When Robert W. Van Kirk released a study in January about selenium contamination in trout streams in southeastern Idaho, he expected some flak from the influential phosphate-mining industry. He did not expect to feel pressured by the administration of his own institution, Idaho State University, where he is an associate professor of mathematics. His research, paid for by a local environmental group, indeed raised the hackles of mining interests. Executives of one major mine operator, the J.R. Simplot Company, called the university's leaders about the study just days after it came out. The provost, Robert A. Wharton, responded by asking a vice president to investigate Mr. Van Kirk and his collaborator. That inquiry found no irregularities, but Mr. Wharton disclosed to the company the name of the journal where the research was to be published before Mr. Van Kirk could object that it might compromise the peer-review process. The university leaders defend their actions, but experts on academic freedom say the situation, while hardly black and white, reflects the growing high-stakes challenges for higher education, and especially for academics and administrators at state universities, when public-interest science comes into conflict with powerful political and economic interests.