Psychology graduate student Andrew Geier was preparing to leave an Office of Student Conduct meeting last week when OSC Director Michele Goldfarb stopped him.
Goldfarb, who had just dropped all charges against Geier's advisee in the Hamilton sex-photo case, told him that he looked familiar and wondered where she had seen him before.
"You were the one who talked me into being an adviser for your office," he replied.
Ironically, Geier has since become a sharp thorn in the OSC's side, attacking the office's handling of students' cases.
The OSC has declined to comment on the issue.
Because Geier's advisee -- an Engineering junior who took photos of a couple apparently having sex against a Hamilton College House window and posted them on a University server -- remained anonymous, Geier was at the center of a media storm that blew through campus and may have influenced the University's decision to drop the charges.
Geier says that when the photographer contacted him, the Engineering junior was on the verge of signing an OSC proposal that would have put him on disciplinary probation until graduation and labeled him a sexual harasser.
College senior Amelia Aldao, who conducts research with Geier, said she is not surprised that his work on the case quickly yielded results.
Geier is "really dedicated to everything he does," she said. "Just knowing that he's involved in a project gives me the feeling that it's going to be successful."
Alan Charles Kors, the Penn History professor who joined Geier in defending the photographer, is similarly impressed.
Kors called Geier a hero and said that he was integral in pushing the OSC to drop charges against the photographer.
Geier has been volunteering to work with students involved in Office of Student Conduct cases for the last three years.
As an undergraduate at Yale, Geier said that he was struck by the fairness of the disciplinary office there. Geier felt this way even though one of his close friends was the subject of an investigation.
This experience motivated him to become an adviser at Penn.
"I thought, 'Here's an opportunity to be of service to the greater Penn community,'" he said.
He added that as a clinical psychologist in training, he had a simple desire to help students in trouble and that this led him to volunteer with the student-conduct office.
His stance soon changed, though, as he became disgusted by the OSC's practices.
"I was shocked after my first case," he said. "I became more impassioned about volunteering at that office because I saw a consistent and great need to advocate for students," he said.
Though others who have worked closely with the OSC disagree with Geier's stance -- and say that the office requires no reform -- Geier is firm in his belief that the office needs "restructuring and restaffing."
Geier has worked on seven cases so far and said he has observed a pattern in which the office intimidates students into signing unfair agreements.
He gave the example of a student who called him in tears to seek advice.
"She [had] admitted to doing something she just didn't do," Geier said.
As he moves past the controversy of the last week, Geier said that he would like to continue volunteering at the OSC. Despite his friction with the office, he said that no one has suggested removing him as an adviser.
Fortunately for Geier, the photography controversy has not detracted from his doctoral work focusing on eating disorders.
Jed Siev, Geier's classmate in the psychology program, said that he hasn't noticed any dropoff in his work.
"I joke that he has 36 hours in his day," Siev said. "He's had articles published in some of the top journals already. His collaborators are top researchers in the field."
Yesterday, Washington Post columnist Sally Squires featured a study that Geier co-authored.
Psychology professor Paul Rozin, with whom Geier wrote the study, said the graduate student has shown an interest in First Amendment issues before.
"He is sort of a libertarian," Rozin said. "He is very oriented to issues of free enterprise and free speech."
