Florida Gulf Coast University students - upset that Williams' freshman-convocation speech was postponed by the school's president, who feared she might be critical of President Bush - have asked the Utah writer to speak at another event.

In a letter accepting the invitation for the Oct. 24 engagement - the same date convocation had been scheduled - Williams told the students she would "not need compensation, only a good bed to sleep in and a shared meal with students."

Students came together, said C.J. Pisieczko, editor-in-chief of The Eagle, the weekly student newspaper. He said students believe Williams deserves the same "open space of democracy" that she writes about in her book of that title.

"We view this as a great opportunity for freedom of speech and [for] not being censored," Pisieczko said. "That's what the students want at this university."

The student editor noted that the dozen groups that worked to bring Williams to the 6,400-student Fort Myers school included Young Democrats, Young Republicans and Model United Nations clubs.

The alternative speaking engagement follows the postponement earlier this week of FGCU first-year convocation. University President William Merwin, a financial contributor to Bush and other Republican political campaigns, made the decision after he read Williams' book The Open Space of Democracy.

Merwin feared Williams' remarks would be critical of Bush, and the university president suggested she speak after the election, a spokeswoman said earlier this week.

The administrator said he was concerned because the convocation speech would be funded with state dollars and should not veer into partisan politics.

Williams had been paid $5,000 for a two-day speaking engagement. She returned the money Wednesday.

Spokeswoman Susan Evans said the new invitation to Williams is student-sponsored, not for a university-sponsored event. "It's not the freshmen convocation . . . it's a voluntary event that won't have the requirements the convocation would have had," she said.

Jim Wohlpart, a co-organizer for the school's first-year convocation, said he was pleased to learn Williams has accepted the students' alternative invitation.

"It's a good thing. We must engage the differences that exist on this campus - not to create division, but to heal the divisiveness that's here."

A delighted, but still emotionally weary Williams, said Friday she loved the fact that the school's Democrat, Republican and United Nations groups were standing "shoulder-to-shoulder" for free speech on their college campus.

"The students are embodying the open space of democracy - that's what the book is about," Williams said, adding that students also "had invited the [university] president to join us." She added that she will be accompanied on the Florida trip by her Republican father, John Tempest.

Utah State University professor Ted Pease praised the outcome.

"College campuses are supposed to be the petri dish for the rest of society," the Logan educator said. "As we have seen [on some Utah campuses], parents, regents and, to a certain extent, administrators think they have to protect students from certain ideas.

"It is, of course, absurd to curtail free speech and freedom of ideas."

FGCU spokeswoman Evans, when asked if President Merwin has any regrets about his decision to postpone the freshmen convocation, said, "The president feels he was doing what was in the best interest of the university and he still feels that way."

sykes@sltrib.com