University Of California At Santa Barbara

Controversy has erupted at UC Santa Barbara over a professor's decision to send his students an e-mail in which he compared graphic images of Jews in the Holocaust to pictures of Palestinians caught up in Israel's recent Gaza offensive. The e-mail by tenured sociology professor William I. Robinson has triggered a campus investigation and drawn accusations of anti-Semitism from two national Jewish groups, even as many students and faculty members have voiced support for him.

For one long frustrating year, Ryan Kritscher was an ignition switch in search of an engine. His resume was impeccable: Division I batting average of .315 for three years, American Legion national batting champion, All-Southern Section player at Thousand Oaks High. Yet Kritscher was idling at home in Thousand Oaks last year wondering if any school in Southern California could use him.

Six books more than 100 years old that were stolen from UC Santa Barbara were recovered Wednesday when a man was arrested after he allegedly tried to sell them in West Hollywood. Sgt. Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Ruben Fernandini, 43, went into a bookstore Tuesday and tried to sell them to the owner. The location of the bookstore was not released, at the owner's request.

Chicano Studies professor Rodolfo Acuna, who successfully sued the University of California for age bias, may collect more than $300,000 in damages but is not entitled to teach at its Santa Barbara campus, a federal judge has ruled. In denying Acuna's request for a tenured post at UC Santa Barbara, the judge found that the animosity between him and his potential colleagues was so great after 3 1/2 years of litigation that it would make his appointment "both impractical and inappropriate."

Chicano Studies professor Rodolfo Acuna, who successfully sued the University of California for age bias, may collect more than $300,000 in damages but is not entitled to teach at its Santa Barbara campus, U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins has ruled.

Cal State Northridge professor Rodolfo Acuna's recent legal victory in an age discrimination suit against the University of California not only vindicated a prominent figure in Chicano studies but also underscored a provocative debate about the evolving field and its future course.

The recent legal victory by Cal State Northridge professor Rodolfo Acuna in his age discrimination lawsuit against the University of California not only vindicated a prominent figure in Chicano studies but underscored a provocative debate about the evolving field and its future course.

Ultimately, Rodolfo Acuna said, his victory was not just about age or academics or politics. It was about human rights. "Society has to change or it will blow up," the Chicano studies professor said to a crowd of admirers, lawyers, researchers and reporters Tuesday after winning a federal age-discrimination lawsuit against the University of California at Santa Barbara. "But if we work together, we can move mountains together."

The former chancellor of UC Santa Barbara told a federal court jury Thursday that age played no role in her decision four years ago not to hire Cal State Northridge Prof. Rodolfo Acuna, a widely known Chicano activist and scholar. In fact, Barbara S. Uehling said in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, "If you had asked me the day after the decision how old he was I couldn't have told you."

Doing what he has done for most of his life, Cal State Northridge professor Rodolfo Acuna lectured a federal court jury this week, standing before blown-up copies of documents and highlighting key phrases he said proved that the University of California refused to hire him because of age bias.