SAN MARCOS -- A group of Cal State San Marcos professors is urging the university to overturn its decision to postpone until after the election a visit by filmmaker Michael Moore, the high-profile Bush critic and author.

Calling the decision "an arbitrary use of executive privilege to silence a controversial speaker, " 78 campus employees, mainly professors, asked Cal State San Marcos President Karen S. Haynes to honor the student government's vote to host Moore's visit to North County.

They wrote that the university's stated mission of "sustained enrichment" of the region's intellectual and cultural life is being compromised by the veto of a pre-Election Day appearance by Moore.

Student government officers voted 12-3 on Sept. 10 to contribute $6,500 toward the estimated $37,000 cost of the visit. The rest was to be made up with university funds.

Saying there was too little time before the November election to provide a "balancing perspective," Haynes vetoed the plans to bring the anti-Bush provocateur to North County in October. Elaborating later on the decision, the president noted that Moore is a partisan political figure and state law prohibits using public money for partisan activity.

The 78-signature letter to Haynes, dated Sept. 15, was received by the North County Times via e-mail Monday. The president had no immediate response.

The professors wrote they were registering their "strong opposition" to the decision to postpone an appearance by Moore that was set for Oct. 13.

"We ask you," they added, "to honor the results of what you call the 'spirited discussion' (by student government representatives) … We urge you and the executive council to reverse your decision and allow our community to engage critically with this timely speaker and his challenging ideas."

The professors called Haynes' logic flawed. Followed to its conclusion, they said, the logic would require the current campus exhibit on lynching in America at the Kellogg Library to be counterbalanced with a speaker defending the violence of racist mobs.

"Michael Moore is an important artist and public intellectual who raises central social and political questions for our time," the letter stated. "Our university must support those, like Moore, who open discussion about whether our fundamental values -- justice, reason, equality and democracy -- remain active forces in our community…"

Manal Yamout, the president of Associated Students Inc., the student government body, said Monday that negotiations to bring Moore to campus continue with his booking agency in New York.

"I'm relatively optimistic," she said. "I'm not certain, but I would hope that he would come. I think we've done all that we can, and now it's just a matter of the ball's in (Moore's) court."

Yamout also said the students are looking at a larger venue than the 1,500-seat Concert Hall at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, where a lease agreement has yet to be signed for a Michael Moore appearance. She said perhaps the Del Mar Fairgrounds would be able to accommodate the large audience she predicted Moore would attract.

After the university withdrew its financial backing for a pre-election Moore visit, community members donated $41,000 to bring him here, Yamout said, noting that the contributions came unsolicited.

But Moore said Friday that if the university does not pay, he won't be coming. Otherwise, he said, he would be a party to Haynes' dishonoring of the students' vote, declaring it "null and void … You don't do that in a democracy." He said the issue is one of free speech.

Yamout said the questions about whether Moore would appear if private money -- and not university money -- paid the bills were not raised in her conversations on Monday with Moore's booking agency, Greater Talent Co. in New York.

Moore's documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," is set to be shown on campus Oct. 5 as part of the fall arts and lecture series. Among the topics examined in the film is the relationship between the Bush family and Saudi oil interests.

Student leader Yamout said the Moore issue has raised the level of political consciousness at the campus to an all-time high. "I have never seen students both on the right and the left so engaged and so involved," she said.

Contact staff writer Bruce Kauffman at (760) 761-4410 or bkauffman@nctimes.com.