U. cover-up alleged

and ANDREW RAFALAF Reached after class on Friday, Assistant English Professor Malcolm Woodfield said that his former attorney in the sexual harassment case, Edward Rubenstone, is not authorized to speak for him. Last week, Rubenstone said that Woodfield had sexual relations with an undergraduate female student who was taking his class last year. "I am not responsible for anything that Ed Rubenstone might say," Woodfield said. "He is no longer my attorney, he doesn't speak on my behalf, although you are welcome to talk to him." Woodfield said the reason Rubenstone no longer works for him is that he was unable to continue paying for an attorney. Because Rubenstone could not work for free, Woodfield was forced to search for another attorney who would work pro bono -- without monetary compensation. Woodfield said he found his current attorney, University Law School Associate Professor Alan Lerner, only after an "extensive" search in the Philadelphia area. Woodfield and his supporters claim that the University used its legal power in the city to prevent him from finding adequate counsel and to delay the internal hearing process. Because the University uses many large Philadelphia law firms as outside counsel, it would be a conflict of interest for them to represent Woodfield in his case with the University, he said. Woodfield added that the University refused to sign a waiver which would have allowed them to represent him, and threatened to stop giving these firms business if they accepted him as a client. The allegations that the University used its legal muscle to block Woodfield's defense is just one of several claims of administrative wrongdoings in the Woodfield matter. In general, supporters of both the student and Woodfield are upset with the administration's handling of the case and the continuous delays that have caused the matter to drag on for almost a year. Although School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rosemary Stevens found out about the sexual harassment charges in April, she did not send Woodfield formal notification of charges against him until November 30, 1993, according to several sources involved with the charges. Woodfield received notice of the charges months after Stevens drafted a formal document detailing the charges for the College Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, which is responsible for hearings on the charges. "In any case, between faculty and students there are procedures set down by the University and sometimes these are cumbersome and time consuming," Stevens said last night. Graduate students in the English department, who support the woman alleging sexual harassment, claim the University has "bent over backwards" to accommodate Woodfield. Thirty-four of them sent a petition to Provost Lazerson in December urging him to suspend Woodfield for this semester while the hearings were pending. Woodfield had previously been suspended by Stevens for the fall term, but the Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility ruled that Stevens had not followed proper procedure and that Woodfield should be allowed to continue teaching. During this period of time, the Faculty Senate Committee recommended to the full Faculty Senate that the rules concerning faculty suspensions be changed to prevent similar situations from arising. Sources close to the woman alleging sexual harassment blame both the University and Woodfield's lawyers for the numerous delays. They claim that a number of hearings on the case have been previously scheduled and postponed. But, Rubenstone said there has been only one postponement which occurred last month. Hearings on the case have been rescheduled for late March. While both sides blame one another for the delays, they agree that there has been an administrative cover up. Rubenstone said he blames the delays on the fact that the University was unprepared to deal with a case of this nature last spring. Lerner said last night that the University has been withholding pertinent documents, such as those that list the witnesses the University intends to call at the hearings where Stevens will act as the complainant. "I have to play by the rules," Woodfield said last week. "But the University can throw the rule book out the fucking window." Sources close to the woman alleging sexual harassment say they believe the University provided the woman with inadequate support and that it was too slow in taking decisive action on the matter. The woman has hired attorney Alice Ballard to represent her interests in the ongoing matter. Dean Stevens' office has also hired an attorney --University Associate Law Professor Alan Berkowitz --to help it prepare its case against Woodfield. And the College Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility has hired a judge to advise it on due process.