Casper College instructor Robert Carlson has been offered a position in the Office of Special Counsel to President George W. Bush, Carlson said Tuesday.

Carlson would serve in Washington, D.C., under Scott J. Bloch, who heads the office. Carlson met Bloch in the late 1970s at the University of Kansas, where Bloch was a student in a class Carlson taught as a graduate student.

If he takes the post, Carlson, who currently teaches literature and philosophy at CC, will be charged with providing counsel to Bloch on ethical issues.

Among other areas, Bloch's office deals with incidents of whistleblowing and laws that protect those who bring illegal or unethical activities to the government's attention.

Prior to his recent appointment as special counsel, Bloch headed up the Task Force for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the United States Department of Justice. He was able to choose two special assistants - one of whom could be a philosopher.

"He thought of me," Carlson said.

In 1998, Carlson and two other Casper College instructors introduced an anti-gay program at the school called Anchor. The instructors touted the program, part of SoFAITH, the Society of Families Anchored in Truth, as pro-family values.

Carlson and the other instructors, Jay Graham and Mike Keogh, created the Anchor program to counter the Safe Zone program, created in 1997, which promoted acceptance and understanding of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

The Anchor program was denied endorsement by Casper College because of what President LeRoy Strausner described as Anchor's anti-gay agenda. The college, however, allowed Anchor to use college classrooms for presentations and college e-mail to promote the program. But the program was prohibited from using college copying machines and the Casper College logo.

The Anchor program, according to its organizers, was simply an alternative to the ideas being offered by Safe Zone - which did receive the college's endorsement. Anchor, they said, was designed to promote the principles of free speech on campus.

Carlson said the controversy had nothing to do with the appointment.

Tuesday, Strausner said the appointment "speaks to the integrity" of Carlson and to the "quality of faculty" at the college.

"We are proud Dr. Carlson has been given this opportunity," he said in a prepared statement.

Casper College instructor Richard Jacobi, who publicly opposed the Anchor program, said Tuesday he is "happy for Dr. Carlson."

"That whole business that happened several years ago has been resolved, satisfactorily," Jacobi said. "Good for him, if (the appointment) is what he wants."

Carlson said he is still considering the offer. Outside of the prestige of the job, he said the idea of living in Washington, D.C., is attractive.

"There are a lot of exciting things going on there - cultural activities, and good restaurants in Georgetown," he said.