William Ayers may be coming to Nebraska after all.

A statewide group called the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska is working to bring the radical-turned-scholar to Omaha for a private event this fall.

The event would not be associated with the University of Nebraska, and tax dollars would not be used.

Coalition President Dwayne Ball declined to discuss details of the potential Ayers visit, citing the firestorm that erupted last fall when news broke that UNL had invited Ayers to campus.

But Ball, a UNL associate professor of marketing, did confirm his coalition is in negotiations with Ayers, an education professor at the University of Chicago at Illinois.

"For the moment, let's just say we want to make a point about academic freedom," Ball said.

UNL announced Oct. 16 Ayers had been invited to deliver the keynote address at the centennial celebration for the College of Education and Human Sciences.

A faculty committee had selected Ayers months earlier, long before his limited ties to President Barack Obama made him a controversial figure in the presidential campaign.

Ayers was a founder of Weather Underground, the group that claimed responsibility for bombings of public buildings in protest of the Vietnam War. Years later, he and Obama briefly served together on the board of a Chicago nonprofit.

Public furor erupted swiftly following UNL's announcement. NU offices were flooded with calls and e-mails, and bloggers filled the Web with angry posts.

Among the critics were NU President J.B. Milliken and several NU regents, who called the Ayers invitation poor judgment. Gov. Dave Heineman, Auditor Mike Foley and a number of other political leaders also panned the invitation.

UNL called on its nationally known threat assessment team to review the messages that were pouring in, some of which contained threats on Ayers' life.

The team determined the visit posed a security risk for Ayers and the campus as a whole. Late on Oct. 17, UNL announced Chancellor Harvey Perlman had canceled the speech.

UNL then was faced with a new set of critics: faculty and other defenders of academic freedom who accused Perlman of caving to political pressure. Perlman has denied that charge, saying he acted in the campus' best interest even though he felt the Ayers invitation was appropriate.

Some faculty expressed concern they hadn't been consulted before Perlman disinvited Ayers and said the decision may have been a breach of academic freedom.

The Faculty Senate is a member organization of the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska.

But the senate won't get involved in the coalition's efforts to bring Ayers to Nebraska.

"The UNL Faculty Senate is greatly interested in promoting academic freedom and shared governance and will focus on general efforts to accomplish that goal throughout the next year," Senate President John Fech said in an e-mail.

But, Fech said: "We have no plans to collaborate with AFCON on this event."

Milliken declined to comment, and Heineman could not be reached.

The coalition is not affiliated with the university. Its members include the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Lincoln Education Association, the Nebraska Press Association and the Nebraska State Education Association, according to the coalition's Web site.

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.