I remember that one. A bunch of female students, mostly African American, were making a racket outside of one of the dormitories one evening. Several students who were trying to sleep, study, etc. yelled at them and asked them to be quiet but they kept on going. A white, Jewish male student called them a bunch of "water buffalo." This was perceived as a racial insult and he was brought up on charges of violating Penn's racial harassment policy. He argued that calling a group of people who were misbehaving "water buffalo" did not constitute racial harassment, he was just equating their behavior to a bunch of ornery animals.

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The student charged with racial harassment refused to cop to a plea. Then the press got a hold of the story and Penn wound up getting embarrassed. Eventually the charges were dropped.