A SPECIAL REPORT: AGE BIAS

UN VIEJO: CSUN professor Rudy Acuna says he doesn’t mind being called a viejo , or old man, but don’t suggest he’s too old to teach . . . The Chicano activist has a federal age discrimination suit against the University of California, whose Santa Barbara campus refused to hire him in 1991. Acuna, 62, says his evaluators’ bias is obvious in their reports. UC says he’s taking quotes out of context. The trial continues this week.

JUST JOSHING: Sexist and racist terms may be taboo, but teasing about age remains common in the workplace. Phrases like “dead wood” lose their innocence in the age of downsizing, says Encino employment attorney Joseph Posner. . . . “New team” and “new blood” often are buzzwords for replacing older workers with younger ones, adds Posner, who says age-bias cases are tough to prove.

THE FRONT: That’s why mature screenwriters would rather dupe Hollywood than sue it. One trick: finding a younger writer to pitch an older writer’s screenplay, says Zara Taylor, above, diversity czar for the Writers Guild, who routinely visits San Fernando Valley studios. Taylor recalls how studio executives were hot for a comedy show by an under-40 writer . . . but turned cold when they found out the real author was over 50.

FIRST OUT?: Age-bias complaints fluctuate, with peaks tied to mass layoffs. Complaints to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission jumped from 16,102 in 1982 to 23,719 in 1983 due to layoffs in the steel industry, says the American Assn. of Retired Persons. They went from 24,110 in 1990 to 28,832 in 1991 after defense industry reductions.

OLDER, WISER: Founded in Oakland in 1987, the Older Women’s League (OWL) plans a December workshop in Pasadena, though it has never had a strong following in image-conscious L.A. “We find a number of women, even in Sacramento, don’t want to admit they are older women,” said past president Betty Perry.