Acuna Wins $326,000 but Is Refused UC Post

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.”

“The record is replete with evidence of hostility which Plaintiff harbors toward the University of California system, UCSB, its administration and faculty,” U.S. District Court Judge Audrey B. Collins wrote in an order issued Thursday.

Acuna, a fiery political activist and longtime instructor at Cal State Northridge, said Friday he will appeal the ruling, which he condemned as another example of “the lack of respect that the UC, its counsel and Judge Collins have shown for the Chicano/Latino community throughout this process.”

The well-known historian was 59 when he applied for a high-ranking faculty position at UC Santa Barbara, which has the UC system’s only full-fledged Department of Chicano Studies. He sued the university system the following year, in 1991, alleging he was denied the job because of discrimination against his race, politics and age.

Collins dismissed race and politics as issues--citing the campus’ Chicano Studies Department and its Latino faculty--but left intact the issue of age. In October, after a three-week trial, an eight-member jury sided with Acuna, agreeing that age had been a key factor in his rejection for the job.

Although he was awarded $326,000 in back and future pay--an amount Acuna and the UC system agreed upon before the trial--Acuna asked that Collins also give him the job, which the educator argued was the best remedy for the UC system’s wrong.

But Collins disagreed, finding that Acuna had “publicly maligned the faculty and administrators at UCSB,” repeatedly branded it a “racist institution” and had called the university’s defense against his lawsuit an “academic race war.”

“Where the hostility or animosity between the parties is sufficient to deny instatement [to a job],” Collins wrote, “the court may award plaintiff” money instead.

Her decision is a victory for the UC system, which submitted sworn statements from several UC Santa Barbara professors and administrators who claimed that Acuna and his supporters had harassed and threatened them during the course of the bitter lawsuit.

One of those administrators, Associate Vice Chancellor Julius Zelmanowitz, said Friday he was “very pleased” and relieved by the decision, and felt it “was consistent” with the university’s decision not to hire Acuna in the first place.

Zelmanowitz, who is Jewish, said in court records that Acuna had criticized him for driving a German-made Mercedes-Benz, at one point calling it a “Nazi staff car.” Zelmanowitz also said in court records he had felt “physically threatened” after finding tacks pushed into one of his car’s tires during a pro-Acuna rally on the UC Santa Barbara campus.

“Given Professor Acuna’s virulent hostility toward me and my resulting distrust and lack of respect for him, I could not possibly work with him if he were appointed,” Zelmanowitz had said in his statement.

Another UC Santa Barbara administrator, Executive Vice Chancellor Donald Crawford, said in his own declaration:

“There is no doubt that Professor Acuna’s appointment would have a serious negative effect on the administration of the University . . . “

At least two Latino professors within the campus’ Chicano Studies Department submitted similar statements to the court, stating they were called sellouts after opposing Acuna’s appointment.

But Acuna denied their claims Friday, telling about two dozen supporters at a Santa Barbara news conference that “I’m a professional.”

In an interview later, Acuna said what he most resented was the university’s “attempts to portray me as marginalized within the Chicano community and the academic community,” and he cited several recent or imminent awards he has received, including the Humanitarian Award from the California Faculty Assn.

Acuna also criticized Collins for refusing to hold an open hearing on the issue and accused her of favoring UC. Collins accepted written arguments from both sides before reaching her decision--over time--in chambers.

“I think that they bought her,” Acuna said of Collins. “I think she’s been with them all along. I don’t think she liked having an audience and she knew that we would have shown up with 100 or more people in a hearing.”

He also pledged to use his $326,000 award to set up a legal foundation to fight academic discrimination, not only in the UC but at “my own system, CSU,” the California State University.

“It’s an awful lot of money when you only take home $3,200 a month,” said Acuna, who remains at Cal State Northridge. “But we’re not taking the money.”

Times special correspondent David Jimenez contributed to this story from Santa Barbara.