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The University System of Maryland later this month might adopt the first pornographic movie policy among higher education institutions in the United States.

"It's most likely that some educational component will be required," said Robert M. O'Neil, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Charlottesville, Va., who is advising the Attorney General's Office on the issue.

O'Neil, a Constitutional law professor and First Amendment expert, served as president of both the University of Virginia and the University System of Wisconsin.

The board of regents plans to discuss recommendations at its Oct. 23 meeting, and Chancellor William E. Kirwan has been gathering reaction and suggestions from presidents, faculty, staff and students at each of the 11 member universities with the aim of drafting one policy for all University System schools, said Ann Moultrie, a USM spokeswoman.

One option under consideration is to require a group to design and present an educational program when it shows an "unrated film" at the university.

Movies commonly referred to as X-rated do not have a Motion Picture Association of America rating. Neither do many old or documentary films, which concerns Laura A. Bayless, St. Mary's College of Maryland dean of students.

The policymaking was precipitated by state lawmakers who, in April, reacted to the news that a film billed as XXX-rated was being shown in an on-campus theater at the University of Maryland, College Park. They required Maryland public universities and colleges to adopt a policy for showing films deemed obscene on campus or forgo funding.

"The question is how do we satisfy the General Assembly and preserve academic freedom on campus," said Brady Walker, chairman of the University System of Maryland Student Council, which advises the chancellor.

"The policy won't ban anything — that's important to say," said Walker, a second-year law student at the University of Baltimore.

"Once students understand that, there will be better discussion about it," he said.

The University System of Maryland Student council will meet Sunday to discuss and take a position on the policy proposals, Walker said.

The deadline for universities to adopt a plan was moved from September to Dec. 1.

"My main concern," said Sen. Andrew P. Harris, the lawmaker who pushed for the policy, was the taxpayer-subsidized showing of "pornography for fun and entertainment."

An educational requirement — "although I'm not for sure what that possibly could be" — would satisfy his concern, said Harris (R-Dist. 7) of Cockeysville.

"To my mind, we have the basic policy that we need in the First Amendment," said Jamie B. Raskin (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park, who is a Constitutional law professor at American University.

Bayless said St. Mary's will pattern its plan after the larger system plan, although St. Mary's, like Morgan State University, is one of only two public universities not in the University System of Maryland.

A Morgan State University spokesman did not answer questions about that school's plans for the policy by the Gazette's deadline Thursday.