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Posted: 1:58 PM- A national organization that advocates for academic freedom on the nation's campuses has come to the defense of Brigham Young University professor Steven Jones, who the university placed on paid administrative leave last week while it investigates his research into alternative explanations for what happened on Sept. 11.

"This is a serious sanction against a faculty member over something he was not teaching in his classes," Eric Combest, associate secretary with the American Association of University Professors, said today. "Our basic position is that colleges cannot punish professors for opinions they express not as faculty members, but as American citizens." Combest said Jones has not contacted AAUP, nor has the organization yet had any formal communication with BYU.

AAUP felt compelled to comment about BYU's actions against Jones because those actions "strike us as egregious." Combest also noted previous clashes between his organization and BYU that have kept the school owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on AAUP's radar.

"BYU remains on our censure list for previous violations of academic freedom standards and because it offers a poor climate for academic freedom," he said.

He hopes AAUP may use the Jones case as a way to approach BYU administrators anew to resolve differences, but he's not optimistic.

"We've already imposed the most significant sanction we have at our disposal against BYU," Combest said.

BYU placed Jones, a physics professor, on leave Thursday amid increased attention to a paper he wrote titled "Why, Indeed, Did the World Trade Center Collapse?" In the paper and in various lectures and media interviews, he espouses a theory that bombs planted inside the World Trade Center - not crashing airplanes - caused the twin towers' collapse.

BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said the university put Jones on leave for at least the remainder of fall semester so that it can review "the increasingly speculative and accusatory nature of Dr.

Jones' statements, and the fact this work hasn't been published in appropriate scientific venues." Today, she reiterated BYU's reasons for imposing the leave, and said the probe is ongoing. "No decision has been made and Dr. Jones will be part of this review," which will proceed regardless of what AAUP has to say about it.

Jenkins said BYU provided "a detailed, serious, response" to AAUP's 1998 censure of the school, but its response resolved nothing. "We've had to move on." AAUP placed BYU on its censure list in part due to the school's decision to fire professor Gail Houston.

The university at the time cited her violation of a BYU policy prohibiting speech that "contradicts or opposes, rather than analyzes or discusses, fundamental church doctrine or policy." Houston, among other things, had acknowledged praying to a "Heavenly Mother," a practice that does not align with LDS doctrine.

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