CSUF settles suit alleging race bias, Orange County Register
California State University, Fullerton, will pay $200,00 to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by six current and former Hispanic employees, a university spokeswoman said Thursday. The suit, filed in 2002, alleged that the university discriminated against employees by demoting, harassing, denying promotions to or firing the employees based on their ethnicity. Vina Barcelo, Rebecca Chavez, Mary Herrera, Maria Valdivia-Pellkofer, Sam Rodriguez and Michael Suarez said they were discriminated against. Spokeswoman Paula Selleck said the suit was settled to avoid a costly legal battle, and the university's position is that no discrimination occurred.

SDSU's Bay resigns under pressure, San Diego Union Tribune
San Diego State's athletic director, Rick Bay, resigned under pressure yesterday, two weeks after a California State University auditor's report detailed a pattern of mismanagement within the equipment room and lax oversight of the department.

Dazed coaches, department staffers praise Bay, look to their own futures, San Diego Union Tribune
Coaches and athletic department staff members shuffled from an auditorium on the ground floor of the San Diego State athletic building yesterday, most of them clearly dazed at the end of a day that left them leaderless.

Bay's watch over as Aztecs' AD quits, North County Times
San Diego State athletic director Rick Bay resigned under pressure Thursday, an action stemming from the recent California State University Chancellor's Office audit that outlined irregularities in the university's athletic department.

Loss of Bay will hurt SDSU sports, North County Times
Rick Bay learned a valuable lesson Thursday: Management has the right to be wrong. It cost him his job as athletic director at San Diego State University.

National search planned for new AD North County, North County Times
San Diego State University president Stephen Weber plans to conduct a national search to find an athletic director to replace Rick Bay.

Dean joins Fresno State in August, Fresno Bee
Paul L. Beare, dean of the College of Education at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Ga., will become dean of Fresno State's Kremen School of Education and Human Development on Aug. 1.

UCR taps interim vice chancellor, The Press-Enterprise
UC Riverside has named longtime professor William Jury as interim executive vice chancellor and provost effective July 1.

UCI's Ayala honored again, Orange County Register
Francisco Ayala, an award-winning evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Irvine, has been named University Professor, a title that's among the highest honors the UC system confers on its faculty. The title is periodically given to internationally renowned scholars who are exceptional teachers. Ayala is one of 35 scholars to have received the title since 1960. The honor comes two years after President George W. Bush awarded Ayala the National Medal of Science, largely for his decades of research in population and evolutionary genetics. Ayala says he'll use his new title as a basis to deliver lectures at all of the UC campuses.

States Cut Test Standards to Avoid Sanctions, New York Times
Fearing that thousands of students would fail the new test and be held back a grade, and that hundreds of schools could face penalties under the federal No Child Left Behind law, the board voted to reduce the number of questions that students must answer correctly to pass it.

College Students Could Play Key Role in 2004 Elections, Survey Finds, Chronicle of Higher Education
College students are becoming more engaged in the political process and could be a major force in the 2004 elections, according to a new national survey of undergraduates.

U.S. treasurer quits -- Latina expected to challenge Boxer, San Francisco Chronicle
Rosario Marin, the highest-ranking Latino woman in the Bush administration, resigned Thursday as U.S. treasurer -- clearing the way for an expected Senate campaign against Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer. [Marin is a Cal State LA alumn].

State avoids cost of notices for meetings, San Jose Mercury News
In a case originally triggered by Santa Clara County and two California school districts, the Supreme Court rejected bids by local governments to get reimbursed by the state for the cost of meeting notices they must send out for certain programs -- programs the state requires them to provide.

Cox Use of Per Diem Questioned, Los Angeles Times
The Republican leader in the Assembly, who blames California's budget crisis on waste and overspending, accepts an average of $26,000 a year in travel, housing and meal allowances even though he lives 20 miles from the Capitol.

California Senate Panel Able to Restore Health-Care Spending, Los Angeles Times
A California Senate subcommittee restored hundreds of millions of dollars in health-care spending Thursday as lawmakers quickly capitalized on a federal tax cut bill that promises as much as $2.4 billion to California.

Can legislators probe college computer mess with authority? Dan Walters' column, Sacramento Bee
As California grapples with an immense budget deficit, it's wholly appropriate -- even praiseworthy -- that the Legislature should turn a critical eye on wasteful spending by state agencies. However, the assembywoman who is leading the charge would be justified if the CSU fiscal management problems were an isolated case. But five factors undercut any moral authority lawmakers might summon to critique what the university system has been doing.

Waste goes way beyond universities, Dan Walters' column, Sacramento Bee
That's what Assembly Member Rebecca Cohn, who heads the Legislature's audit committee, said she was doing this week when she summoned California State University systems officials to explain why their $662 million centralized computer system doesn't work.

Esteban graduates to new life phase, Chico Enterprise-Record
Esteban's 10 years of revolutionary leadership comes to an end this weekend. Though he's still officially on the job for a few more weeks, the graduation ceremonies Saturday and Sunday morning will be his last visible public act as he sits on the stage at University Stadium and presents the candidates for graduation.

Country's future is in able hands of Generation Fix, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
More than 135,000 high school students in 250 high schools were asked recently to name the issues that matter to them most in this post-9/11 world. The No. 1 answer: school lunch policies.

L.A. Board Votes to Finish Troubled Belmont Project, Los Angeles Times
Six years and $175 million since construction began on the Belmont Learning Center, the Los Angeles Board of Education narrowly voted Thursday to put another $111 million into completing the troubled high school, which sits above an old oil field and a recently discovered earthquake fault.

Increased pensions expected to wallop state, local budgets, San Jose Mercury News
Nearly four years ago, Gov. Gray Davis signed a little-noticed piece of legislation that allowed state agencies, cities and counties to boost the retirement benefits of their employees, particularly peace officers and firefighters.

State Faces Hefty Bridge Loan Cost, Los Angeles Times
Taxpayers should expect to pay up to $271.6 million in interest and fees — enough to build 35 elementary schools or pay 5,000 teachers for a year — if officials succeed this week in getting the largest "bridge loan" in state history.

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