Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley said the Athletic Department will wait for the conclusion of Anwar Phillips' legal trial before determining his status on the football team.

Meanwhile, university officials maintain -- despite controversy -- that the punishment Phillips received is "standard" for sexual assault-related cases.

"We will let the legal system proceed and react accordingly once it is resolved," Curley said in a statement released Friday. "A decision about Mr. Phillips' status on the team will be made after a final determination is made in the legal system."

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said the Judicial Affairs process differs from the criminal process because the student is not brought before Judicial Affairs on official criminal charges.

Responding to questions about Phillips' participation in three football games following a Nov. 12 incident in which Phillips allegedly sexually assaulted a female acquaintance, Curley said officials first became aware of Phillips' disciplinary action in mid-December, at which time no criminal charges had been filed.

"The criminal charge was filed on March 19 and did not come to our attention until shortly thereafter," Curley said in the statement.

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno refused to talk about Phillips' status on the team in his spring football press conference on March 26, and has since issued no comment.

Curley was unavailable for comment at his office yesterday.

A statement released by the university on March 25 said Phillips, a redshirt freshman from Germantown, Md., accepted responsibility for charges of sexual assault before the Office of Judicial Affairs on Dec. 12 and was punished with a two-semester temporary expulsion spanning the 2003 spring and summer semesters.

"We don't try students for theft," Mahon said. "We try them for violating the Student Code of Conduct."

Curley's statement on Friday said the two-semester expulsion is "the standard sanction for similar cases."

While stressing that each set of circumstances for a sexual assault case is different, Mahon said the temporary expulsion is the standard punishment for similar cases.

"The long answer is that no two sexual assault cases are the same," Mahon said. "But in a case with similar circumstances ... yes, this would be appropriate."

Phillips is accused of sexually assaulting a female acquaintance in her Nittany apartment in the early morning hours of Nov. 12. The criminal complaint said the woman met Phillips outside her on-campus apartment and escorted him to her room, where he proceeded to engage in sexual intercourse with her despite her saying, "No, I don't want to do this."

Penn State Sports Information Director Jeff Nelson told The Daily Collegian in a March 27 interview that some members of the athletic staff did know of the sentence shortly after it was handed down, but he wasn't sure if they knew from what charges it stemmed.

Nelson could not be reached in his office for comment yesterday.

Phillips played in Penn State's final two regular-season games after the alleged incident and again in the Nittany Lions' Jan. 1 Capital One Bowl appearance against Auburn. He returned one interception 52 yards against Indiana on Nov. 15 and recorded one assisted tackle in the Lions' Nov. 22 game against Michigan State.

Phillips, whose trial on charges of sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault is scheduled to begin after jury selection on June 9, waived his right to a preliminary hearing on March 26.

Phillips sat in a car outside the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte while his lawyer, Tony DeBoef, entered a plea of not guilty and waived the preliminary hearing. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for May 22.