Zochlinski v. Regents
In these consolidated appeals, petitioner Howard Zochlinski challenges the trial court’s denial of his petitions for writ of mandate, continuing his efforts to obtain a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), after being disqualified from the genetics graduate department in 1993. In one appeal (No. C065103) he contends the dean of the graduate program lacked authority to reject a decision by the representative assembly of the academic senate to reinstate Zochlinski to the graduate program, and the trial court erred in upholding the dean’s decision. In the other appeal (No. C064600) he contends UC Davis abused its discretion in failing to retroactively award him a Ph.D. under what Zochlinski calls the “Three Paper Rule,†and the trial court erred in its interpretation of the applicable bylaws, rules and regulations. In both appeals, Zochlinski maintains the trial court applied the wrong standard of review.[1]
In part I we conclude the trial court applied the appropriate standard of review in both cases. In part II we conclude the trial court correctly determined that the dean of the graduate program did not abuse his discretion in declining to reinstate Zochlinski. And in part III we conclude the trial court correctly determined that UC Davis did not abuse its discretion in declining to award Zochlinski a Ph.D.
We will affirm the judgments.
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