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Bewildered, and at times angry, faculty members at Harvard criticized the university Sunday after revelations that administrators secretly searched the e-mail accounts of 16 resident deans in an effort to learn who leaked information about a student cheating scandal to the news media. Some predicted a confrontation between the faculty and the administration.

“I was shocked and dismayed,” said law Prof. Charles J. Ogletree. “I hope that it means the faculty will now have something to say about the fact that these things like this can happen.”

News of the e-mail searches prolonged the fallout from the cheating scandal, in which about 70 students were forced to take a leave from school for collaborating or plagiarizing on a take-home final exam in a government class last year.

Prof. Harry R. Lewis said: “People are just bewildered at this point, because it was so out of keeping with the way we’ve done things at Harvard.”

new york times