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To Stephen Balch, all these incidents show that individuals can make a difference if they are prepared to speak out -- and take the heat for doing so. An associate professor of political science at Manhattan's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Balch began meeting with a small group of like- minded academics in the New York City area in 1982 to discuss academic problems. By 1987 they had evolved "from a community to an organization" and opened an office. The N.A.S. is funded in part by four conservative foundations, but Balch insists, "We follow our own lights." The association publishes the quarterly Academic Questions, sponsors regular conferences and has affiliates in 20 states; membership has almost doubled in the past year and is growing at the rate of 25 applications a week. Among the roster of luminaries: Duke political scientist James David Barber, Harvard sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson and Jeane Kirkpatrick, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. The reason for such interest, says Clark's Sommers, is that liberals as well as conservatives now worry about an "environment of intimidation" that has forced some professors to tape their lectures as a safeguard against bias charges. "It's the opposite," she says, "of what a university should be."