Committee faulty U. in 'water buffalo' investigation

Over a year after College sophomore Eden Jacobowitz screamed 'water buffalo' out of his High Rise East window, a University Board of Inquiry has found major procedural problems on the part of the University in the case. The report of the Board, commonly known as the Abel Report -- after the Board's chairperson, Engineering Professor and Associate Dean Jacob Abel -- is published in today's Almanac, months after it was originally scheduled to be released. The five-member Board was formed at the request of Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson in response to allegations of unfair treatment made by the five complainants when they withdrew their racial harassment complaint against Jacobowitz. In its report, the Board found that the five women were justified in asserting the University judicial system had treated them unfairly. The report states that Jacobowitz was also treated unfairly, but emphasizes that he was not injured "as seriously as were the complainants." The report takes to task former Judicial Advisor John Brobeck for allowing the hearing arrangements to be manipulated by Jacobowitz and his faculty advisor, History Professor Alan Kors. The report finds that Brobeck reached an agreement with Kors to restrict the hearing's focus to whether the charges against Jacobowitz should be dismissed, and not on the substance of the charges. The complainants, their advisor and Assistant Judicial Inquiry Officer Robin Read, who was presenting evidence against Jacobowitz, were not informed of this change until the night before the hearing, the report states. Brobeck could not be reached for comment last night. The report also criticizes the involvement of what it terms "external groups" in the proceedings. These groups include the national media, the American Civil Liberties Union, the University administration and the University's General Counsel's Office. It states that the involvement of these groups "subjected all of the participants to intense pressure and exposed all of them to expressions of extreme hostility with predictable emotional consequences." The report concludes with six recommendations to improve the University judicial system. The judicial process should be sped up, the report states. It also recommends that more emphasis be placed on mediation and it suggests that the University Ombudsman's Office be used as facilitator. The JIO's power should be checked by a group established to review serious charges being brought against students, it states. Many of these suggestions may be rendered moot if the new Judicial Charter, also published in today's Almanac, is implemented. Jacobowitz said he did not expect the Abel Report to be "an accurate or good one" from the start. "When they talked to me not all members [of the Board] were present and we did not have sufficient time to go over the case in detail," he said. Kors also said he did not have sufficient time with the Board, which he called "distinguished but un-informed." "The farce continues, and the members of the committee should be ashamed of themselves," Kors writes in a prepared statement. ACLU of Pennsylvania Executive Director Deborah Leavy said last night that the Board never even spoke to anyone from the ACLU before criticizing their role in the case. "This report shows a complete lack of understanding of basic fairness, due process and the law," she said. "They are pitifully ignorant of the ACLU's role." Leavy says that the ACLU was representing Jacobowitz as his counsel in the proceedings and was not an "external or intervening group." Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson said last week that he thought the Abel report was very fair and will be useful to the University community. "I think it says two things that are useful," he said. "It really points out the enormous pressure -- external pressure -- the procedures were under once the process was politicized, and it recommended some important changes in the process." None of the five women who acted as complainants in the case or their advisors could be reached for comment last night.