Instead, according to both Harvey A. Silverglate, educational law expert and Boston lawyer, and American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Bill Newman, such a ruling would only affirm existing state law, which says that the relationship between a student and a university is contractual in nature.

An organization founded by Silverglate--the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)--along with the ACLU have also filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Schaer's case.

Newman, who helped author that document, said if Brandeis wins, the decision "will have an onerous and chilling effect on college students rights."

According to Silverglate, this case has attracted attention because it is one of the few cases in which a student plaintiff has successfully challenged a university's disciplinary finding--even if only in one round of the appeals process. The courts originally ruled in favor of Brandeis, but Schaer successfully appealed.

"The student has almost always lost" in legal challenges, Silverglate said. "The lower courts have not taken seriously the application of these old principles of minimal fairness to private colleges. What shocked Brandeis...on appeal was that the intermediate appellate court said we had to take students' rights more seriously."

Silverglate said Harvard's decision not to join the other schools supporting Brandeis does not necessarily suggest the University disagrees with its peers.

Rather, he said, Harvard's absence from the group may stem from its connection to Massachusetts Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall, who formerly served as the University's chief general counsel.