College Students

A UCLA professor who taught the student accused of slashing a female classmate's throat last week said Saturday that he told a university administrator 10 months ago that he had concerns about the student's mental health, but strict federal privacy laws prevent UCLA officials from disclosing how they handled the issue. Stephen Frank, an associate professor in the university's history department, met the suspect, undergraduate student Damon Thompson, when he enrolled in the instructor's Western civilization class late last year, Frank said in an interview.

The death of a USC student and the critical injury of another in a violent hit-and-run accident left the urban campus reeling Monday as authorities and relatives called on the public for help in locating the driver and the badly damaged car. "We need to find the vehicle," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. "We need to find it quickly." The accident, which occurred at the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street at 3 a.m.

Saying they could not avoid a painful decision, University of California regents voted Wednesday to trim freshman enrollment for next fall by 2,300 students, or about 6%, as a response to reduced state funding during the worsening budget crisis. "None of us likes this," regents Chairman Richard Blum said of the student cut. But he placed responsibility for the action on state legislators, particularly Republicans opposed to tax increases.

A UCLA student allegedly stabbed a classmate five times and slashed her throat in a crime that prosecutors said Tuesday was premeditated and unprovoked. Damon Thompson, 20, was charged with one count of attempted murder in Thursday's attack in a chemistry lab in Young Hall. If convicted, he could face life in state prison with the possibility of parole. Thompson pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $3-million bail by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Keith L. Schwartz after prosecutors argued that the Belize native was a flight risk.

Four college students were killed Saturday when their car collided with an oncoming vehicle on a two-lane Napa Valley highway, the California Highway Patrol said. The victims, who were pronounced dead at the scene, were identified as Boaz Pak, 20, Luke Nishikawa, 22, Simon Son, 19, and Chong Shin, 20. All attended Pacific Union College, a four-year liberal arts school in Angwin, a small town in the hills above Napa Valley. The four were in a Honda Civic that was struck by a Toyota pickup truck.

Four young men in San Luis Obispo surrendered Thursday to face charges alleging that a fraternity hazing ritual caused the alcohol death of a university freshman from Texas, police said. Carson Starkey, 18, of Austin was found dead in December with a blood-alcohol level between 0.39% and 0.44%. Police said he had to drink a bag full of alcoholic beverages as part of the fraternity pledging process.

Detectives investigating the case of a UCLA student who allegedly slashed the throat of a classmate have still not discovered what prompted the violence and are looking into reports that he showed erratic behavior in the past that had worried other students, authorities said Friday. Investigators said they will continue to examine the background and mental health of the suspect, Damon Thompson, 20, a senior who came from Belize to attend UCLA. But nothing so far points to a direct motive for what appeared to be an unprovoked knife attack in an organic chemistry lab class on Thursday afternoon.

University of California President Mark G. Yudof on Thursday proposed boosting the university's financial aid program to cover all academic fees for students from families with incomes of less than $60,000 a year. Most low-income UC students already receive such aid, and officials said the plan would make only about 1,100 additional students eligible to have all fees covered.

A Caltech graduate student convicted five years ago of conspiracy and arson for vandalizing 125 SUVs has had his arson convictions overturned and his sentence vacated by a federal appeals court. William Cottrell, 29, should have been allowed to present evidence during his 2004 trial that his suffering from Asperger's syndrome prevented him from forming the specific intent to commit the arson attacks, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in an amended opinion this week. Cottrell's conspiracy conviction was upheld, but the 100-month prison sentence imposed on him for all of the offenses was vacated.

Combine a land shark with a paddle-wheel boat, spice it with servo motors and radio transceivers, mix with water and what have you got? At Caltech, you have the year's biggest sporting event. At Tuesday's competition, engineering students at the Pasadena campus operated hand-built robots and maneuvered them through an obstacle course that included concrete walkways, a shallow pond and a finish line atop an arching bridge.