The University of Wyoming has canceled a speech by former 1960s radical William Ayers after it raised a slew of objections from citizens and politicians.

Ayers was scheduled to speak next Monday on the Laramie campus about social justice issues and education.

He was invited by the UW Social Justice Research Center.

UW spokesman Don Richards says the decision to cancel Ayre’s speech was made the director of the very department that invited him…(Click to hear comment from Don Richards)

In a statement released by the university, UW President Tom Buchanan thanked the center for reconsidering its invitation to Ayers. Buchanan says academic freedom is a core principle of higher education, but he says the visit by Ayers would have adversely affected the public’s confidence in the university.

He noted that the Ayers invitation had caused intense controversy.

Ayers is an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago.