Lawyers for Guillermo Gonzalez, an assistant professor at Iowa State University, say they have thousands of pages of internal documents that point to "conspiracy and deceit" among ISU employees surrounding the tenure denial of the Intelligent Design proponent.

The lawyers plan to make the evidence public at a news conference at 11 a.m. Monday, Dec. 3, in Senate Chambers Room 24 at the Capitol in Des Moines, according to a release distributed Tuesday.

The Iowa Board of Regents currently is reviewing the tenure denial of Gonzalez.

Earlier this year, Gonzalez was denied tenure at every level of review beginning in his home department of physics and astronomy and ending with ISU President Greg Geoffroy.

Gonzalez appealed the tenure decision to Geoffroy, who again denied Gonzalez tenure.

Geoffroy was adamant following the release of his decision that it was based solely on Gonzalez's collection of research, teaching and service, and not because he uses the theory of Intelligent Design.

Gonzalez has persisted he met the criteria for tenure and the denial of his tenure was "in effect" predetermined by August 2005 when three ISU faculty members circulated a petition against the use of Intelligent Design in science.

According to ISU, four of the 12 candidates who applied for tenure in the department of physics and astronomy during the past 10 years have been denied.

William Dillon can be reached at 232-2161, Ext. 361, or William.Dillon@amestrib.com.