SAN MARCOS ---- The board of Palomar College was told Tuesday night that administrators are prepared to take disciplinary measures against a man who is said to have stunned an English class last month by shouting into the classroom that the professor was homosexual.

The man has not been identified.

Meeting in a regular session at the governing board room on the main campus in San Marcos, the board heard Student Services Director Bruce Bishop say that his office takes "very seriously these kinds of behaviors."

Bishop, whose office administers student discipline, said the incident was the first such behavior he's become aware of in three years.

The incident was first reported publicly by the professor himself, Fergal O'Doherty of the college's English department, in a Perspective piece Sunday in the North County Times that carried the headline, "Hate speech disrupts Palomar College."

O'Doherty wrote that the incident Feb. 25 stunned him and his students and "shattered any illusion that I work in a safe place."

At Tuesday's meeting, the president of the faculty, Barb Kelber, called for campus police "at the very least" to attend the next meeting of the class to ask students for a detailed description of the man who shouted into the classroom. She said the gesture would show that such behavior is taken seriously on the campus "and we will not tolerate it."

Jerry Patton, Palomar's vice president for finance who is managing the campus police department while Chief James Stoney is on leave, said if the man is found, he will be subject to discipline.

Student Services Director Bishop told the board there is no way the college can impose restraints in advance on the speech of the people in the campus community.

"The problem is ... the district walks a very, very fine line when it attempts to monitor and check speech," he said.

In his article in Sunday's paper, O'Doherty wrote that as he was conducting his critical thinking and composition class in the afternoon of Feb. 25, in a room "abuzz with the tapping of keys" and "the whispers of students discussing their projects," the door suddenly "burst open and a young man shouted, 'Fergal's a faggot!' then the door slammed shut."

The professor wrote that he was stunned and his students looked stunned. He reported the incident to campus police later that day.

O'Doherty said the incident could either be seen as isolated, and not "part of any greater threat," or it could be seen as an example of a problem with diversity on the Palomar campus. He characterized the word "faggot" as "cheap currency."

"Our class was disrupted and our sense of safety was violated," he added, noting that his "students saw the extraordinary power of words to claim public space."

"I will not let the incident fall into the chasm of silence that prevents healthy discussion of hate speech on out campus," he said.

He added: "The incident shattered any illusion that I work in a safe place. I will be more watchful of who is behind me, who lurks outside the classroom door and what he may be planning."

A "community forum" by Allan Jason in Tuesday's North County Times said that O'Doherty had failed to make a case that the act was anything more than "one of cowardice by an insecure student."

Among other matters taken up Tuesday, the board approved tenure for 17 professors, naming them to career-long appointments to the faculty. The tenure becomes effective with the start of the 2004-05 school year in August.

The professors are John Aegerter II of physical education, Madelyn Byrne of performing arts, Terrie Canon of computer science and information systems, Grace Fowler of graphic communications, Sherry Goldsmith of the disability resource center, Dewi Hokett of speech communication, forensics and American sign language, Catherine Jain of earth sciences and Gloria Kerkhoff and Jo Anne Lesser, both of counseling.

Also approved for tenure were Wendy Nelson of communications, Jennifer Paris of library technology, Carla Thomson of reading services, Cynthia Torgison of mathematics, Steven White of athletics and Susan Zolliker, Jon Panish and Craig Thompson of reading services.

The board also approved including new courses in the college curriculum starting in fall 2004. These include the study of two indigenous Indian languages, Luiseno and Cupeno, and courses in beginning and intermediate surfing.

The surfing courses will award 1 to 1.5 credits each and cover topics that include wave selection, paddling, etiquette and maneuvers such as the roundhouse and the sideslip.

Finally, the board learned that 25-year athletic trainer Bruce Swart has been named trainer of the year by the California Community College Athletic Trainers Association. Swart told the board Palomar is "a great place to work."