A national mocking by Rush Limbaugh

A national mocking by Rush Limbaugh The controversy started small and snowballed this week: a complaint from Sparks, a Facebook photo, a happy blog post in the OC Weekly, a story in The Times, an hourlong program forum with listeners on KPCC, and a national mocking by Rush Limbaugh.

UC Irvine spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said she has fielded more calls and e-mail on this subject than on any other she can recall. She hesitated when I asked what their focus was.

"The tenor has been: Are we putting ourselves in a place where we can't do anything that relates to a culture that we are not familiar with without including people of that culture?" she said, choosing her words carefully, as if she were tap dancing through a mine field.