Penn Board Refuses to Dismiss Harassment Claim : Campus: Officials say they expect a decision within 10 days over charges against a freshman for calling black sorority members ‘water buffalo.’

A University of Pennsylvania faculty-student board refused Friday to dismiss racial harassment charges against a freshman who called some noisy black women students “water buffalo.”

But the outcome in this highly publicized test of campus free speech was left uncertain because the board, meeting behind closed doors, demanded that no one discuss what happened.

University officials issued a statement saying they had “imposed no gag order” on the proceedings, but insisted that “all members of the university community are expected to respect the confidentiality of the judicial proceeding.”

In their statement, Penn officials say they expect the board to announce a decision within 10 days, either to settle the dispute or to hold a further hearing in the fall.

The defendant, Eden Jacobowitz, 18, had been officially charged with racial harassment for his “water buffalo” comment and he had sought a hearing for two months to contest the charges. His faculty adviser, Prof. Alan Kors, had gone into the meeting Friday morning believing that the charges would be dismissed.

But four hours later, they emerged to say they could not discuss the matter.

“This is the first time in my life when I can’t comment, but unfortunately that’s the situation. I don’t want to jeopardize Eden’s case,” Kors said by telephone. “I will say that universities are increasingly surreal.”

Lawyers for Jacobowitz, including an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, were barred from the hearing. Afterward, ACLU officials threatened to take the dispute to federal court.

“This is an absurd result in a case that was absurd from the beginning,” said Deborah Leavy, director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “We think there has been a flagrant disregard of Eden’s rights to due process (of law) and freedom of expression.”

But for the ACLU, the matter is complicated because the University of Pennsylvania is a private school, and therefore, not bound by the First Amendment.

Only government bodies are required to adhere to the Bill of Rights, although some legal scholars say private colleges that receive federal funds should be required to follow constitutional standards.

The “water buffalo” case is the latest campus dispute that pits the ideal of wide-open free speech against a desire to preserve a civil atmosphere for minority students. On the Penn campus near downtown Philadelphia, black students say they have often heard blatantly racist insults shouted from dormitories.

Jacobowitz has insisted, however, that he shouted at the sorority women beneath his window only because they were noisy and were stomping their feet. The women who filed the complaint say they heard more than the words “water buffalo” coming from Jacobowitz’s window.