Arrest adds to the tarnish on Penn's name

With the charges against University of Pennsylvania professor Rafael Robb, the bad news keeps on coming for Penn.

Robb was charged with beating his wife to death, and no matter how the case is resolved, it will forever remain yet another embarrassing stain in the annals of the distinguished Ivy League school.

Robb, who is accused of bludgeoning his wife after returning from work on Dec. 22, joins a host of colleagues who have brought ignominy to an institution that holds itself to high standards of intellect and moral conduct.

The two qualities, however, do not always collaborate.

Need evidence?

Paul Mosher, former vice provost and director of libraries, admitted in 1993 to having downloaded 5,000 pornographic images of children onto his computers.

Malcolm Woodfield, an English professor, ended up resigning in 1994 after being charged with harassment for having sex with a female student.

Donald Patrick Ford, a psychiatric resident at the medical school, was sentenced in 2001 to five to 10 years in prison for killing his girlfriend's baby by spiking the child's infant formula with cocaine.

Tracy McIntosh, a preeminent brain-trauma researcher, was found guilty last year of sexually assaulting a graduate student who was the niece of his college roommate.

And former Wharton professor L. Scott Ward now faces 15 years for importing child pornography.

Besides professorial misconduct, the school also has endured reports of student misbehavior. In 2002, five undergraduates were charged with assaulting a Princeton University student who was visiting for a debate tournament.

A spokesman for Penn declined to comment on the earlier incidents or the Robb case, except to note Robb was not teaching this semester.

So does Penn attract bad eggs, or just suffer the image problem when a rotten one splats on its public face?

"If there would be a reason why Penn is unique, I can't imagine what it is unless there are astrological signs," said Howard Robboy, an associate professor of sociology at the College of New Jersey and member of the national advocacy group Security on Campus.

Rather than indicate a problematic trend, Robboy said, the spate of negative publicity may actually speak well of the school.

Many universities, he said, are far too effective in covering up crimes that occur on campus or that involve members of the academic community.

"So much of what goes on at universities never gets disclosed," Robboy said. "The fact that these incidents come out at Penn may indicate that people believe that if they come forward, something will get done. What looks bad is really something positive."

If negative news is a healthy sign, then it's a noteworthy trend at other prestigious schools.

In 2004, Vilas Likhite, a former physician and Harvard professor, was convicted of attempted grand theft after he was caught trying to sell a fake Mary Cassatt painting to undercover officers.

At Yale, geology professor Antonio Lasaga was fired in 2002, two years after he was found to have downloaded 200,000 child-pornography images.

"Human beings are human beings," said Neil Jokelson, a Philadelphia lawyer. "It would be silly to conclude that [Penn's] personnel, both academic and nonacademic staff, would be immune to social pathology."

In 1993, Jokelson successfully defended Temple University professor Charles Bagley, who was accused of electrocuting his wife in a hot tub. That experience taught him the public yearns for comeuppance when someone smart and privileged enough to serve on a university faculty gets into trouble.

Regarding Rafael Robb, he said, "Without prejudging, if he's a Penn professor, he's probably middle class. So he's alleged to do what middle-class people do all the time."

That is, commit murder.

"The anomaly of someone in such an exalted position doing what he's accused of doing perhaps accounts for the public fascination," Jokelson said. "If it was an ordinary guy, it would be just another wife-killing."