Graduation

A UCLA physician has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the UC Board of Regents, alleging that he was routinely publicly humiliated and once was depicted as a gorilla being sodomized in a slide show presentation during a resident graduation event. In a 40-page complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, Dr. Christian Head, a head and neck surgeon, accused the university of failing to prevent discrimination, harassment and retaliation. "I am very discouraged," Head said in an interview.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - President Obama pushed back against the idea of U.S. influence being in decline - and against Republican criticism of his stewardship - telling the Air Force Academy's graduating class that around the world "there's a new confidence in our leadership. " Republican critiques hold otherwise, suggesting that Obama has "led from behind" in international efforts, cut the military and responded weakly to the rise of contending powers. But as he set off Wednesday on a two-day western tour, Obama used the commencement address to make a forceful argument for a policy that downplays unilateral American action in favor of partnerships with other countries, one that maintains "military superiority" even as it welcomes "the rise of peaceful, responsible emerging powers.

"I like collecting business cards, and I write a lot of letters to my friends. "I was in band for seven years; I play the trumpet and I'm very damn good too. "My favorite subjects are science and computers. "My favorite celebrity is Tom Hanks because everybody else, when they get famous, they change, but Tom Hanks is still the same. It's like that song by Billy Joel which goes, 'Don't go changing to try to please me.' "Before, I used to say that nothing scares me, but now death scares me. The unknown scares me."

It's one thing to land a celebrity as a commencement speaker upon graduation. When you're Justin Bieber, however, celebs stage the entire ceremony. This was the case on Wednesday as Ellen DeGeneres welcomed the pop star to perform his hit "Boyfriend," and threw in a last-minute surprise: a cap-and-gown rite of passage to celebrate Bieber's completion of his GED requirements. "I know you graduated two weeks ago and you really didn't have a traditional graduation ceremony.

For years Chase Abrams has lived a double life: By day a popular student at Sierra Canyon School who played football and enjoyed hanging out with friends, by night an intent student of film studies at Cal State Los Angeles who organized college film festivals and held his own intellectually and socially. Today, the energetic 18-year-old can finally take a breath.

Nearly half of the Latino and African American students who should have graduated from California high schools in 2002 failed to complete their education, according to a Harvard University report released Wednesday. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the situation was even worse, with just 39% of Latinos and 47% of African Americans graduating, compared with 67% of whites and 77% of Asians.

Saturday's baccalaureate at Duarte High School will be moved off campus so that for the first time in four years, graduating students can pray at the ceremony. School district officials announced the move Tuesday, a day after more than 150 students at the San Gabriel Valley high school walked out of classes, carrying signs that said, "No Prayer, No Class." The students returned to class after Duarte Unified School District Supt.

It was a dream that the years could not fade. Jean Forman had wanted to be a doctor for as long as she could remember, even though she grew up during a time when, as she put it, women were told to "leave the doctoring to men." On Sunday, the 51-year-old Long Beach woman completed a decade-long journey to become a physician. As her husband, children and grandchildren watched, Forman received her diploma from the USC School of Medicine.

The ceremonial gowns for Animo Venice Charter High School's graduation will be navy blue, but the philosophy behind them is all green. The campus is among a number of high schools and colleges around California and the nation that are adopting environmentally friendly graduation garb made from either renewable wood fibers or recycled plastic bottles. The eco-robes being worn at Animo Venice, for example, are designed to decompose quickly if graduates decide to discard them. "If it ends up in the trash, at least we know we won't hurt the environment," said Animo Venice salutatorian Monica Bautista, 18. That's why her class decided to pay $10 more for the wood-fiber "Elements" gowns from Minnesota-based Jostens Inc. instead of going with the firm's more traditional polyester graduation robes.

Hollywood actor alumnus out. Rock musician alumnus in. UCLA announced Monday that Brad Delson, lead guitarist for the popular rock-rap band Linkin Park, will step in to replace movie star James Franco as commencement speaker at Friday's graduation ceremony for the College of Letters and Science.

College graduation is typically a time to tally accomplishments and to look ahead. But for many graduates, it is also a time to tally student loans and figure out how to repay them. About two-thirds of college graduates have some student loans to pay off, and their average debt is about $25,000 to $28,700, according to estimates by education experts and organizations. (About 10% of those with loans owe more than $50,000 or so.) Many college seniors say they had not thought much about their debt until they received summaries just before graduation.

Students at Locke High School are faring better than their peers in nearby traditional schools, but achievement overall remains low at the charter-managed campus near Watts, according to a new study. Still, the Locke students were more likely to graduate and to have taken courses needed to apply to a four-year state college, according to the UCLA-based National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. The ongoing research has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Brenda Small didn't think twice about taking out student loans to pay for nursing school in the late 1980s. She figured she could easily pay off the $20,000 bill - until an injury a few years later left her permanently unable to work. Her dreams of working in her chosen profession vanished, but not her student debts. Including interest and penalties, the 59-year-old Los Angeles woman now owes more than $39,000 and can't afford to pay the debt from a disability income of $1,234 a month.

The number of eligible California high school graduates entering the state's public four-year universities has plunged in the last five years, as budget-strapped institutions increasingly adopt practices to reduce enrollment, a new study has found. At University of California and California State University campuses, enrollment rates dropped by one-fifth, to fewer than 18% of all state high school graduates in 2010, from about 22% in 2007. The report, released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California, found that these declines have occurred even as demand has risen: The number of high school graduates in California reached an all-time high of 405,000 in 2010; the number of seniors who completed college admission requirements increased dramatically, as did the number of students taking and passing Advanced Placement exams.

Students traditionally have a soft spot for their alma maters. But as growing numbers of students run up debt in the high five and even six figures to pay for college, that may change. Especially when they discover their old school is actively blocking them from getting a job or going on to a higher degree. That's what increasing numbers of students are finding when they try to obtain an official transcript to send to potential employers or graduate admissions offices. It turns out many colleges and universities refuse to issue these critical documents if students are in default on student loans, or in many cases, even if they just fall one or two months behind.

After USC graduate students Ming Qu and Ying Wu were shot and killed earlier this month, the Chinese student community in America was saddened, shocked and frightened. The reaction back home was very different. The killings, which happened while Qu and Wu were sitting and talking in a BMW, unleashed a torrent of Internet vitriol in China, and it wasn't directed at the pair's attacker. A comment on the popular site 163.com was typical: "Studying in America, driving BMW, a male and a female, let them die. " Never mind that the BMW was a secondhand model and not the $60,000 luxury model the Associated Press erroneously reported initially.

Dear Liz: I graduated from college last summer and was lucky enough to get full-time employment. However, I have a great deal of college debt, including private and federal loans. Are there government programs that help pay back college loan debt? Do you have any suggestions? I cringe at the thought of paying double what I owe over the life of the loan because of interest and want to get this debt under control in the next few years instead of 15. Answer: Your eagerness to pay off your student loan debt is admirable and is particularly appropriate when it comes to your private student loans.

Latino leaders and activists demand that we become more inclusive. Yet, once again, a special Latino graduation [celebration] was held at Cal State Northridge ("Higher Degrees of Difficulty," May 25). Once again, Latinos have separated themselves out. . . . Will it ever be as important to them to be Americans as it is to be Latinos? CAROL KEELER Sylmar

Taking sides Re "Vatican says nuns' group must reform," April 20 Thousands of women who have given up marriage and money to work tirelessly to help the poor, the sick and the needy - just as Jesus asked them to - are being blasted for doing so. Just because they show Scriptural leadership and love rather than meekly pushing someone else's political agenda, they are being vilified by male Roman Catholic Church leaders. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see remarkable, devout female leaders - Deborah, Miriam, Esther, Mary, Martha, Lydia and many more come to mind.

The third-graders struggled to keep pace. And their teachers at Parkridge Elementary School in Corona wanted to know why. The teachers met after school recently and delved into sheets of data and reading comprehension test questions. They quickly found the reason: Their students could predict events in a story but only a third of them could infer how an incident would affect the story's outcome. The five teachers developed plans to aggressively target the lackluster skill.