Michael Moore Sets Up 'hellraiser' Scholarship

The filmmaker Michael Moore has established a scholarship for students who defy the administration at California State University - the same institution that cancelled his talk last year.

Moore, who directed the anti-George Bush polemic Fahrenheit 9/11, has set up the Michael Moore Freedom of Speech Scholarship, which will award two $2,500 (£1,300) annual scholarships to students at CSU "who have done the most to fight for issues of student rights by standing up to the administration".

The first scholarships will be awarded in the 2005-2006 academic year. Winners will be announced in June.

Moore was barred from a speaking engagement at the university last October, when university authorities said there was not enough time to arrange for a speaker from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

Students responded by organising their own protest. They held a 10,000-strong rally and concert at an off-campus venue, where the folk singer Joan Baez performed and Moore gave a speech in which he promised to launch a "hellraiser scholarship".

A spokesman for the university, Rick Moore (no relation), said he did not wish to discuss the merits of a scholarship that encourages students to stand up to administrators.

"Mr Moore has the right to do whatever he wishes to do and we're glad to see another scholarship available to students who go to our school," he said.