'The opening of the University of California, Irvine's new law school in 2009 could be delayed now that the school has to begin a new search for a founding dean, said officials. ... [Chancellor] Drake has been accused of quashing academic freedom, criticism that intensified on Thursday when some faculty members called for his resignation... Despite his public denials of caving to pressure, [one professor] said that Drake told [a faculty] committee during an emergency meeting Wednesday night that he was forced to make the decision by outside forces whom he did not name.

"I asked whether it was one or two voices or an avalanche, and the answer is that it was an avalanche," [the professor] said. "But we are not supposed to capitulate to that in the world of academic freedom."'