BY NOAH BIERMAN

Florida International University President Modesto ''Mitch'' Maidique urged patience from the community Wednesday in his first public statement since two of his employees were charged with spying for Cuba.

''My personal and professional interactions with the Alvarezes gave me absolutely no indication of any of the activities outlined in the indictment,'' Maidique said in a written statement.

Carlos M. Alvarez, 61, has been an education professor at FIU since 1974. His wife, Elsa, 55, has worked there as a psychological services counselor since 1999. Monday, federal prosecutors accused them of providing the Cuban government with information about exile groups for decades and not registering as foreign agents. They are not accused of revealing government secrets.

The indictments have brought unwanted attention to FIU, a public university in West Miami-Dade County and North Miami that has long been a popular force of social mobility in the Cuban-American community.

Maidique, who has known the Alvarezes for at least two decades, attended their bond hearing Monday but has since declined interviews.

''If the allegations stipulated by the U.S. Attorney are substantiated, this will constitute a very significant breach of university trust and values,'' Maidique said in his statement.

He called the charges extremely serious and said FIU has hired former U.S. Attorney Roberto Martinez to review whether FIU policies were violated.

Maidique said the review is ongoing but has so far determined that FIU did not violate Cuba travel procedures or use state taxpayers' money on Cuba travel. The review also found that FIU students did not travel with Carlos M. Alvarez under any of its programs and that none of its students was recruited to participate in illegal activities.

Alvarez has been a contract worker, facilitating dialogue, on exchange trips to Cuba sponsored by Puentes Cubanos (Cuban Bridges). But the trips themselves were organized by Puentes Cubanos and were not affiliated with FIU.

A report in The Miami Herald on Wednesday described one of those trips from the perspective of a young professional who attended in 2000, Uvi Shabbel. Shabbel said FIU had sponsored visas for the program, but in fact Puentes Cubanos had its own license and sponsored all of the visas, according to Executive Director Silvia Wilhelm.

Shabbel said she was among FIU graduates who attended, but Wilhelm said that only four of the six on that trip had a past affiliation with FIU and that there was no prerequisite for travelers to have attended FIU.

Federal prosecutors have claimed that Alvarez used his trips to Cuba to trade information with Fidel Castro's intelligence agents.