marshall said Friday. "He also understands that (Ayers) comes with a lot of baggage."

Creighton, Cutler and Hickernell said they would attend the meeting with Cavanaugh. The Lancaster New Era reported that Boyd will attend, too. The others did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Since the 1980s, Ayers has worked extensively in reforming urban education and is now an author and professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Four decades ago, however, Ayers co-founded the radical group Weather Underground, which detonated bombs at public buildings and memorials to protest the Vietnam War. Weather Underground would alert people to avoid the area before setting off the bombs.

Ayers said in an op-ed piece published in December in the New York Times that he "never killed or injured anyone."

"The Weather Underground crossed lines of legality, of propriety and perhaps even of common sense," Ayers wrote. "Our effectiveness can be — and still is being — debated. We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war."

Not only do the local Republican lawmakers object to Ayers' means of protesting the Vietnam War, but they also said in a letter to MU that his proposals to reform urban education promote "student and parental political activism instead of achievement testing."

"I mean, this guy (Ayers) probably committed treason, and why Millersville would want to give him a forum is really beyond my understanding," Creighton said. "I want them to understand where I'm coming from."

Hickernell said he's hoping the Republicans can convince Cavanaugh to join their chorus of voices in calling for MU to cancel the event.

"I'm optimistic that he is looking at this and hopefully will reconsider," Hickernell said.

Cutler said his constituents are objecting to the use of any public funds to pay Ayers for his speech or for anything related to the event.

"At the end of the day, the institution does utilize tax dollars," Cutler said of MU. "So there has to be a measure of accountability."

Ayers' speaking fee comes out of a private university endowment, and any costs above what is normally used for security at such events will come from private donations, MU spokeswoman Janet Kacskos said Friday.

In a related development, the university and a regional anti-terrorism task force met Friday to discuss security measures for the event.

The South Central Task Force, which includes the emergency-management agencies and first responders in a nine-county region, will provide 20 police officers and a central command unit for the event.

But the officers and the command unit are being deployed as a training exercise for the task force, paid for with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The task force asked MU if it could take advantage of the Ayers event — expected to draw both supporters and protesters — to conduct a training exercise for police officers. The task force's overall mission is to prepare emergency responders for a catastrophe or terrorist attack.

More meetings are expected between task force officials and MU.

"Today was to discuss procedures from a training aspect for a response capability," Randy Gockley, a member of the task force's board of directors, said. "That goes on with any type of special event — a presidential visit or any type of situation, be it a street fair or whatever we're involved in."

Gockley also is the coordinator of Lancaster County Emergency Management Agency.

E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com