Reversing an earlier decision, the Penn State Bookstore on Campus announced it will stock "The Satanic Verses," Salman Rushdie's controversial novel.

William McVicker, director of the bookstore, said a department manager made the initial decision Feb. 23 not to carry the book.

Faculty members responded immediately, sending letters and making phone calls to administrators, objecting to the decision. The next day, James Wagner, associate vice president of business and operations, gave the bookstore approval to carry the book.

Wagner emphasized the original statement did not result from an official University policy decision but instead was the reaction of one employee. The decision was based on similar actions by the national chains of Waldenbooks and B. Dalton, Wagner said. "(The bookstore) felt like (it) was following what was happening nationally," he said.

Christopher Clausen, head of the department of English, and Lesley Hazleton, professor of creative writing, both wrote letters to administrators objecting to the bookstore's initial statement. Clausen's letter read, in part, "I am for the first time in my career here ashamed of Penn State. If a university is too craven to stand up for freedom of speech and of the press, who will?"

James Rambeau, associate head of the department of English, said of the administration's decision, "They are to be congratulated for doing at last what they should have done in the first place."

Wagner said he hoped Moslems in the community would use an American perspective to understand why the bookstore is selling the novel. He said that, as an educational institution, the University is committed to the free exchange of ideas and information. "Part of our culture is to be open to divergent opinion," he said.

Mohammad Ghazal, president of the Moslem Students Association, said he was sorry the bookstore changed its decision. He said the University was not being consistent in its policy toward minorities by, on one hand, putting up banners condemning racism, but on the other, allowing the bookstore to sell material offensive to Moslems.

Ghazal said that by the standards of Islam, "nobody has the right to harm the feelings of minorities, to humiliate anybody." He said Moslem students may hold protests because of Penn State Bookstore's decision to restock Rushdie's novel.

McVicker said several copies of the book are on order and will be arriving within the next few weeks.

"The Satanic Verses" has caused worldwide furor among Moslems for descriptions of Islam they perceive as blasphemous. Iran is offering a $5.2 million bounty for Rushdie's murder.

The State College Fiction Writers' Workshop sponsored a reading of "The Satanic Verses" at Svoboda's Bookstore, 129 W. Beaver Ave. on Feb. 27. About 20 Moslem protesters stood outside the store with placards condemning the book.

James Morrow, a member of the workshop, said the reading, which lasted 20 hours and eight minutes, was meant to parallel similar readings across the country. Organizers of the workshop thought it was important they read the entire work in order to put the offending passages in context, he said.

About 50 individuals took turns reading the book, store owner Michael Svoboda said.

Before the reading, Iftekhar Hussain (graduate-industrial engineering) spoke briefly to condemn the book and explain the Moslem position. He said although Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini does not speak for all Moslems, his call for Rushdie's death was correct.

Svoboda said the reading was not meant as an affront to Moslems but an affirmation of the principle of free expression.

He said the fiction writers' workshop, the Moslem Student Association and his bookstore hope to organize a panel discussion on the issues raised by "The Satanic Verses" sometime this month.

Waldenbooks printed full-page advertisements in The New York Times and eight other newspapers announcing it would carry the book on the same day that the Penn State Bookstore reversed its decision.