At least it doesn't seem to be as bad as that "water buffalo" incident.

The media frenzy surrounding a photograph of University President Amy Gutmann posing with a student dressed as a suicide bomber will probably subside without adversely affecting Penn's reputation, professors say.

And some of those who have been at Penn long enough to witness other great public relations blunders in University history say this one is practically nothing in comparison.

The picture surfaced on the Internet after Gutmann's annual Halloween party, which Engineering senior Saad Saadi, a Daily Pennsylvanian photographer, attended dressed in terrorist garb.

But the buzz about this case has little to do with free speech rights - Gutmann publicly stated that while she took offense, she supported Saadi's right to wear the costume.

Other infamous incidents, longtime professors say, had more serious implications about how the University viewed First Amendment rights on campus.

The controversial event that probably brought the most negative press to Penn's name occurred in 1993.

Dubbed the water buffalo scandal, it was set off by a College freshman who called a group of black female students "water buffaloes" when he thought they were making too much noise outside his high-rise window.

The student was charged with racial harassment under the University's speech codes, which were criticized in the national media as a violation of free-speech rights. Penn eventually dropped the charges against the student.

"There was actually movement afoot on the part of the administration to do something to the students," History professor Michael Zuckerman said. "That's so different from this [current situation], where nobody is talking about doing anything to the kid who dressed as a terrorist."

And that's a good thing, according to the University's Committee on Open Expression, which recently issued a statement saying that it "firmly supports our students' rights to expression, whether serious or ludic."

Communication professor Carolyn Marvin, who chairs the committee, also pointed out that the water buffalo scandal took place in a "very different atmosphere," when racial tensions were running high on campus.

"There is no doubt that the way people talked in public had an inhibiting effect on minority students, on black students around here," said Zuckerman, who has taught at Penn since 1965. "It really was a problem worth worrying about."

Another free speech controversy arose last fall, when the University charged an Engineering junior with sexual harassment for posting photographs online of two students apparently having sex in a high-rise window.

History professor Alan Charles Kors spoke out in defense of the student, saying the University had breached his right to free speech. The Office of Student Conduct eventually dropped the charges.

"If you leave your shades up, you can't really complain if people take photographs," Marvin said.

Unlike these other notorious events, Zuckerman said, the current controversy is "nonsense" that says little about the University's policies.

It is "appalling that [Gutmann] has to go through the motions … of issuing these apologies" for the incident, Zuckerman added.

Not every faculty member - even those who have been around long enough to see Penn deal with other controversies - agrees, though.

"President Gutmann made a mistake - period," Sociology professor emeritus William Evan said.

Article Tools