President Neil L. Rudenstine yesterday defended the right of controversial rapper Ice T to lecture at the Law School last week, but said the University does not endorse the views of individual speakers.

Rudenstine's comments, contained in a press release and in a letter to Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn, responded to a letter from Flynn protesting Ice T's appearance at the Law School.

Rudenstine declined to release his letter--which was delivered to the mayor's office by courier--citing it as an item of personal correspondence.

But in the press release, which Rudenstine said was very similar in content to the letter, the President addressed Flynn's concerns that the rapper's appearance helped to undermine the often dangerous job of law enforcement.

"Harvard as an institution is sensitive to the views of the local community, and I myself deeply appreciate the steady support and help we receive from many groups, including the local police," Rudenstine said in the press release.

"Police officers have exceptionally demanding duties, and they serve us all by carrying out very difficult assignments under often dangerous conditions," he said.

Ice T attracted national attention--and provoked widespread police protests--last year after the release of his song, "Cop Killer." Critics said the song promotes violence against law enforcement officials.

In his letter to Rudenstine, dated February 18, Flynn affirmed Ice T's First Amendment right to free speech, but said Harvard was under no obligation to invite the rapper to speak on campus.

"To do so is to add an air of legitimacy he certainly does not deserve," said Flynn, who did not attend the February 16 speech. "As a person who has advocated the killing of police officers, Ice T has clearly overstepped all moral and intellectual boundaries."

Flynn's office did not respond to a request for comment last night.

In his speech at the Law School, which was sponsored by its Saturday School program, Ice T said he did not understand the controversy over his work.

"I didn't think it was a controversial record because I thought everybody hated the police," he said. "Everyone I know hates the police."

Rudenstine said Harvard did not endorse the rapper's views.

"Within the University, dozens of speakers are invited to campus every week by a range of student, faculty, and other groups," Rudenstine said. "Harvard University as an institution does not endorse the views of the individual speakers who visit the campus, whether Ice T or the literally hundreds of others who come to the University."

Rudenstine said supporting the ideal of free speech often means accepting unpopular viewpoints.

"As president of the University, I believe strongly that students, faculty, and other groups in our community should have the freedom to invite speakers of their choice to the campus, and to hear the views of those speakers," Rudenstine said.

"Sometimes that will result in the expression of views that are deeply offensive to some or many people, and we must as a community work hard to understand and be responsive to such situations," the president added. "Equally, however, we must recognize that these situations are a consequence of maintaining a diverse community genuinely committed to free and open expression."

Assistant Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree Jr., the director the Saturday School program and the moderator of a question and answer session that followed Ice T's speech, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

But DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr., who as chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies co-sponsored the speech with Ogletree, said he supports Rudenstine's comments.

"I agree 100 percent with the president," Gates said. "I think that it's very important--particularly at Harvard, which has a flagship role in the intellectual community in America--to expose our students to as wide as possible an array of ideas as we can."

Gates, who did not attend Ice T's speech, said that he could think of no speaker whose views are so offensive as to invalidate the right of free speech.

"The best way to treat an idea that we disagree with is to critique it and you can't do that if you engage in prior restraint and do not invite the wide diversity of opinions represented in the political and intellectual community to campus," Gates said. "It's very easy for us to support the First Amendment when we agree with someone's opinion and not to support it when we find someone's opinion out of sync with our own.