a n at i o n a l pa c e m a k e r awa r d n e w s pa p e r
Volume 57, Issue 3
theswcsun.com
October 19 - November 24, 2013
Chopra pleads guilty Former superintendent fined, given community service, avoids prison
By Nickolas Furr and Lina Chankar Staff Writers
F
ormer Southwestern College Superintendent Raj K. Chopra pleaded guilty to a single misdem e a n o r i n So u t h Ba y Su p e r i o r Court and will avoid prison in the
on-going South Bay Corruption case. Chopra’s attorney Michael Attanasio pleaded guilty on Chopra’s behalf to one misdemeanor in return for the court dropping the four remaining charges he faced. Attanasio said Chopra will be fined and required to perform community service. Chopra had originally faced 13 charges — nine of them felonies — including perjury, receiving a bribe and conflict of interest. Judge Ana España met privately with Attanasio and representatives of the
San Diego County District Attorney and accepted the plea. España set April 7, 2014 as the date for Chopra’s formal sentencing. Chopra did not appear in court even though España had ordered him to earlier this month. Attanasio said Chopra would not have to make any more court appearances. Attanasio said Chopra was “looking forward to doing community service.” “Dr. Chopra is gratified to put this entire matter behind him,” please see Chopra pg. A4
Secrecy surrounds return of police chief Marshall Murphy/staff
EXITING THE STAGE — Raj Kumar Chopra will not do prison time thanks to a guilty plea to a single misdemeanor in the South Bay Corruption Case. Chopra was fined and given community service.
Unwanted in Two Lands: Deportees to refugees
Marshall Murphy/Staff
Thousands of recently deported Mexicans and Latin Americans — many of which grew up in the United States — now live in squalid refugee camps in and around the drainage canals of Tijuana. Poverty, hunger, crime and dispair grip a swelling colony of people rejected by two nations. Special Section Pages C1-C4
By Lina Chankar Staff Writer
C
ampus Police Chief Michael Cash was reinstated to his position by the college following a pair of investigations of an Aug. 23 incident where a handgun he was holding in police headquarters fired at head level and narrowly missed three employees in an adjacent room. A preliminary investigation conducted by SWCPD Sgt. Robert Sanchez concluded that Cash was negligent and that the discharge of his district issue Glock handgun was not accidental. A subsequent investigation conducted by a retired San Diego Harbor Police chief called the gunshot an accident and recommended that Cash be reinstated. SWC president Dr. Melinda Nish announced in an Oct. 30 campus email that she was reinstating Cash. “We are pleased to have Chief Cash returning to work today,” Nish wrote. “The district fully supports the return of Chief Cash as the head of the police department.” Scores of campus employees and many students said they did not support the return of Cash. Many expressed surprise and “shock” at the decision to reinstate Cash and to allow him to carry a loaded weapon. Professor of Anthropology Dr. Mark Van Stone said the episode “doesn’t make any sense.” “The story demands details, I want more details,” he said. “Why are the details a secret?” Professor of Philosophy Alejandro Orozco agreed. “Our administration is not being clear and forthcoming, and that is creating anxiety on the campus,” he said. “Our employees and the public need an explanation.” Nish and other campus leaders refused to provide any information about the shooting and the chain of events that multiple eyewitnesses have called “bizarre,” “frightening” and “a very serious situation.” Some employees said they were ordered not to discuss the situation and were compelled to sign non-disclosure agreements. Public Information Officer Lillian Leopold acknowledged that was true. Though neither the college nor investigator Betty P. Kelepecz will release any information about what happened the morning of the gunfire, several eyewitnesses have recounted virtually the same version of events. Only one of the employees, carpenter Billy Brooks, was willing to speak on the please see Cash pg. A4
Sections open Voters will decide how transparent their government will be for waitlisted SWC students By Richard O’Rourke Staff Writer
By Daphne Jauregui Arts Editor
Being on the waitlist is no longer a war of attrition for students trying to hang on as new sections gradually open. High demand classes with full waitlists are being cloned in order to accommodate more students and their needs. Cloning courses would allow students to keep the same time frame for which they enrolled. please see Waitlist pg. A4
America’s strongest transparency law, the California Public Records Act, is the envy of states across the country and nations around the world. Some lawmakers in the Golden State, however, were ready to gut CPRA to save some money. Their move caused an uproar and other elected officials are pushing back in an effort to protect CPRA in perpetuity. Senate Constitutional Amendment Three (SCA-3) is a response to Assembly Bill 76 and Senate Bill 71, legislation with the stated purpose of saving money for the
Inside:
state and local governments. When a local government or government agency incurs a cost due to compliance with CPRA, the state government has to reimburse it. AB 76 and SB 71 proposed halting reimbursements to local governments. If reimbursements were to stop, then CPRA would cease to be mandatory and would be reduced to a set of “encouraged practices.” Opponents of the measures said the savings would be pennywise but pound foolish. While local agencies could save thousands, taxpayers stood to lose hundreds of millions if CPRA was gutted, according to
College’s secrecy about Michael Cash’s reinstatement is troubling. Viewpoints, A5
watchdog, news media and taxpayer advocacy organizations. Transparency, they agree, would all but vanish, and secretive government could resume pre-CPRA practices of backroom deals and no accountability. When the CPRA was enacted in 1968 it brought a presumption of access to public information, meaning citizens do not have to justify their requests or provide reasons for wanting the information. Requested information must be released within a reasonable time period, usually 10 days. If the government agency decides that it is not in the public’s best interest to release the information, legal sources
Dance concert is often-brilliant, sometimes bumpy, always fun. Arts, B4
and exemptions must be cited to justify the restraint of information. SCA-3 would remove the requirement that the state reimburse local governments for complying with the CPRA, while requiring local governments to obey the law. Lillian Leopold, chief public information officer at Southwestern College, said there were a lot of CPRA requests during the grand jury investigations of former college administrators and governing board members, but it does not happen as often anymore. Persons requesting information have to pay reproduction
Undefeated soccer team repeats as league champs. Sports, B7
please see CPRA pg. A4
SWC students who live in Mexico face daunting journey every morning. Campus, B1
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Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 — Vol. 57, Issue 3
Jaime Pronoble, editor
news
Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: news@theswcsun.com
College joins state push to improve student success By Georgina Carriola Staff Writer
More than ever before in American history, college is essential to economic success and a chance to live in the middle class. Well-paying careers for people with high school educations have all but vanished in the United States. A college
degree is more critical than ever. Students at Southwestern College who enroll with the intention of earning degrees are struggling big time. Though the college lacks reliable data, the most optimist estimates for successful transfer is less than 30 percent. Many councelors and some candid administrators say that it could be
less than 10 percent. Statewide the transfer statistics are better, but still low, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office in Sacramento. Transfer rates for community college students is less than 50 percent. Once a student is accepted to a university, rates increase slightly to about
Kristina Saunders/staff
PREPARE, DECLARE, TRANSFER — Vice President of Academic Affairs Kathy Tyner tells the governing board about college strategies to improve transfer rates and speed students through SWC in two years.
58 percent. In an effort to improve these rates and to move students more quickly through community colleges, a panel of educators prepared the Student Success Initiative that was soon after passed into law by the California State Legislature. SWC President Dr. Melinda Nish was a panel member. Southwestern College has been working to align itself with the initiate. Dr. Angelica Suarez, vice president of student affairs, said the college is trying to help students understand the initiative and its new requirements that aim to push them through in two years. “We at Southwestern have organized a lot of different forums, student success and completion forums, inviting students and staff to talk about what we are doing inside and outside the classroom to help students feel directed, valued, connected, engaged, nurtured and focused,” she said. These six factors are what students have identified as helping them succeed according to the RP Group of the California Community Colleges. Research concludes that students need to feel involved with the campus to feel motivated. Students who feel connected to their college and professors have higher success rates, the research shows. This spring, SWC had a forum focusing on student success based on the SSI’s six factors for success. SWC innovations included implementing a degree audit, analyzing completion rates by program and creating a first-year experience program. College administrators also pledged to work on the counselor shortage at SWC and find ways to help students meet with
counselors. Students currently must see a counselor to create a Student Education Plan (SEP). Step one would allow students to access to their SEP online through Web Advisor. “Students want an electronic SEP,” said Suarez. Class schedules and units per course are being scrutinized as well, according to Vice President of Academic Affairs Kathy Tyner. “We are going to look at every program that we offer here and the percentage of students that are actually getting through and we’re going to look to see if there are any obstacles,” she said. “For example, if we were always offering a physics class at the same time as chemistry and students need to take them both. Those are the things that if we knew about them, we could fix them.” Programs are going to be scrutinized, altered or dropped according to how well they are covering the necessities of students. Student Success Initiative #3 addresses students who come to SWC without college level skills in reading, writing and mathematics. “If students place in college-level classes, then 63 percent of students finish within a six-year period and if they place into basic skills then it is 36.5 percent,” said Tyner. “It shows how important it really is to come prepared for college level courses. She said at SWC there are a lot more students with who enter below grade level than who enter prepared to do college work. SWC is exploring a first-year experience program like those in place a other community colleges and universities, said Suarez. please see Student Success pg. A4
College celebrates phone app
By Pablo O. Cervantes C. Staff Writer
Move over Facebook and Twitter, Southwestern College now has its own app. Prospective students, faculty and — well, everyone online — can now access SWC’s Web Advisor on smartphones and tablets. Public Information Officer Lillian Leopold and technology chief Dr. Ben Seaberry have been working on the application since summer, Leopold said, in hope of pushing the college into the 21st century world of hand-held devices. “The college is moving to a more enterprise system where it is going to integrate the information available on Web Advisor,” she said. “It is going to be a wonderful resource for students. They will have everything they need accessible 24/7.” SWC’s app is called Ellucian GO. Leopold called it a “mobile Web Advisor lite” since it is currently not able to access all Web Advisor actions. It does include important web site links such as Blackboard and the library websites, she said. Seaberry said the app is just the beginning of SWC’s new emphasis on user-friendly technology. “The purpose of this application is for students to interact more with the college,” he said. SWC’s app fits Apple and Android, and can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Google Play. It will have no advertising. Information about the application can be found at: www.swccd.edu/go
news
The Southwestern College Sun
Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 —Vol. 57, Issue 3
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Pepper-sprayed biology instructor nabs burglar By Jaime Pronoble News Editor
A woman who broke into several gym lockers and at least two faculty offices was wrestled to the ground by a biology instructor whom the intruder had pepper sprayed. Campus police arrested Mary Carter, 39, and charged her with five criminal counts related to a series of campus break-ins that culminated when she was detained by biology instructor Nira Clark. Carter is charged with two felonies and three misdemeanors, including robbery, burglary, possession of burglary tools and assault on a school employee, according to the San Diego County Sheriffs. Carter pepper sprayed Clark when the instructor returned to her office after class, according to Campus Police Sergeant Robert Sanchez. Clark said she was startled to see someone in her office. “I came to my office and I saw someone move across the windowed door,” she said. “As I saw someone move, I wondered who it was.” Clark said she thought she must have left her door open. She said it did not occur to her right away that the person was a burglar. Clark said when she entered her office she noticed someone hiding in her closet behind a curtain. “I told her ‘you might as well come out, I can see you,’” she said. “And I didn’t really know what was going on, but I didn’t think of anything bad.” Clark said Carter came out saying, “ Su r p r i s e ! ” a s k i n g C l a r k i f s h e remembered who she was. “Then I noticed one of my hairclips on the floor,” she said. “It was a hairclip I used all the time and I always keep it in my purse. It wasn’t until then that I realized something’s wrong, someone has been in my purse.” Clark demanded her things from Carter and immediately dialed the police. She managed to explain a few things to the police when Carter said she had more of Clark’s possessions. Clark turned her attention to Carter who then pepper sprayed her. Clark fought through the pepper
Ernesto Rivera/staff
spray and restrained the intruder while a passerby summoned police. Clark was burned by the pepper spray, Sanchez said, but not seriously injured. Sanchez said Carter forced her way into several lockers in the women’s locker room near the gym before burglarizing at least two faculty offices. Dr. Sylvia Garcia-Navarrete’s office was also burgled, said Sanchez. Garcia-Navarrete said Clark “was one
tough cookie.” “The thief pepper sprayed Nira,” she said, “but that didn’t stop Nira from putting her in a headlock.” Ga rc i a - Na va r re t e s a i d c a m p u s employees were shaken up, but relieved that no one was seriously injured. “I’m glad the lady didn’t get away with our stuff,” she said. “My things were taken when I was teaching during the 11 o’clock hour. My door was found
open by our instructional assistant before noon, but I didn’t realize my things were gone until I got the call from the police officer.” Sanchez said the episode demonstrates that the college may have to increase security for professors’ offices. Metal shields known as hasps were in the past installed on some office doors in front of the lock mechanism, he said, but most have been removed.
“Our recommendation would be to install those on all of the doors,” he said. “That’s a perfect reason why something like that needs to be in place, to prevent somebody from using a screwdriver to gain entry into an office.” Public Information Officer Lillian Leopold said the incident is a reminder that students and college employees need to be vigilant and report suspicious activities to campus police.
Student workers at vet center lose pay Newest trustee enjoys providing opportunities
By Ana Raymundo Staff Writer
Chaos in Congress has hit home, specifically the Veteran’s Home in Chula Vista. Suspension of the Veterans Affairs Work-Study Program means the loss of funding to pay 80 student veterans who worked with the residents of the retirement home. Many have stayed on as volunteers, but most left in search of a paying job. Students in the work-study are veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The program is designed to help transition returning soldiers back into school and civilian life by giving them a paying job working at the home. VA Work-Study Program Supervisor Dorothy Diaz said 80 percent of her students are from Southwestern College. Megan Navarro is one. After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 2008, she enrolled at SWC with the hope of earning an associate’s degree in business management. Navarro found out about the work-study program from a fellow veteran
and began working at the Chula Vista Facility. She mainly performs administration work, but like most workers there, Navarro helps where she is needed. Workers have a range of duties such as working at the front desk, the canteen store and in the dormitories, she said. Kenneth “Ken” Munsun is a resident veteran and a part-time volunteer. He said the loss of the student workers has affected the entire facility. “There’s not a single department that doesn’t use the student workers.” Title 38 of the United States Code, the federal guidelines governing veterans’ benefits, established the Work-Study Program. It expired June 30 and veteran work-study activity has been suspended. Navarro and a few others still work at the Veterans Home as volunteers, she said, but many others had to leave because of the financial strain. Extensive background checks and vaccinations delay the hiring process, said Diaz. “It has been a huge hardship not having this program on our side and for the veteran
students,” she said. Residents’ activities have been severely limited due to the lack of workers, said Navarro, and outings have been cancelled. “Workers used to sit and read to the residents,” she said. “Now the residents mostly sit and watch TV to entertain themselves.” Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders introduced legislation to extend work-study funding in August. Senator Barbara Boxer and Congressman Duncan Hunter (R - El Cajon) are co-sponsors. It is pending on Capitol Hill. Diaz said she is optimistic that work-study allowances will be extended. “It could be tomorrow, it could be the next day, it could be in a month, or in six months,” she said. “We have no idea.” Diaz said it would be very simple for U.S. Congress to resolve the issue. “This has happened twice before,” she said. “The important thing to mention is that there is no change in the verbiage. It’s boilerplate verbiage. All they need to do is remove the 2013 and put in 2016. That is what they did before.”
Serina Duarte/staff
ALUMNA NOW ON BOARD — Nora Vargas said it will take time to change SWC’s culture and image. By Gonzalo Quintana Campus Assistant Editor
Karen Tome/staff
CONTINUING SERVICE — U.S. Army veteran and SWC student Megan Navarro still helps at the Chula Vista Veterans Home, which she considers her second family, even though she is no longer paid. Bruce Link, a U.S. Navy veteran, said he enjoys Navarro’s company.
If opening doors for others is a sign of politeness, Nora Vargas should be voted Miss Congeniality every year. Southwestern College’s newest governing board member has been opening doors for her community since childhood. Though she attended Montgomery High School, SWC and the University of San Francisco, Vargas was born and raised in Tijuana. That is where she said her passion for volunteering began. “My family and I would help raise money for the (Mexican) Red Cross, paint schools and participate with various nonprofit organizations,” she said. “I always knew that my vocation was to do public service because I had grown up in a family where public service is what we did.” Vargas credits a course taught by SWC political science professor Alma Aguilar for helping her discover her true calling. “It opened up my eyes to a whole new world,” she said. “It just changed my life. I decided I wanted to study politics.”
Vargas switched her major from pre-law to political science. As Planned Parenthood’s Vice President of Community Engagement for the Pacific Southwest, she has worked closely with young adults and the issues that affect them directly. Governing board members, she said, have a big responsibility to serve the community. “Your decisions impact a lot of people,” she said. “Not just the 20,000 students that are coming each semester. It impacts faculty. It impacts what your community’s going to look like, the culture of the organization.” Changing the direction of the previous SWC administration after all the secrecy, abuse and corruption scandals is her main point of focus, said Vargas. “When it comes to changing the culture in an institution it doesn’t happen overnight,” she said. “I think it’s the responsibility of a governing board member to not only be an advocate, but to ask the tough questions so that we can make sure that these things don’t happen again.” Governing Board President Humberto Peraza said he appreciates Vargas’ toughness. “She is the definition of a strong woman,” he said. “She’s got the courage to really stand up for what she believes in. She is totally positive, but she is no bullshit.” Dr. Angelica Suarez, Vice President of Student Affairs, said she has witnessed Vargas’ devotion. “She really has demonstrated a passion for our students in making sure that we have the support services that they need to be successful,” she said. Board member Norma L. Hernandez said she is ecstatic about working with Vargas. “It’s actually invigorating to see someone that I knew as a student and now she’s my colleague,” she said. “I think it speaks well of what SWC does in people’s lives, how important it is in people’s lives.” Despite her many accomplishments, Vargas just wants to be remembered as someone who was a positive influence for others. “That’s what I want my legacy to be,” she said. “That I’m the kind of person that helps other people get to where they want to be. And your legacy should be really being able to open doors for other people.”
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Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 — Vol. 57, Issue 3
CPRA: Constitutional amendment would strengthen government transparency
Cash: Police chief’s return raises questions from community
Continued from Page A1
record. Brooks said he arrived just before 10 a.m. Aug. 23 for an appointment with Cash. The chief was not in his office, Brooks said, so he stood in an adjoining waiting room. Campus Police Officer Jesse Osuna was sitting in the room and SWCPD Clerk Grace David was using a copy machine when they heard gunfire and a bullet whizzing through the room. Brooks said the bullet penetrated the wall and flew “head level” two feet behind him as he stood waiting for his appointment. The bullet flew about three feet behind the head of David, he said. Brooks said he took a few steps toward the door so he could go into the locker room to see what had happened when Cash burst into the room. “He was hysterical and kept hollering ‘Accidental discharge! Accidental discharge!’” Brooks said. “He became more and more hysterical and soon couldn’t hardly talk. He just kind of stuttered and went ‘da, da, da, da, da, da, da.’ He looked freaked out like he was going to faint.” SWCPD employees told Cash to put down his gun, witnesses said, and he did. Cash then “went to the floor” on his hands and knees, Brooks said, and then rolled over on his back, apparently hyperventilating. “He looked really sick and just kept trying to talk but all he did was stutter,” Brooks said. “Grace and the cops in the room were asking him ‘Are you alright, Chief? Are you alright?’ Someone called an ambulance and they took the chief away.” Witnesses described Cash as demonstrating “shock-like symptoms” and looking like he was having an epileptic seizure. Leopold said Cash was examined at a local hospital and released. Nish put Cash on administrative leave for what turned out to be about five weeks. Following the incident Chula Vista Police Department officials said they were “standing by” to study the situation and conduct an investigation. It is illegal to fire a gun within the city limits of Chula Vista or on a school campus anywhere in the state of California. SWC, however, never contacted CVPD about conducting an investigation, according to CVPD spokesperson Capt. Gary Wedge.
costs. She said the state government has never paid the entire requested reimbursement amount. Gove r n i n g b o a rd a g e n d a s a n d minutes are now available online on Board Docs, said Leopold. “You can do an online search, it brings you all the documentation, and it tells you what the votes were,” she said. “The college moved to that a little over a year ago and I think that helps a lot with increasing transparency.” SWC has also been trying to rebuild tr ust with external and internal communities, Leopold said, and there is no cost associated with that. “It’s just a matter of increasing communications among our constituencies,” she said. Captain Gary Wedge, Chula Vista Police Department public information officer, said submitting claims for reimbursement is the responsibility of the City Clerk’s office. Wedge mainly deals with media requests, he said, which do not involve any hard copy or even digital files. The information is usually just given over the phone, he said. “The vast majority of requests I get are to look up crime reports that have been filed and give the media information about it,” he said. When the police department actually needs to produce a copy of information for a request, it might incur some kind of cost, Wedge said. “Most costs are soft costs, personnel costs, things like that,” he said. “If we’re preparing a CD of a 911 call, there is technically a cost to that, (but) it’s minimal.” Chula Vista Finance Director Maria Kachadoorian and Phillip Davis, the assistant director of finance, said the city is generally not reimbursed by the state. “We have applied for other mandated reimbursements from the state, but because of their financial troubles, we’re not getting reimbursed,” Kachadoorian said. “So we have not submitted (for the CPRA reimbursements).” Kachadoorian said even in years the city was reimbursed the amount of money coming in was insignificant. “Sometimes the potential reimbursement from the state is not worth the cost that would incur to submit the claims, then have to deal with the state and try to get it collected,” she said. To forego the costs, Kachadoorian s a i d t h e C h u l a V i s t a’s f i n a n c e department uploads documents to the Internet. If the city were to apply for reimbursements, each department would track its own costs and submit them to the city clerk’s office. The city clerk would then fill out the claim for payment, the claim summary, and the activity cost detail in order to provide documentation to Sacramento, as stated in the instructions sent out by the State Controller’s Office on Oct. 31. In order to have sufficient proof for reimbursement, local agencies would need to keep and file records over years. “ We h a v e t o f i n d o u t i f t h e reimbursement is worth the resources that it takes to compile the documentation,” said Chula Vista City Clerk Donna Norris. Public records requests include fire reports, lists of vendors and suppliers the city has done businesses with, and housing code reports. Requests like this come in at least once a day for the city clerk’s office, according to Tyshar Turner, the records manager. “We probably process 600 to 700 CPRA requests a year,” she said. The person requesting the records has to pay $1 for the first page and ten cents for subsequent pages. Turner has to keep track of time spent and materials used in duplicating records. Doing research to find out whether the information can be withheld does not fall under the category of reimbursable activities. Norris said digital information was best because it incurs no cost. State Senator Mark Leno authored SCA-3. He said the state should not have to incentivize transparency and informing the public should not merely be a “best business practice.” It should be law. California voters will decide the route of transparency throughout the state when SCA-3 appears on the June 2014 state ballot.
Jaime Pronoble, editor
news
Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: news@theswcsun.com
Leopold said Wedge was correct and that the college wanted to “avoid the appearance of the brothers in blue protecting one of their own.” Nish authorized SWC’s law firm Liebert Cassidy Whitmore to hire an independent investigator. Kelepecz, a retired police chief with a law degree, was selected. Brooks said he was interviewed by Kelepecz and surprised by something she said during the course of the conversation. “I asked Betty about the possibility of the chief coming back and she said, ‘Oh he’s coming back, that’s for sure. The chief is definitely coming back,’” Brooks said. “I thought it was weird that she had already made up her mind before the investigation had ended.” Kelepecz was contacted multiple times for comment, but has not returned phone calls to her Orange County office. Multiple attempts by The Sun to obtain a copy of the report have been rejected or ignored by Nish and the college governing board. In a letter to Nish, Sun Editor-inChief David McVicker wrote that he and the editorial board rejected the college’s assertion that the information related to the gunfire was a confidential personnel matter. “It is our belief that Southwestern College is now in violation of California Public Access and Media Law by refusing to divulge basic, routine information about the Cash incident and by covering up evidence, applying a gag order on employees and refusing to share reports paid for with public funds with the public that paid for them,” read the letter. “It is our position that the college is misinterpreting the ‘Personnel, medical and similar files’ clause of the Government Code section 6254(c) as justification for hiding the investigator’s report from public view.” In an email to McVicker, Nish denied the college had ignored requests for the report and said she had turned the letter over to the college’s legal counsel. Cash has been the center of controversies in previous positions. In 1987, while he was a member of the San Diego Police Department, Cash was suspended after a Municipal Court judge ruled that he had used excessive force during an arrest. Cash acknowledged the charge and said he was trying to help his partner arrest a suspected drug dealer named Terry Garrett. “I’m trying to get in close to help my partner,” Cash recalled. “I slugged him (Garrett) right in the face, broke his nose, blood was everywhere. He had a bag of cocaine in his mouth.” Cash reflected on the episode.
“Did I not punch anybody in the face after that?” he said in an interview with The Sun. “I don’t know. I have to be honest with you. I may not have for a while.” In 2007 Cash was fired from his position as Director of Security of the San Diego Chargers when several players were determined to have been out past curfew prior to a game against the Minnesota Vikings. Cash also worked security for the NFL and had a leadership role in preparing for the last San Diego Super Bowl in 2003. Spokespersons for the NFL would not comment on Cash’s performance or why he left his position. Cash said he was very sorry about the gunfire in campus police headquarters and wrote a Letter to the Editor to The Sun. “I take full responsibility for the action, for it was I who accidently discharged my duty weapon, he wrote. “I am upset with myself for the events of that day, and I want to apologize to the entire Southwestern College community.” After his reinstatement, Cash dropped in on the office of The Sun and said he would be willing to talk to student journalists about the episode and subsequent events. During a two-and-a-half hour interview Cash again apologized for the gunfire and said the campus community did not need to worry. He refused to say why he was holding his gun that morning, why it was pointed at head level or why he pulled the trigger, citing “personal confidentiality.” Cash said he did not have any medical conditions, including diabetes or epilepsy, that may have caused him to fire his gun. He insisted he is in good health. Two college employees who were in the room the bullet passed through are out on medical stress leave. Campus Police Officer Jesse Osuna and Clerk Grace David are on leave and neither has a scheduled return date. Former SWC Vice President of Human Resources Albert Roman said the cases of Osuna and David were confidential under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). When challenged that HIPAA did not apply in Cash’s case, Roman said that he “did not feel comfortable” commenting on the findings of the internal and external investigations or the whereabouts of Osuna and David. Roman also declined to comment on possible lawsuits. Brooks said he had no plans to ask for stress leave. As a former United States Marine, he said, he grew used to being around gunfire.
Student Success: SWC, state want students to transfer after two years
Waitlist: College willing to open additional class sections when needed
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“It is to try and help students get a refresher on the math skills they learned in high school so that it can improve their placement on the assessment test thus not needing to take additional levels that they don’t need,” she said Suarez. Suarez and Tyner both said that wof the math courses they have already taken in high school. They said a proposed Summer Math Boot Camp will help more students test into collegelevel math and avoid years of remedial math course. Sweetwater Union High School District graduates would voluntarily enroll in a two-week, one-unit summer course if they score at least two levels below their last completed math course. Aside from a math refresher, incoming freshmen would receive success skills, study skills, time management, test taking strategies, college support services and goal-setting skills. All of the components of the initiatives are still in conversation, but the Summer Math Boot Camp is scheduled for the summer of 2014. Other colleges, such as Riverside Community College, have implemented similar strategies with clear success. Tyner said lack of funding has prevented SWC from increasing student completion rates as much as desired. “We don’t have a whole lot of resources,” she said. “But it’d be nice if all incoming students were participating in (the math Boot Camp)” Student Success Initiatives are still works in progress, but SWC is working significantly harder to provide students with ways to reach their goals, said Suarez. “We know that there are a lot of things in students’ lives that makes it difficult,” she said. “(There are) things not within our control, but certainly for those that are within our control and within our ability to impact, we want to do so.”
Dr. Mink Stavenga, Dean of Instructional Support Services, said it started about a year ago. “We had planned and anticipated that Proposition 30 would not pass,” he said. “Fortunately it did, but we had planned that we would not have many courses in the spring and no courses in the summer. By this time we had already prepared our spring schedule, so we needed to catch up because now we had the opportunity to offer more classes.” Stavenga said he and his staff examined demand. “We looked and found some classes that had full waitlists, in some cases 100 and in an extreme case 200 students were on the combined Tyner waitlist of all of the sections,” he said. “We started in the spring and we were so successful that we continued to process to this date. One course opened up and within five minutes it was full.” Kathy Tyner, Vice President for Academic Affairs, said cloning is a response to student interest. “We wanted to be able to open up classes where we thought there was a good likelihood that the classes would fill,” she said. “Not just at the Chula Vista campus, but the entire district to see that all of the classes, no matter where they were offered, were filled.” Tyner said the strategy is working well for students. “I think we added 11 classes last spring,” she said. “The process that we use is a really good process. They identify the courses, they talk to the dean to get a staff member to teach the class and then Dr. Stavenga’s
office would send out an email to the students saying that we were going to open this class. We give a pre-notification to the students on the waitlist and we encourage them to register immediately or as quickly as you can in order to get that class.” Tyner said the deans need to be directly involved with working with their department chairs to see if an instructor was available. “We don’t want to open up a class until we’re sure we have somebody to teach it,” she said. One thing that is difficult during this process is that there are certain blocks of time that are popular with students, said Tyner. “Between eight o’clock in the morning until about noon or one o’clock in the afternoon, or primetime — essentially in any given semester — there is virtually no open classrooms during that time block,” she said. “If there’s no room available on the same day, it is very difficult to clone that class.” The greatest numbers of classes added are online courses because they do not require a classroom, Tyner said. “We specifically added courses that were in the math, English and the communication areas because we know historically there is a huge demand in those areas,” she said. “We want to be very prescriptive in what we add so that we add the courses specifically for the student needs.” Dr. Angelica Suarez, Vice President for Student Affairs, said cloned classes should also support degree attainment or transfer. “We changed the process by which the waitlist process was going to be done because we heard a lot of concerns from students,” she said. “If you are on a waitlist for a class and a slot becomes open, you will get an email from the college that says there is a space and you have three days to register for the class and have to pay for your classes.” Suarez urged students to update their contact information on Web Advisor and meet with a counselor to complete an educational plan. “If you know what your path is going to look like, you are more likely to complete it,” she said.
Continued from Page A1
With contributions by David McVicker
Chopra: Plea bargain helps ex-superintendent avoid prison sentence Continued from Page A1
Marshall Murphy/staff
‘BOOKKEEPING ERROR’ — Chopra attorney Michael Attanasio said his client will not appear in court again.
Attanasio said. “Charged with nine felony accounts, including bribery and conflict of interest. Those charges were completely without merit and should have never been brought as the resolution of the case shows. We resolved the case with a single misdemeanor based on what was essentially a bookkeeping error about three dinners he attended.” A t t a n a s i o s a i d C h o p r a i s n ow finished with the case. “He thanks the court system for its fairness and he looks forward to the rest of his retirement,” Attanasio said. “Having pled to the misdemeanor, he remains on 977 (allowing him to miss court appearances) and is able to not come back for the sentencing. I will handle the sentencing.” While some involved in the case said Chopra may have received a light penalty because he was in ill health, Attanasio said that was not true. “He’s doing fine now,” Attanasio said. “ We’ll leave it at that. His health is fine and he’s looking forward to the rest of his retirement.” Attanasio said he was unable to provide specifics about the sentence. “I expect a likely sentence will include some amount of community service which he will certainly comply with voluntarily and with the same dedication to community service he’s always shown as an educator.” Chopra’s plea deal followed an announcement by the San Diego County District Attorney that bond underwriter Gary Cabello had pled guilty to two felony counts in the case that DA Bonnie Dumanis called the largest corruption scandal in San Diego County history. Cabello had worked with Chopra and former SWC vice president Nicholas Alioto to obtain bonds for the college’s Proposition R-funded construction projects. Fo r m e r S e v i l l e C o n s t r u c t i o n executive Henry Amigable pleaded to a misdemeanor charge last year in exchange for cooperation with t h e p r o s e c u t o r s . A r c h i t e c t Pa u l Bunton and construction executive Rene Flores also pleaded guilty to misdemeanors last year and promised to cooperate with the district attorney. Ricardo Gonzalez, the attorney for former SWC interim president Greg Sandoval, blamed Amigable for getting Sandoval in trouble. “I think Amigable was padding his expense account,” said Gonzalez. “So it made it look worse than it was. He was reporting to his employer for reimbursement more than he was spending. He was spending for his own personal use and it attributed to people he was with.” Gonzalez would not say whether Sandoval would plead guilty. “At this point we have not reached any agreement (in regard to pleading guilty) and we’re prepared to go to trial,” he said. Vikas Bajaj, attorney for former SWC Trustee Jorge Dominguez, said he is hopeful his client will receive consideration similar to Chopra. “ The remaining counts against Dominguez are felonies, but it’s up to the judge’s discretion to reduce them to misdemeanors,” he said. Do m i n g u e z c u r re n t l y f a c e s 1 1 felonies. SWC EOPS director Arlie Ricasa still faces 33 counts, including bribery and perjur y. Dominguez, Ricasa, former trustee Yolanda Salcido and former administrator John Wilson are scheduled to stand trial in spring 2014. With Contributions by Jaime Pronoble
October 19 - November 24, 2013, Volume 57, Issue 3
VIEWPOINTS
The Southwestern College Sun
A5
Editorials, Opinions and Letters to the Editor
The mission of the Southwestern College Sun is to serve its campuses and their communities by providing information, insights and stimulating discussions of news, activities and topics relevant to our readers. The Staff strives to produce a newspaper that is timely, accurate, fair, interesting, visual and accessible to readers. Though the “Sun” is a student publication, staff members ascribe to the ethical and moral guidelines of professional journalists.
ANNA PRYOR
Ubiquitous porn can be destructive
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
David McVicker ART DIRECTOR/BUSINESS MANAGER
Amanda L. Abad SENIOR STAFF
Nickolas Furr Lina Chankar
I
Daniel Guzman NEWS
Jaime Pronoble, editor Liliana Cervantes, assistant Jason O’Neal, assistant Richard O’Rourke, assistant Kasey Thomas, assistant VIEWPOINTS
Anna Pryor, editor Itzel Alonso, assistant CAMPUS
Amanda L. Abad, editor Gonzalo Quintana, assistant ARTS
Daphne Jauregui, editor Saira Araiza, assistant
Dan Cordero/Staff
Fernanda Gutierrez, assistant
editorial
SPORTS
Nicholas Baltz, editor John Domogma, assistant
ONLINE
Mason Masis, editor Kimberly Ortiz, assistant
PHOTOGRAPHY
Serina Duarte, editor Karen Tome, assistant
STAFF WRITERS
Luis Alarriste
Andre Chenavo
Joaquin Basauri
Victor Ene
Jose Luis Baylon
Adrian Gomez
Maria Bertalan
Kael Heath
Brittany Black-Jones
Adriana Heldiz
Cindy Borjas
Alma Hurtado
Lee Bosch
Victoria Leyva
Madeline Cabrera
Alyssa Pajarillo
Georgina Carriola
Ana Raymundo
Zayda Cavazos
Gabriel Sandoval
Pablo Cervantes
Marianna Saponara
CARTOONISTS
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Ailsa Alipusan
Priscila Berumen
Dan Cordero
Rick Flores
Wendy Gracia
John Freeman
Gabriel Hernandez
Pablo Gandara
Joaquin Junco Jr.
Marshall Murphy
Michelle Phillips
Pablo Pedroza Kristina Saunders
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Society of Professional
National College Press
Journalists
Freedom Award, 2011
National Mark of
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Excellence, 2001-13
Association
First Amendment Award,
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Excellence in Journalism
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of the Year
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Award
The Issue: The reinstatement of the college police chief is shocking and surrounded in mystery.
Our Position: SWC’s board and president need to stop hiding information and assure this community that Cash is fit for duty.
Reinstatement of police chief has rattled faith in college leaders What happened? We just want to know what happened. We want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the gunfire in campus police headquarters. We deserve to know what happened. We have the right to know what happened. We need to know that our police chief is capable of defending us and that our college president is capable of open, honest communication. So far we have little evidence of either. It is disconcerting enough that Campus Police Chief Michael Cash fired his service revolver head high through a wall and through three employees in the adjacent room. Thankfully no one was physically injured, although two of the employees are now on stress disability leave. It is hard to blame them for not exactly feeling safe in their workplace. It is even more disconcerting that Cash apparently had a complete mental meltdown after the shot was fired and became so incoherent that he had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Most disconcerting of all is the college’s mysterious and stonewalling response to the affair. Two investigations had different results. One said the chief was negligent, the other called the shooting accidental. Why was SWC’s law firm asked to investigate rather than the Chula Vista Police Department? Why were college employees ordered not to speak to the media or the community? Why did the investigator (as some interviewees claimed) seem to have her mind made up that Cash was going to return before the investigation was complete? Why won’t our leaders show us the investigator’s report? Why did the administration allow the chief to return to work (armed) after he clearly had a psychological breakdown after the gunshot? A brief email by President Dr. Melinda Nish to the campus community was cavalier and dismissive to the point of being laughable. She basically said we are glad to have our triggerhappy, mentally fragile top cop back and, hey, don’t worry, we’re going to fortify the wall at HQ in case he fires his gun again. That was possibly the least presidential moment of her two-year presidency. There are two serious problems here: (1) Is our chief of police capable of leading the men in the SWCPD and keeping us safe? and (2) Is our college, which has been boasting of a new age of honesty, professionalism and transparency, starting a slow slide back into secrecy and mistrust? Michael Cash, by the way, is a really nice guy and very likeable. Journalism students at The Sun like him very much as a person. In his year-and-a-half as chief he has been friendly, helpful and very accessible, which we appreciate greatly. He is a beam of happy sunlight after the dour, arrogant reign of Brent Chartier. He has tried to clean up Chartier’s mess and reconnect the campus police with the student body. We feel he was making progress and we were rooting for him.
Online Comments Policy
That said, we also want to know that we have a calm, steely professional protecting us. We want someone who will not go to pieces if a psycho has a knife to our throat and he is the first person on the scene. More troubling is the dreadful way the college has handled this situation. College leaders are hiding behind the clichéd and vacuous claim that details of the situation are confidential because it is (take your pick because they have tried all of these): (a) a personal matter, (b) a personnel matter, (c) a HIPAA matter, (d) a legal matter, and (e) beat it, kids, it’s none of your business. The correct answer is none of the above. California law is very clear. Citizens’ right to know about the conduct, work product and decisions of public employees in matters of public interest trump any artificial constructs public employees offer up. (A letter from the Editorial Board of The Sun to Dr. Nish citing specific California case law has been published at theswcsun.com.) Dr. Nish’s high-handed “because I told you so” stance on this issue is enough to put shivers down the spines of anyone who survived the Chopra/Alioto years. Sorry, but that does not cut it in fall 2013. Too many people in this community fought and bled for transparency, professionalism and restoration of trust. Four of our five board members campaigned or interviewed on promises to restore transparency and end even the slightest appearance of cronyism and corruption. Nish herself stood in front of hundreds of students and staff at her open forum in 2011 and pledged to be a communicative, open and ethical leader. A lot of us were sitting in the room that day and we applauded when she said it. We are holding all of our leaders to those standards. We are open to the possibility that reinstating Cash was the right thing to do. Fair enough. Show us your cards. Explain to us the research that was done, the evidence collected and the decision-making process. Let us see that this was a professional decision in the best interest of students and not another case of administrators circling the wagons to protect colleagues. Convince us that we do not need to worry about another Cash meltdown. Failure to do this will further fuel the flames of mistrust and suspicion that this case has lit. Nish can either pour water or gas on this fire. So far her bucket smells like 91 octane. This newspaper has been highly supportive of the current board and Dr. Nish. We editorialized against a nascent No Confidence vote against Nish some faculty advocated for earlier this year. Dr. Nish, please show us that our support of you and our faith in you was justified. Governing board members, please show us that you are still the warriors for honesty, professionalism and transparent government we supported in 2010 and 2012. You have all shaken our confidence in your judgment and leadership. Please, tell us the truth.
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n 2012 the pornography industry brought in more than $100 billion worldwide and had an enormous profit margin. Sex really does sell. Porn was in the $100 billion club with the Fortune 500 behemoths like ExxonMobile, Chevron, Volkswagen and Apple. Some porn traders are richer than drug lords, robber barons and corporate raiders. Some do almost as much damage. Like heroin, pornography is addictive. Americans, on average, are exposed to porn by age 11. Many teenagers are addicts. Constant voyeurism leads to crippling addiction problems. Occasional viewing is normal, but obsessive watching and viewing women negatively can warp reality. Husbands can find they are no longer attracted to their wives and they may find they need porn to obtain satisfaction. Females can get trapped, too. Conversely, porn can actually be beneficial to relationships when viewed together in moderation. Like alcohol, a little may be fun, too much is obliterating. On the other side of the screen are the actors. While most males may appear to be having a fine time and getting paid tremendously to do so, women face hardships and degradation on and off camera. Many former female porn stars speak out against women going into the business. Women have been beaten and abused in scenes, and forced to do degrading things they did not agree to. Many go into the business for the money, but find the personal cost not worth it. One famous former performer turned anti-porn advocate is “Deep Throat” star Linda Lovelace. She described an abusive relationship with her husband/director Chuck Traynor that included being forced into pornography at gunpoint. He also got her addicted to drugs and would use them as reward in return for her performing her trademark sex act on various strangers. Porno can be dangerous for actors. Many have herpes, some have HIV and AIDS. Disease is seldom disclosed prior to filming a scene. Pornography is also a gateway for drug abuse. Many performers use marijuana, cocaine and heroine as coping mechanisms during stressful and degrading scenes. Sadly, child pornography has grown with technology. From 1996 to 2005 there was a 2,026 percent increase in cases opened for what they call “innocent images,” according to the FBI. Today, almost 40 percent of all FBI Cyber Division investigations are for innocent images. Children have never been more vulnerable or more damaged. Interestingly, most viewers in America live in conservative voting states. Leading the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do parade is Utah with the highest amount of porno subscriptions. Deep Red Mississippi has the highest average amount of time spent on porno sites clocking in at 12 minutes per visit. Red state hypocrisy abounds. Porn rules the Bible Belt. Skin fuels the GOP. Mobile technology field has let the porno genie out of the bottle. American teenagers can often view pornography without permission or control. Young men and women can be influenced negatively by viewing intense, graphic and tasteless images. Views on sex can be distorted. Pornography is not about loving, interpersonal relationships. It is long on hedonism and short on loyalty, respect and commitment. Sexual education in our secondary schools should include a segment on pornography because nine out of 10 boys are exposed to porn by age 18. There needs to be a stronger push against the abuse. Industry standards should eliminate abuse against women. Parents can block sights that contain inappropriate content for children. Internet providers should ban viewing of child pornography. Our government should have a better system in place to stop child pornography at its roots. First-time offenders of please see Porn pg. A7
Anna may be reached at sexandthesun@theswcsun.com
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Anna Pryor, editor
VIEWPOINTS
Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 — Vol. 57, Issue 3
Tel: (619) 309-7908 E-mail: viewpoints@theswcsun.com
Obamacare is ineffective healthcare reform
Thinking
Out Loud
How do you feel about Chief Michael Cash’s return?
“He should be re-evaluated instead of just being put back out there after that incident. Especially because some one could have gotten hurt.”
Aljon Loberia Psychology Major
Michelle Phillips/Staff
By Richard O’Rourke A Perspective
While President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may have changed healthcare in the U.S., the Act itself needs doctoring. This so-called reform does not confront fundamental problems in the health insurance industry. There are a few parts of the Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare, that are agreeable, like prohibiting insurers from turning people away for pre-existing conditions. In the grand scheme of things, however, this program may worsen the situation of healthcare via the individual mandate, which would force people to buy private plans from insurance companies and still leave a considerable portion of the population without insurance. Proponents of the Act support the individual mandate because on paper more customers would mean lower rates. Young people are a big help. Because they are presumed to be healthier, they would less likely be in a position where they would have to go to the hospital and use their insurance for health complications. Cost of coverage is increasing. Full-time employees at Southwestern College each receive $5,200 a year from the district for medical insurance, but that is not enough anymore according to Bruce MacNintch, president of SWC chapter of the California School Employees Association. “Back in the old days it was far more than just medical insurance because medical
insurance didn’t cost $5,200 a year for an (full-time) employee,” he said. MacNintch said the cost of insurance has been increasing. “Kaiser’s going to be $6,000 a year for an employee,” he said. “We still get $5,200. “There’s an additional fund that the district provides of $800,000 by contract, that we can draw on, and then the Governing Board has been approving additional funding on a year-to-year basis.” The demographic of consumers has a lot to do with the price, he added. “We don’t hire many 18 year olds to work at Southwestern College, so we tend to be an older group, and you pay more the older you get.” Flooding the industry with more money to bring down costs is the purpose behind the individual mandate. People with low medical risk have to pay for their plans and that money ideally goes to lowering the price across the board, especially for older people and people who use their insurance often. There are just two problems with this. First, this is a tax. Oddly enough, it is not a tax by the government. It is enforced by the government with a penalty fee, but the money goes directly to privately-owned corporations whose leaders are not elected by or directly accountable to the people. In a few years this program may be so fouled up, there is no way the public’s interests, namely affordability of insurance, could be guaranteed. Rolling Stone investigative reporter Matt
Taibbi, author of “Griftopia,” wrote that prior legislation not fully taken on in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act seriously flaws the program. In 1945 Congress signed into law the McCarranFerguson Act, which ended up severely limiting federal agencies’ jurisdiction over regulation and investigation of insurance. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act of 1914, were signed into law to prevent collusion between corporations to fix prices and control markets. These laws do not apply to the business of insurance. This is because of the FTC Improvements Act of 1980. The book on “Federal Trade Commission: Law, Practice, and Procedure,” states that Section 6 of the FTC Act was amended to prevent the FTC’s “investigational jurisdiction applicable to the ‘business of insurance’.” Instead, regulation of the private sector and expansion of government-funded plans vary throughout the U.S. because state governments reserve the right to regulate within their own jurisdictions. So while price-fixing may be illegal on a federal level, there is no federal agency authorized to enforce the law. In some states it could go on unpunished, defeating the purpose of the individual mandate entirely. Aside from that, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that expansion of government-funded care is left up to each state. The U.S. has a federal program
that does not have a blanket effect. If the legislators in a state government, such as South Carolina, decide not to expand Medicaid in their state, then not as many people can be covered by it. Qualifications become stricter, with only the very poor having coverage provided by a governmentrun plan. People who don’t qualify as poor enough, but who are still poor are left in limbo. They make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to qualify for tax credits to buy a private plan. They cannot get insurance. Fortunately for people who find themselves in this predicament, come 2014 they are exempt from the penalty fee. The fact remains, however, that these people are still not covered. There are two choices for them. They can stay where they are and stay uninsured, or they can uproot their lives and move to another state in which the government has chosen to expand Medicaid. Granted, malicious state politicians are responsible for the healthcare limbo, but unchallenged McCarranFerguson is the reason they have the ability to muck things up. What it boils down to is a healthcare reform act which forces people to give business to private insurance companies based on the idea that the money will lower costs for everybody, but there is no way to guarantee that it will work. Add the fact that there will still be a significant portion of the population without coverage, and the Act hasn’t reformed much of anything.
Fashion critics should mind their own business By Alyssa Pajarillo A Perspective
Dan Cordero/Staff
A woman’s right to choose is normally associated with abortion and sex. But what many people forget is that women also have the right to choose how they look and how they express their sexuality. Along with power and control over their own body, women also have the right to not be shamed or harassed for their choices. Too often on campuses across America, females have been ridiculed for their clothing and their choice of partners. As temperatures rise, women shed their extra layers of fabric to seek some relief from the summer’s swelter but often face other kinds of heat. Some less than restrained folks blurt out “Those shorts are way too short” or “That girl is way too fat to be wearing that outfit.” Comments like these perpetuate sexism at Southwestern College by branding as unsophisticated, easy or slutty. Telling a woman that her body type is not right for an article of clothing, besides being really rude, encourages the impossible standard of the perfect pin model figure. Society needs to learn that a woman’s body is not public property to
judge and criticize. Some forget that a large set woman wearing a short skirt is a human being and deserving of respect. Thin women are also victims. Many avoid wearing for fear of being called scrawny or facing questions of eating disorders. Women just cannot seem to win. Too much skin and they are “sluts” too little and they are “prudes”. Women who cover up for religious purposes are also scorned and are often branded as oppressed. Whichever choice they make, women face a doubleedged sword. Harrassment of women must end. Victimizing women needs to end. “She shouldn’t have dressed that way if she didn’t want the attention,” is never an excuse. That kind of rhetoric feeds rape culture. When cat-called, need to speak up and make it clear that these comments are not welcome and will not be tolerated. Men witnessing harassment also need to speak up. Instead of continuing to shame women for having a sense of sexuality, other women should fight and stand up for their sister. Barbie is not real but harassment is. Both need to go into the box, forever.
“If he is the police chief he should be extra careful so nothing like that happens.”
Esteban Vela Retired Music Classes
“I think its ok if it is accidental. Everybody makes mistakes, but it could have seriously hurt someone.”
Catherine Segura Photography Major
“I want to know why we immediately hire people who have been fired from their last position.”
Greg Mohler CIS Professor
“Mistakes can happen at any level. He is very professional and very a personable person. Everybody should get a second chance, including Mr. Cash”
Cem Tont Head Soccer Coach
Porn: Constant voyeurism leads to unhealthy obsession transporting child pornography face fines and 5-20 years in prison. Increasing the punishment for this serious situation could discourage future offenders. It is myth, however, that pornography turns men in to raging misogynists. Research shows that people predisposed to a disagreeable or violent attitude interact badly with women with or without porn. A recent study conducted by Clemson University suggested that the increased availability of online pornography may help reduce violent attacks. Rape is down 30 percent and sexual assaults 60 percent. Pornography can be enjoyed. It should be viewed responsibly, though, and with better understanding.
Letter to the Editor: Chief Cash on accidental discharge At the Nov. 13 Governing Board meeting, a student journalist from the Sun asked the Governing Board to release the investigation into the accidental discharge of a duty weapon in the campus police offices on Aug. 23. In the interest of transparency, while still protecting the integrity of the investigation and employee rights to privacy, I wanted to
share with the entire college community the information I shared with Sun reporters. I take full responsibility for the action, for it was I who accidentally discharged my duty weapon. I am upset with myself for the events of that day, and I want to apologize to the entire Southwestern College community. An independent investigation was
conducted by a well-respected private investigator, who has years of experience as a police chief, lab director of a private forensic DNA lab and who has been a Los Angeles Police Department commander responsible for internal investigations. The college has accepted the findings of the investigation and is honoring the legal, ethical and professional responsibility of
keeping the investigation a personnel matter because there were no criminal findings. As a result of the investigation, Southwestern College will reinforce the walls of the police armory to make them bullet resistant. We will expand the armory and move the gun-clearing chamber into the armory. All ammunition will continue to be stored in a large, fire resistant safe. Officers
will have the option to keep their guns in the safe, or in the safes of their individual lockers. I am committed to ensuring the facilities improvements are made as expediently as possible to ensure the safety of staff and students. More importantly, I will work tirelessly to restore your trust in me. - Michael Cash Chief of Police
VIEWPOINTS
The Southwestern College Sun
Unethical students damage EOPS
Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 — Vol. 57, Issue 3
E-cigarettes are a smoke screen
By Lou Altriste A Perspective
Joaquin Junco Jr./Staff
By Lee Bosch A Perspective
California’s Extended Opportunities Programs and Services (EOPS) has helped college students since 1969. It levels the playing field for economically, academically and language-disadvantaged students, as long as they maintain their grades and attend required appointments with EOPS counselors. EOPS has been kind to students, but many have not reciprocated. Too many are gaming the system. EOPS students at Southwestern College, along with many other state community colleges, are not required to purchase books specific to their classes. A student with four classes, for instance, may only need two books and spend just $120 of his EOPS allotment. Unspent money stays with EOPS unless the student decides to purchase more books, say for a friend or to resell for a profit. Students caught committing fraud are subject to termination from the program. Catching a student is difficult. Colleges should protect EOPS funds by archiving students’ schedules in a computer system at the campus bookstore. Students would only be
able to use EOPS money to buy books required for classes. Some colleges issue book vouchers for required texts that EOPS funds can purchase. Permitting EOPS money to be used for book rentals would also save taxpayer money. Rented books cost significantly less than used ones and a fraction of new texts. A downfall is that a credit card or debit card number must be held at the bookstore in order to replace any stolen books. Not every student may be able to supply that. This issue is resolved if EOPS can cover replacement fees and disqualify any student who fails to return a book. Individualizing EOPS money to majors would help cover these necessities. If an art student has $100 remaining on an EOPS account, a voucher for art supplies would be beneficial. With less than $70 an art student can purchase a complete brush set, five acrylic paints, a medium-sized sketchbook or canvases. Aspiring architecture majors require a $38 book (used) but the architecture kit costs $73. If the goal of EOPS is student success, it makes sense to apportion funds for required materials. Money for EOPS is allotted to community colleges through a grant by
the state. Book allocations depend on the size of the grant. EOPS students at SWC may receive $275 one semester and $210 the next. EOPS students are required to meet with a counselor three times per semester. Appointment number one is a review of the Student Education Plan. EOPS can create a form where, during the first appointment, a student can sign off for the allocation of 10, 15 or 20 percent of their EOPS money to be used for school supplies at the bookstore. If EOPS were to receive $500,000 to divide among 2,000 students next semester, each student would receive $250 for books. If a student decided to allocate 10 percent of her money for school supplies, she would have $25. At 15 percent she would have $37.50 and at 20 percent she would have $50. While that may not be enough for an architecture kit, it significantly subsidizes the cost. For an art student, the funds can be a safety net for replacement of broken materials or stocking up on acrylic paints. Students could also purchase Scantrons, writing materials and a planner. EOPS does great things for students, now it is time to optimize the system’s performance.
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Smoking is banned on the Southwestern College campus, save for a few designated areas near parking lots. Smokers of electronic cigarettes, however, seem to feel they are exempt. SWC’s governing board has not made policy on e-cigs yet, but when it does it should give them a break, at least for a couple years. Allowing e-cigs on campus, ironically, could help end cigarette smoking completely. Electronic cigarette use is growing. It delivers a controllable nicotine dosage and in a flashy package. Instead of using a lighter, the device heats nicotine liquid and converts it to mist called “vapor.” E-cigarettes are the Prius of smoking. They are compact, efficient and with fewer emissions. They generate less trash from packaging and not butts. Less combustion means less second hand smoke. There is little smell and does less damage to teeth. E-cigarettes cause minimal harm to those around them. Smokers are able to customize nicotine levels and can dial down the highly addictive drug until they reach zero and have kicked the habit. Fo r s o m e p e o p l e smoking is an aesthetic choice. E-cigs provide a new option that is less harmful. A Chinese company called Ruyan f i r s t i n t ro d u c e d t h e devices in China in 2004 as smoking cessation tools and remained a small industry of a few independent companies until 2010, when Big Tobacco started cashing
in. Use of E-cigarettes as a medical tool for smoking cessation is controversial. Because it is a relatively new industry, long-term affects are unknown. Some former smokers reported the tool as a way of successfully quitting. E-cigarettes are also not subject to advertising restrictions like traditional cigarettes. An advertisement for Blu e-cigarettes aired during the 2011 Super Bowl, the first TV ad for a tobacco product in 46 years. Regulators should ban sweet flavors such as cinnamon, chocolate or waffles that may entice children to smoke. Devices are currently available to minors on the Internet and at mall kiosks. Irony aside, tobacco giants Marlboro, Camel and Newport have rolled out Mark Ten, Vuse and Blu E-cigarettes, but as technology not smokes. Costco carries Blu E-cigs right next to the HD TVs and digital cameras. Devices are $30-$200. A 30-milliliter bottle of vapor liquid is the equivalent of 50 packs of cigarettes and costs $10-20. San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors has waded into the fray. Supervisors voted this month to have County staff study regulation options. Staff is scheduled to present recommendations in February. The University of California system has already banned E-cigarettes on its campuses. SWC should allow e-cigs, at least for the time being. They are a bit cleaner and less hazy than the stubborn cigarette dinosaur. E-cigs could help smoking finally go extinct.
Wendy Gracia/Staff
Lack of information on campus resources By Maria Bertlan A Perspective
Joaquin Junco Jr./Staff
Some of the best-kept secrets in our community are hidden at Southwestern College like Easter eggs on a spring morning. Unfortunately, the eggs often go bad while students go hungry. There is not enough of a push to inform students of the available resources SWC offers. Time to fix that. SWC should print brochures and flyers to broadcast and market available opportunities. Technology allows services to be posted on the campus website and social media sites. After the first week of the ASO’s welcome programs and activities, it is easy to forget about resources such as EOPS, health services, counseling, arcade, the automotive department and the beautiful Botanical Garden. SWC’s excellent Academic Resource Center assists with writing and math tutoring. All that is needed is a student ID. EOPS is a service that helps with
college book expenses. Unfortunately, EOPS staff is hard to find. It is pushed into a corner of the Cesar Chavez building. SWC’s automotive department will often repair students’ cars for low prices. Students only need to fill out a request form for suspension, high performance tune-ups, brake, tire and engine jobs, all without labor fees. SWC’s Botanical Garden is a fouracre wonderland of fragrant flowers and beautiful trees. This is an excellent hide away for students to de-stress and relax between classes. Other stress relief possibilities reside in the Student Center. It hosts a game room, video games, a pool table and other games like chess. Health Service has nurses on campus for students, but too few ever visit there. This is one of the great bargains on our campus. Some great deals await students who take the time to look for them. Go explore our campus and its services. Great surprises await.
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Oct. 19. - Nov. 24, 2013 — Vol. 57, Issue 3
BACKPAGE
The Southwestern College Sun
John Domogma/Staff
Winning Big in
Fast Company By John Domogma Assistant Sports Editor
Serina Duerte/Staff
SCORING POINTS— (above) George Martinez captured 23rd place to help add to SWC’s tally.
FRESNO–Top five, worth the drive. Daniel Vazquez and Carlos Sibaja got up off the ground following a nasty spill to score crucial points that helped lead a hungry men’s cross country team to a fifth place finish in the California State Championships. Steven Lepe led all Southwestern College runners by grabbing 11th place in 203-man field and Miguel Lopez was 12 th. Lepe and Lopez both earned All-American honors. “We beat exactly who we came here to beat,” said head coach Dr. Duro Agbede. “My goal today was to place in the top five and we had to go against a lot of strong teams.” Agbede’s main target was archrival San Diego City College, which beat SWC at the regionals. Agbede has a friendly but fierce rivalry with Mesa coach Paul Greer. Vazquez and Sibaja were tripped and fell barely 100 meters into the race. They had to stay down for a few precious seconds so as to not be badly injured in the stampede of runners. “Two of our runners went down
Colin Grylls/Staff By Colin Grylls Assistant Sports Editor
Life on Earth was supposed to be annihilated in 2012, but SWC football players are ecstatic that Armageddon has been delayed long enough to play the 2013 season. It was the Jaguars who did the annihilating this year, romping to a 9-2 record and a smashing 34-23 Patriotic Bowl win over San Bernardino Valley College. “It was an incredible success,” said coach Ed Carberry. “The biggest success will be figured out when we see how many guys transfer to universities. That will be the ultimate success of this team, but it’s the winningest sophomore class in the history of the school. It is the first time in the history of the school that we’ve won back-to-back bowl games, so we’re certainly going to celebrate all of that.” Carberry’s super sophomores end their community college careers with an 18-3 record, a mark matched by only three of the other 69 football programs in the California Community College Athletic Association over the last two years. Linebackers Khaalid Abdullah and Jeremy Burgos started both seasons. “We’re done here,” said Burgos, his Chicago accent making it difficult to picture him anywhere but behind the wheel of the Bluesmobile. “From what last year told us and this year, me and him are probably one of the best combos to ever play here.” Abdullah, the Joliet Jake to Burgos’s Elwood, was named Defensive Player of the Game. “I was hoping to get it, that’s what I was working for,” he said. “I mean, I wasn’t actively working for it, but just play as hard as you can and good things will come to you, and that’s what I did, just bust my ass every single play. Go hard, 100 percent every time.” Abdullah certainly had his work cut out for him. San Bernardino Valley quarterback Collin Willis earned the Offensive Player of the Game award behind a 263-yard, two touchdown performance. Despite Willis’s individual success, the Wolverines conference-best offense was held 13 points below
and they had to get up and start again,” said Agbede. “It was brutal because they had bruises all over their legs.” Sibaja rebounded to finished 85th. Vazquez finished 123rd. “Today I expected to break 21 minutes in four miles,” said Sibaja, “but there was a pile-up and I got tripped from behind and fell down, hard. I started from 120th and tried to catch up, but it was too late for that. My time was 21:45.” Despite scraped knees and bruises, Vasquez was upbeat. “The fall did affect us, it was very competitive,” he said. “A lot of people train a whole season to get our time, so I gained from that comeback.” Lepe took Agbede’s advice to heart, not playing the hare but also no one’s tortoise. “I was mainly with the two Mesa guys that coach wanted me to be with,” he said. “He didn’t want me to lead the pack and be a bunny, so I stuck with them.” Lepe finished in the lead pack. “We basically gave it all we had,” he said. “I feel proud of
their conference-leading 36.1 points per game. “[The Jags] are a fast team,” Willis said. “I think we had a difficult time blocking them because their speed was throwing us off. But they’re a great team. I want to beat them. I haven’t beaten ‘em yet. I give credit to their defense, they work hard for it. Congratulations to them.” SWC had pulled away early, taking a 14-3 lead into the half. Penalties and mistakes, however, let SBVC creep back within three at 20-17 score in the fourth quarter. Both of Willis’s touchdown runs followed pass interference penalties, one of which negated a Kiman Edwards interception. In fact, there was as much yellow on the field as a farmer’s market banana display. The teams had 32 combined penalties for 301 yards, constantly interrupting the flow of the game, according to Burgos and his fellow Soul Man Abdullah. “You lose momentum right away,” said Burgos. “You get an interception, you get the ball back to your offense and then a flag comes and you’re thinking in your head ‘are you kidding me?’ We were just right off the field, we see the flag…” “It’s pretty demoralizing,” Abdullah chimed in. Burgos and Abdullah make quite the pair. Their chemistry, along with defensive tackle Alfonso Hampton’s mentality, are big reasons why the Jags finished the year with one of California’s top 10 defenses in points allowed per game, yards allowed per game and sacks. “I feel like I don’t allow much to get through my gap or even my other d-tackle’s gap,” said Hampton. “If he can’t be there to make it, I’m going to do the best I can to get there and stop that run.” SWC’s defense regained its first half form after allowing the Wolverines to come within three points. An interception by Kiman Edwards was book-ended by wide receiver Cameron Lee’s two fourth quarter touchdowns. Lee, winner of the game’s MVP award, also had a first quarter score. He was on the receiving end of 151 of quarterback Frank Foster’s 321 passing yards and three of his touchdown throws. Wide receiver Jason Gaines caught Foster’s other touchdown pass. Foster said he was excited about the win, but the previous week’s loss against Chaffey was still in the back of his mind. “We obviously (did not want) to lose those two games,” he said, “but it was great coming off of that conference loss last week and bouncing back. What we did overall, nine wins, is pretty impressive.” The End of Days may not be near, but at least for the sophomores their Mayan Hall calendar ended with a bowl victory.
what we did.” Cheering on the Jaguars was former SWC star Jose Lopez, who holds the school record for 1,500 meters for his time at the 2008 Cal State Championships at Cerritos College. “He lives in LA and is everywhere we compete,” said Agbede. “He came to (Mount San Antonio College), he came to Riverside and he came today.” Lopez earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees thanks to full cross country scholarships to Mississippi Valley State. Lopez praised Agbede, one of SWC’s most successful professors when it comes to transferring h i s students. “ H e is always there pushing me through everything and motivating me,” he said. “You see how it pays off.” Agbede expects a powerhouse in 2014. “This has been a very successful year because we have all freshmen with the exception of Sibaja,” he said. “The next step is to rebuild and recruit for next year.”
Serina Duerte/Staff
SPRINT TO THE FINISH— (above) Southwestern’s Steven Lepe and Miguel Lopez battled for the finish line. They both clocked 20:35, but Lepe finished half a step ahead to capture 11th place. Both runners earned All-American honors. (below) SWC’s Rosario Alexander finished 73rd in the field of 203.
Bowling for a
John Domogma/Staff
Championship
David McVicker/Staff
April Abarrondo/Staff
SUPER SOPHOMORES— (top left) Physical play by both teams led to 32 penalties in the Patriotic Bowl, including a pass interference call against Vincent Stafford (3), which negated a Kiman Edwards (8) interception. (center) Wide receiver DeSean Waters makes a move. (above) (l-r) Jeremy Burgos, Khaalid Abdullah and Daniel Castro show off Abdullah’s Defensive Player of the Game award.
Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 —Volume 57, Issue 3
The Southwestern College Sun
CAMPUS
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‘I WALK THE LINE’ Students who live in Mexico endure a grueling daily commute across la frontera
O
fficially at least, the lines of the Southwestern Community College District are pretty clear. Division Street in National City to the north, Coronado to the west, Sweetwater Dam to the east and the Mexican border to the south. Officially, at least. Unofficially, college leaders have acknowledged for years that anywhere from 20-40 percent of SWC’s students live in Mexico. Some are Mexicans from
excellent Tijuana high schools seeking higher education at the best college in la frontera. A surprisingly high number are Americans who reside in Baja California for the considerably lower cost of living. Getting to school, though, has its own cost. Depending on the ever-changing dynamics of the border itself, traveling from Tijuana or Rosarito Beach can typically take anywhere from 2-4 hours. Sometimes it takes six hours. When there are law-enforcement incidents or
political turmoil the border can be sealed completely. (Professors still talk about how empty the campus was for weeks after 9/11.) A pair of SWC Sun staffers went home one evening with students who live in Mexico, then documented their typical journey to Southwestern the next morning. Following is a day in the life of two intrepid students who commute across a heavilyguarded international border twice a day, five days a week.
Marshall Murphy/staff
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE — Getting to the border is the easy part. Crossing la linea is where everything bogs down. By Marshall Murphy Staff Photographer
6 a.m.: Class starts in four hours. It is a hazy Friday morning and the only things between class and a student is a fortified line between two countries and a crushing line of people cued up to get into the United States. We begin our descent down a large hill from a gated community in Tijuana, an eclectic mix of the city’s most modern architecture and imagination-free cinder block homes. Streets are full of teethrattling cracks, bumps and potholes. As we jostle down the road, weathered posters for bullfights and Norteño bands hang askew, their color beaten away by the elements. 6:40 a.m.: We are traveling by car to the border. When we get to the bottom of the hill, we stop at an OXXO convenience store, the 7-Eleven of Tijuana. Bottled guava juice is the most healthy choice. Others are getting ready for their day with a coffee and pan dulce. One man has an issue of “La Zeta,” Tijuana’s newspaper in hand. San Diego’s U-T is also on news racks. 6:48 a.m.: Tijuana’s morning rush hour smells of sulfurized PEMEX gasoline fumes. “Hectic” is an insufficient word. Haphazard driving and maneuvers make the roads an automotive pinball machine of chaos. We drive past newspaper salesmen and vendors getting their carts ready for the day. Foot long, deep fried, sugar- encrusted churros are the roadside donuts of the Tijuana commute. 6:55 a.m.: We park the car in a day lot a few minutes walk to the port of entry. Most of the car lots had filled to capacity by 7 a.m. Operators of many of the lots said they had been filled since 5 a.m. We start walking towards la linea. The highway exit, which becomes a two-lane road, was at a stand still. Food vendors and merchants meander through clouds of exhaust selling snacks, colorful knick-knacks and this week’s popular folk art knock-offs. “Real” Rolex watches and designer bags are also available. Two lanes multiply into gates dividing the Ready-Lane/Sentri cardholders from the general population traveling like a human glacier toward el norte. The Ready Lane and Sentri passes are known as Radio Frequency Identification. They are cards issued by the U.S. Government allowing for faster transit into America. Sentri allows the fastest cross times because of a pre-screening and application process. The rest of the general population, with
Serina Duarte/staff
THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART — Thousands of cars line up into the pre-dawn hours waiting to cross the border into the United States. Some will wait for as many as four hours to cross. By Serina Duarte Photo Editor
paper passport or government issued ID, can expect a four-hour wait in the INS building alone. 7:00 a.m.: The line was just up to the first bridge to start heading towards downtown Tijuana. It was a welcomed sight compared to the usual line of bodies snaking up and then back down the street. We hopped in line. Fragrant churros sweetened the morning air as the sun began to peak through the clouds. We waited. Then we waited some more. 7:35 a.m. In the distance a screechy violin massacred a melody. A musical panhandler with a limp and crutch wore the hood of his sweater under his cowboy hat to fend off the chill. At the end of the violin is a cup of change he would shake to prompt his shifting audience. A few folks tossed in a coin or two, but most had heard his act before. 8:15 a.m.: Crossing the actual official border line, which divides the U.S. and Mexico is merely symbolic. Even though they are now on American soil, travelers must enter a gate where there is another line to wait in. A no-nonsense Customs officer looks at travelers’ identification, asks where they are headed please see Border pg. B3
3:35 a.m.: Sofia Montoya, 21, has lived in Tijuana her entire life. She wakes to her mother’s voice saying, “It’s time to get up.” Montoya energizes her morning by listening to “Royals” by Lorde on repeat as she looks through her closet to start her day. 4:30 a.m.: Montoya walks a block from her house in Playas de Tijuana in the dark lonely hours of the morning serenaded by barking dogs as she reaches a corner and waits for an overfilled taxi to downtown Tijuana. 5:00 a.m.: She walks two more blocks and patiently waits for the next bus. Montoya struggles against sleep while the bus rocks back and forth, then is jarred awake when the smoky vehicle hits some potholes near the border crossing. She walks off the bus and continues on foot over the pedestrian bridge. Toddlers wrapped in blankets hold their parents’ hands as elderly women amble along. Crowds of bleary-eyed travelers coalesce near la linea. 5:30 a.m.: Montoya
makes it to the border. Everyone is quiet and on their best behavior. Customs officers look her up and down, pause a moment, then wave her through. It was a surprisingly light day at la linea, only 45 minutes. 6:25 a.m .: She catches the San Diego trolley in San Ysidro, the southern end of the line. It is crowded with students, housekeepers, laborers and people looking for work. Montoya g e ts o ff at “H ” Street and is lucky to get right on the 709 bus to Southwestern College. Sometime she waits an hour for a seat on the 709. 7:15 a.m.: Arrived at SWC. This time is considered to be a very good day, free of major incidents and delays. On really bad days when it takes 5.5 hours she arrives at the college at 10 a.m. 7 : 3 0 a . m . : C o ff e e a t Jason’s.
8 a.m.: On time for class.
It is a long day at Southwestern, especially with co-curricular activities, including singing in one of the college’s elite choirs. There is often another visit to Jason’s at the end of the day. Getting home takes between 2-3.5 hours. Montoya is hoping it is just two.
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Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 — Vol. 57, Issue 3
Amanda L. Abad, editor
CAMPUS
Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: campus@theswcsun.com
Athlete activist honored
Veterans celebrate a new center of their own
By Gonzalo Quintana Assistant Campus Editor
By Liliana Cervantes Assistant News Editor
Joe Chavez played soccer on the U.S. Paralympic Games in London and has been the subject of glowing magazine features. He has been places and done things, but he is a beloved figure at Southwestern College because he helped so many other people go places and do things. Chavez was presented with the Student Access Award at the first annual SWC Access Awards hosted by the American Disability Act committee and A.B.L.E Club. Chavez, a former A.B.L.E. president, led the effort to purchase an accessible van capable of transporting students in wheelchairs. He was also on the forefront of awareness-raising projects, including the Walk-n-Rollathon, which challenged students and staff to travel around campus in wheelchairs in order to promote empathy. “I’ve been here for a long time and I hadn’t been recognized as something big until that day,” he said. “It was emotional for CHAVEZ me.” Administrative assistant Monica Rodriguez, who works in the DSS department, said Chavez’s significance reaches far beyond the SWC community. “Joe is such a great advocate and role model for all people with disabilities,” she said. Brenda Rodriguez received the Diane Branman Faculty/Staff Access Award. Rodriguez, a clerical assistant for the school of counseling, was recognized for helping students. Before setting appointments, she listens. “Most of the time they come when they’re in crisis,” she said. “You just have to pay attention closely, be very patient and understanding.” Partnerships With Industry was honored with the Community Partner Access Award. PWI provides jobs for persons with disabilities and has partnered with SWC in many endeavors. Keynote speaker Dr. Catherine Campisi inspired the audience by illustrating her experiences as an advocate for disability rights, which is an ongoing movement. Disability Support Services Director Dr. Malia Flood hosted the event.
One of America’s most veteran-friendly colleges just got friendlier. Southwestern College’s annual Veterans Day Ceremony was more significant this year as it also celebrated the opening of the new Veterans Resource Center on campus. Years in the making, the VRC will house tutoring, counseling, disability support, employment assistance and a quiet place for student veterans to associate. St u d e n t Ve t e r a n s O r g a n i z a t i o n (SVO) President Tim Walsh gave an emotional speech at the ceremony. “When their service is complete veterans of every era, of every branch, have another thing in common as well,” he said. “They share the common experience of coming home, fitting back into society, facing the challenges associated with the next phase of their life. For some this transition experience is best explained as a culture shock. For others it’s filled with tremendous anxiety, uncertainty, new physical limitations and the first steps on a lifetime journey of emotional healing.” Financial Aid Director Patti Larkin commended SVO’s leadership in establishing the VRC. “They picked everything out about that center,” she said. “They were really the guiding force, so basically how the center turned out is a reflection of their vision.” Student veterans were honored earlier this semester during SWC’s Gift of Scholarship Gala hosted by the SWC Educational Foundation.
SWC heroes have a quiet place to gather, network
That student with the blazing thumbs entranced by a video game in the student center may be more than a fan boy passing time before classes. There is a decent chance he is the game’s creator. On a campus known for training great nurses, journalists, dental hygienists and distance runners, video game designers are programming their way into the lime light one line of code at a time. Club Web, comprised of student web and game designers, hosted a video game tournament with Fanboy Gaming. It was an opportunity to learn how tournaments are organized and to test some of their products, according to Professor Kathleen Lopez, advisor for Club Web, who teaches video game development. She said the college’s relationship with Fanboy Gaming has been a blessing. “They are professional, they provided all of the equipment, about 30 systems,” she said. “It allows my students to see how tournaments are run and meet some of the young and hip people in the industry. (Fanboy Gaming) is a very good mentor.” She also spoke highly of her students. “We have the best and brightest students,” she said. “Students make about please see Game pg. B3
It was themed “The Year of the Veteran” and raised $15,000 for veteran scholarships. Walsh said he was grateful for all supporters at the gala and SVO’s tireless work. “It’s a remarkable experience to see so many people so dedicated to assisting veterans in their transition back to civilian life,” he said.
Former California Assemblyman and Marine Corps veteran Nathan Fletcher was the honored guest. Channel 10 News reporter Joe Little was an energetic host who used humor to keep guests entertained. Other guests included Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox, City Council Member Mary Salas and Congresswomen Susan Davis. Veterans Ser vices Specialist Jim
Jones said the community owes veterans its unrelenting gratitude. “We can never thank our services members enough,” he said. “They deserve everything that we can give them.” SWC was ranked as one of America’s most veteran-friendly institutes of higher education by Veterans magazine. As the Afghanistan war winds down, said Larkin, SWC will certainly enroll more veterans.
Footloose free-spirit likes to keep it moving Jacob Coon pays for travel by canning salmon, selling ice cream and serving the disabled
Serious about gaming By Nicholas Baltz Sports Editor
Serina Duarte/staff
SUPPORTING THE TROOPS — (l-r) SWC President Dr. Melinda Nish, SVO adviser Jim Jones and SVO President Tim Walsh place a wreath in honor of veterans on campus and across the globe.
Serina Duarte/staff
I GET AROUND — Jacob Coon is making his way across the globe, one job at a time. By Amanda L. Abad Campus Editor
“A person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, causing us to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.” –Frank Herbert from “Dune.” Jacob Coon is wide-awake and not afraid of change. A globe-trotting former Southwestern College and Hilltop High School student, Coon is powered by wanderlust and at home almost anywhere on the planet. Coon, a 24-year-old Chula Vista native, recently came back from working at a salmon cannery in Alaska. A friend told him about the job, he said, and he decided to apply for fun. He got an interview the next day. “Within a week I was on my way to work in Alaska,” he said. Working 16-hour days, seven days a week was not worth the pay, he said. He had hoped to explore Alaska, but was tethered to the assembly line. “After working 16-hour days all you really want to do is sleep,” said Coon. “We didn’t get a lot of time off, but when we did I was able to explore a little. It wasn’t until my family came to
visit that I was really able to see Alaska.” Coon described his job as being a line of human conveyor belts. He pushed cans into a metal crate, then shoved the crate into an oven. “There were 300 cans per minute,” said Coon. “It was slave labor. It was gnarly and the pay wasn’t good. I was able to save money only because there wasn’t anywhere to spend it. Repetitive actions and being less than three feet away from the next person can definitely take its toll on a person.” Tedium gave him time to think, though, and he was able to plan his next adventure. “I knew I wanted to work for myself,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to start my own food truck, but the permits for that are really expensive. So I thought of the next best thing, an ice cream truck.” Normally Coon worked the Mission Beach area, but once school let out he hit up the neighborhoods around his alma mater, Hilltop High. During the weekdays he worked four-to-five hour days, he said, and on weekends he did at least eight-hour days. “I start at 9 a.m,” said Coon. “I head to one of the commissaries and fill up on those old school ice creams, dry ice and whatever other goodies I need.
For the most part, the job is easy. The hardest part for me is keeping books, since I’m the only one accountable for everything. Sometimes I forget to write things down and forget how much I’m spending and earning.” Coon said he plans to return to SWC as a business major for the spring 2014 semester. He started general education courses at SWC more than three years ago, then transferred to Humboldt College of the Redwoods to study forestry. He worked in landscaping and built a disk golf course. Just 50 feet behind the campus is the Redwood Forest of “This Land is your Land.” During many of his classes he would walk through the forest for labs to study leaves and other plants. “We would climb up these three 160foot tall redwoods that grew extremely close to each other,” he said. “You’d climb halfway up one and transfer to the other tree. The branches were so big and secure that it was like walking on a spiral staircase. At about 130 feet up there is this giant hammock that we would hang out in. There was a rope that we would use to secure ourselves onto the hammock so we wouldn’t roll off if we fell asleep.” Coon said he spent many nights up in that hammock, but up another 30-feet was an even greater experience. “Someone shaved off the top of one of the trees and drilled down a chair,” he said. “It’s crazy scary sitting 160 feet up in a chair because you feel like you’ll fall out when the wind blows. So you’re sitting there, hands clutching the bottom of the chair, body tense, scared shitless for your life but the view from that high up the Redwood Forest is worth the fear.” Beautiful redwoods were not enough to keep Coon rooted. Longing to escape the rain he returned to San Diego Count’s sunshine. Shortly after he applied to work at an organic farm in Hawaii and hopped on a jet for Maui. “When I got to Hawaii, the farm owner said he did not have a job for me,” he said. “I didn’t have any money, so I slept on the beach, woke up, and surfed and looked for jobs for a month. Eventually I found two jobs and was able to find a new spot to sleep…on the roof of a building near my first job.” Matt Chism said he met Coon at Christian Youth Theatre, and got to know him well when Coon joined the water polo team at Hilltop. Coon’s determination to find a way to survive says a lot about his character, said
Chism. “(Coon is) extremely charismatic, a bit of a social chameleon,” he said. “He managed to get more jobs in less than a year in Hawaii than I’ve had my entire adult life.” Michael Thomas, a childhood friend of Coon, agreed. “I have never thought of Jacob as having no willpower or having a bad work ethic,” he said. “Not much is able to overcome his seemingly neverending optimism. His laid-back nature and overall goodness makes it so (challenges) in his life do not get under his skin easily.” Coon said he stayed in Maui for about two years before coming back home. He said he plans to go to Tasmania soon to give tours and teach people to ride horses. “Ultimately, I want to go to Costa Rica and live there,” he said. “I want to buy property on the beach and turn it into a surf resort, bed and breakfast.” Chism said Coon’s traveling helps him to grow as a person. “It’s inspiring to us who have stayed local,” said Chism. “He’s definitely diving into uncharted waters headfirst and that’s the quickest way to learn about yourself in the world.” Thomas said he has known his friend for such a long time that he does not miss him when he is gone. “I know that I will see him again because he can’t stay away from here for an extremely long time,” said Thomas. “Some of his adventures have helped him to become a very cultured person. Nothing will ever make Jacob grow up. It is his childish ways that make Jacob who he is.” Coon said his favorite job was at The Arc in San Diego. “We worked with special needs individuals,” he said. “They are high function enough to hold a job, but they need a little bit of help. They are awesome people and they were so much fun to be around. I still see them around and they always say hi to me and give me hugs.” Coon said his time spent doing these different types of jobs in different parts of the world was worth it because he was able to make friends from South America, Europe and Australia. “Travelling is crucial,” he said. “Every time you leave and come back, you grow. You expand your feeling of home. I can go to Maui, or Australia, or wherever and feel at home. I did that by making more friends and putting myself out there.”
CAMPUS
The Southwestern College Sun
Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 — Vol. 57, Issue 3
Living Coast Discovery Center avoids extinction Last-minute fund raising ‘miracle’ saves iconic Chula Vista landmark from imminent closure By Gonzalo Quintana Assistant Campus Editor
enticing them by telling them a b o u t t h e c e n t e r. Ot h e r children raised $650 by running a lemonade stand. “Then we had a little girl who did a cartwheel-athon, which was adorable,” said Grant. “She got her neighbors and her friends to sponsor money for every cartwheel that she did.” Located in the outskirts of Chula Vista at the foot of E Street, the LCDC is a wetlands wildlife refuge, an area where nature is protected from the impact of humans. It provides many services, including overnight
L
ike many of the species it shelters, Chula Vista’s muchloved Living Coast Discover y Center needed to be rescued. Then, in a preChristmas miracle, it happened. Indebted and troubled financially, the LCDC (formerly the Chula Vista Nature Center), a non-profit zoo and aquarium, was on the brink of closing down. An Oct. 1 announcement painted a bleak picture. LCDC had a deficit of $200,000 to pay off in order to keep its doors from closing to the public on Oct. 28. E d u c a t i o n Coordinator Amanda Grant said she prepared for the worst while reassuring those around her. “The first thing we told people is we have a plan for every single one of these animals,” she said. Since the animals are all non-releasable they would have had to go to other organizations, she said. LCDC staff was scrambling to find homes for sea turtles, stingrays, sea horses and its many other species. An outpouring of support from the community retired the deficit in just 27 days. On the day LCDC was supposed to close down it instead celebrated the collection of $401,064. Donations came in from corporate sponsors, anonymous sources and community members, including young children pitching in change. Grant said one local girl went around asking her family, friends and neighbors for small donations,
Border: SWC students crossing the border have daily adventures Continued from Page B1
and why. 9:25 a.m.: Walking out of Customs
Serina Duarte/staff
into the U.S. sunlight felt like finishing a marathon. Only we were not finished. As the crow flies SWC is about six miles from the Mexican border, but it’s about 10 miles from the San Ysidro port of entry to Jaguar Walk at SWC. Google says it’s a 28-minute drive, but students crossing the border rarely drive cars. It is public transportation from here to the college.
There is a long line at the San Diego Trolley ticket kiosk in San Ysidro. A day pass costs $5, plus $2 more if you do not have a Compass Pass. The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System’s trolley cycles through every 15 minutes to the San Ysidro stop. Four stops from the border we get off at the “H” Street station. Luckily, the 709 bus to Southwestern College had not departed and
programs and educational outreach, said Grant. “Not only do kids come for field trips and day camps but we also have two fully equipped classrooms,” she said. Grant said the classrooms are used by the Chula Vista elementary schools and the Mueller Charter School. Southwestern College biology major Arlene Alvarado said the LCDC is great for teaching and inspiring children. “I think that if you teach kids since they’re little then they’ll learn to appreciate nature,” she said. “Biology is everything. It’s all around.” Former SWC student Ethan Faust deMello said he started dedicating time to the center after his grandmother told him about its impending demise. DeMello has close ties to the LCDC, both as a Chula Vista local and as the grandson of Charles Faust, who was known throughout the county for his artwork, including the “Tidelands” sandcasting displayed outside the LCDC. DeMello credits his uncle Rolfe Faust with teaching him to sandcast, which has been his contribution to the center. “Anyone who was donating certain amounts to the center would be given a gift of a sand casting,” he said. His compensation, he said, is spreading happiness. “I don’t get paid, said deMello. “I pay for the materials. “The people I’ve met and the connections I’ve made well outweigh anything that would ever leave my pocket.” Grant said a plan is in place to keep LCDC financially stable. “The first thing this money is going toward is to hire a director of development, somebody who’s entire 40-hour a week job is focused on raising money for us,” she said. A strategic plan has also been put into place, Grant said. “Instead of just focusing on being a zoo and aquarium, we are going to focus on being what is called an education and interpretive facility,” she said. Grant said status as an education center would give LCDC the opportunity to apply for a wider variety of grants.
we jump on. 10:10 a.m.: It took 45 minutes for the trolley and bus to get our clump of students to SWC’s main Chula Vista campus. 10:25 a.m.: Even though we left the Tijuana house at 6 a.m., we are 25 minutes to class. Our professor gives us the evil eye as we walk in, probably thinking we are slackers who slept late. If he only knew.
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Game: Programming class puts students into the real game Continued from Page B2
five games each. We have a blast.” Jorge Corona, one of the program’s alumni, has gone on to work on the smash hit “Call of Duty: Ghosts.” Lopez said she is thrilled for him. “It’s the coolest thing in the world, (to have a former student at) the best video game company in the world,” she said. “We are really proud of him.” Corona was able to take what he learned at SWC to excel as a professional, Lopez said. “First he was hired to do the graphics,” she said. “He had good ideas so they invited him into the team that does the coding for the different levels.” Former SWC student Miguel Gomez is working on the next “Halo” video game, one of the biggest game franchises of all time, said Lopez. Club Web’s second tournament with Fanboy Gaming exceeded expectations, she said, with more than 50 people showing up to compete. Games that were played included “Super Smash Brothers Melee,” “FIFA 14,” “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” “Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3,” “Madden 14” and “Super Street Fighter IV.” Jonathan De La Cruz, a health science major, said he enjoyed competing. “My buddy told me to come check it out,” he said. “I’ve always played games but never against live people. I came to play ‘Marvel vs. Campcom.’ I’m definitely interested in coming back and getting more involved in the fighting game community after today.” Victor Mendez, Club Web’s president, said he wants classmates to be prepared for the professional environment. “My goal with this club is for everyone to have a good portfolio to show employers,” he said, “so they can say they’ve done a website before or they’ve made a video game. Our plan is to make a video game as a club.” It may sound simple enough but making a video game is not an easy task. “It’s very difficult,” said Mendez. “You think video games are fun when you are playing them, but once you’re making them, man, it’s a whole other story.” Angela Tam, secretary of Club Web, agreed. “You can build a game within in a month,” she said. “But to make it really good, it can take several months. Math is essential because it’s the physics, the speed of movement. When a ball falls it loses energy with each bounce, so there’s physics in that. If you want to make it interactive you need to know the coding. Otherwise, you just have a movie.” Mendez agreed. “You have to know a lot of math, calculus level math, to deal with all the physics,” he said. “For example, in shooting games like ‘Call of Duty’, every shot fired and every shot that hits, takes a portion of your life, so you have to make an equation for that to determine how much.” As technology improves, expectations for games rise, but many never understand how long it can really take to make something so realistic. Andres Orueta, a web design major and Club Web member, learned that first hand. “That was one of the problems when I was testing for Sony,” he said. “For a game release you have these deadlines and if you don’t meet it you’re talking about millions of dollars being lost. They have to crunch it out and sometimes you can’t fix a certain bug in a game because there’s no time.” Club Web member Benjamin Faustino said he is confident in the skills he has learned in the club and the design classes. “It’s one of the best programs on campus, the classes always fill up,” he said. “My goal is to get my certificate, and try and get a job in the industry right away. If that doesn’t work it’s back to school to gain more skills until I can break into the industry.” Video game programming is a booming American industry, said Mendez, but connections still matter because of the tightness of the community. Orueta agreed. “We’re really good about helping each other out,” he said. “If there’s a job opportunity we really try to bring on people from this club. Any students who graduate can end up helping us out down the road.” Club Web meets every Tuesday at 11 a.m. in room 223. Quick thumbs and quicker brains are encouraged to attend.
Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 Volume 57, Issue 3
ARTS
The Southwestern College Sun
B4
DANCE STREAMS
> REVIEW
Serina Duarte/staff
ALL IS FAIR IN ‘LOVE AND WAR’ — Lesa M. Green’s contemporary jazz dance was a highlight of “Dance Dreams,” an exhuberant, if bumpy, concert in Mayan Hall. (below) Sydnee Cruse was featured in the elegant number “Equus.”
> REVIEW
Fall showcase is rough but talent shines through By Fernanda Gutierrez // Assistant Arts Editor Photos by Serina Duarte // Photo Editor
T
o dance is to be out of yourself, waxed the great choreographer Agnes de Mille. To dance is to be larger, more beautiful and more powerful. Dance Streams mostly lived up to those standards during an evening of flowing energy, a supportive audience, and gents who outshined the ladies. It was a mix of styles and techniques ranging from classical ballet to the charro and his lady zapateando the night away. A Bollywood dance to “Chamma Chamma” by Gloria Lanuza got the evening off to a sloppy start. Beautiful gold-sequined saris did not hide the nervousness of the dancers. Confidence built, though, as they slowly cast a spell on an audience that became captivated by flirty hip moves and inviting hand gestures. A muddy beginning evolved into a brilliant fast-paced synchronized and coquette performance. “Creepin’” by Eric Church featured 10 skilled tap dancers who proved that country music and tap can work together like tights and 10-gallon hats. Performers sold the number and seemed to enjoy every click of their feet like a gunfighter’s spurs on a wooden saloon floor. “No Man’s Land” by Daniel Flores and his dancers was pure confusion. Sounds of honking cars and a busy city life was the ambiance of the performance. As the voice of a news reporter explained what immigrants go through, dancers dressed as beggars began their bizarre performance. The concept was worthy, but the message did not come through until the end when a banda got the crowd excited. Mary Jo Horvarth’s contemporary piece “Equus” was the highlight of the evening. It was simple, elegant and striking. Featuring both ladies and gentleman, this performance proved men, too, can be soft and delicate as a rose petal gracefully falling and gently touching the dance floor. Every step, every move was breathtaking and their red fitted garments adorned their sculpted bodies adding passion and power to the number. Hovarth’s dance warriors left the audience astounded. “El Plebeyo y la Dama” featured folklorico dancers Felipe Quero and Michelle Abril in a piece where the charro courts his señora with such gallantry the walls of Mayan Hall resounded in the audience’s “Ay, Ay, Ay” of approval. Abril was stunning in her traditional folkloric dress, bright red lips and red roses adorning her hair. Quero fell head over heels for the beauty playing hard to get. Sealing the deal with a traditional ending, Quero and Abril hid behind Quero’s sombrero to share a small kiss as the audience applauded and cheered with great enthusiasm. “Seek and You Will Find” uncovered the meaning of interpretative dance. A screen at the back of the stage displayed words such as truth and object. All-black outfits and beaked masks made the performance intriguing. Every dancer was one world, one claim and one move. Their avian costumes,
synched performance and overall production was perfect. A dancer transforming into a beautiful bird at the end, evoking the brilliance of “Swan Lake.” “The Couch,” choreographed by Colleen Shipkowski, featured five ballerinas sitting on a couch filled with boredom. Finding excitement in a magazine, the ballerinas began to pique, leap and playfully dance their way around the couch. As the gents sneaked onto the stage behind the couch, the girls giggled. As the male dancers stood up to proudly uncover bags of chips each one held, made the audience and ladies go crazy. For the chips of course. Horvath definitely saved the best for last. Lesa M. Green created “Love and War,” a haunting contemporary jazz piece that was a crowd pleaser. Ladies in black short A-line dresses, checkered black and white leggings, and crazy hairdos gave the impression that broken mechanic dolls were taking over the stage. These dolls were certainly not broken. Ladies dressed all in black, as the guys wore metallic masks tagged along with firm moves displaying aggressiveness and authority. Dana Maue had a tough act to follow and “Runaway Baby” was anti-climatic and showed the dancers’ weaknesses. Heavy moves slowed down the tempo of the swing dance that was crying out for energy. Dancers struggled to make any sort of stunt or fancy move. What could have been a fun piece turned not-so-swingy due to a general lack of confidence in every dance move. An army of hiphop dancers flooded the stage to pump up the night with Jaami WaaliVi l l a l o b o s’ c re a t i o n o f “Bosh.” Synchronized hiphop soldiers made a strong and difficult performance seem easy. Striking rhythms, flips, turns, jumps, fueled the number. “Bosh” won many battles, but lost the war when dancers whipped out a galaxy of glaring lights blinding the audience. It was a headache-inducing finale for what was otherwise a powerful performance. Dance Streams flowed strongly, hit a fe w rocks and pulled an appreciative audience along in the current.
B5
Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 — Volume 57, Issue 3
Portfolio classes overlooked By Wendy Gracia Staff Writer
Portfolios are the first date of the art world. They are an introduction to creative people and a peek at their talent. Universities, art institutes and employers use portfolios to decide on admissions, exhibitions and employment. Portfolios are glimpses into an artist’s mind and soul. Ideally, art students at Southwestern College would be able to develop their portfolios while studying at much lower costs than private institutions. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The only portfolio class at SWC is offered sporadically. Art 197, Professional Practices of Portfolio Development for Visual Arts, is a hit-and-miss affair. More often it misses. EOPS counselor Samone Sayasenh said portfolios are essential for art students and encouraged the college to offer Art 197 every semester. “It is a requirement for art majors, so the assumption would be that it should be offered at least every semester so that students can have that practical knowledge,” she said. “It would be nice for the counselors to know if they are going to offer Art 197 or not.” Portfolios are the gateway to express artistic visions. Art students are required to present a portfolio when enrolling or transferring to a university program or art institute. Yet it seems that art faculty and administration are not taking this fundamental class seriously. Professor of Visual Arts Perry Vasquez said portfolios are critical elements of transfer for art students. “They are a component of your application,” he said. “They probably say as much or more about you than any other element of your résumé package.” Transfer students need a portfolio to demonstrate what type of work interests them, where their talents lie, what materials they have experience with and their breadth of knowledge in order to potentially enroll in higher-level classes. SWC art classes are diverse – ranging from the basics, such as drawing and painting, to more involved courses, such as printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and metalwork. There are also fundamental courses, such as an introduction to art and art history. A portfolio class should also be considered fundamental. Like painting, sculpting, and graphic art, the art of creating a great portfolio is something that requires a knowledge of the history, culture, and effective practices of the medium. Portfolios are not glorified scrapbooks, they are vessels of art – and are themselves art. Without the proper instruction, young artists at Southwestern College cannot compete with students from other colleges or high schools. They become second-class citizens in the competitive world of transfer. Sports programs, no matter how low performing they are, rarely face the danger of being cut. Yet creative and performing arts programs are always the first to be discarded, no matter how successful they are. Many more art students find careers as professionals after SWC than athletes do. SWC has zero alumni in the NFL and NBA, but tens of thousands working in creative fields. In this 21st century, America’s gamechanging innovators in technology and entertainment are creative. America’s richest citizens are most often artists. Since the Renaissance, the enlightenment of humankind has come through its art. Technology has launched a new era of creativity. SWC administrators need to read Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future.” A generation of creative people are revolutionizing all ways of life. It is time for Southwestern College to get on board. Micajah Truitt, professor of photography and digital imaging, said there has to be more communication between faculty and counselors. “Historically, there has not been,” he said. “(We need to) get students to realize they can ask questions of their instructors, find answers, ask about anything and open those daily conversations.” One portfolio class per semester will not bankrupt this college. There seems to be a dump truck load of money for vice president raises, new administrators, fancy football stadiums and lawyers. Art students suffer because our college is falling down on its job. Instead of hindering the students in this college, SWC administrators should rise to the challenge of this creative age and provide art students the opportunities to compete in the 21st century.
Daphne Jauregui, editor
ARTS
Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: arts@theswcsun.com
> REVIEW
Ceramicists fired up at innovative show By Liliana Cervantes Assistant News Editor
Ceramics students made an unspoken but clear declaration at the fall Clay Club Art Exhibition, Southwestern College has entered the post-pot era. Pottery was hard to find at the compelling, if inconsistent exhibit. Courage and creativity, though, were in abundance. Brenda Glad’s conceptual piece “Window to the Perplexed” peers into a lost time in history. She mined an ancient Mesoamerican ruin for inspiration for her piece in the shape of a women’s body. Her panorama featured a small hole in the women’s body that acts as a window showing small chairs, built-in rooms, knick-knacks, and a compass secured behind broken wooden bars. Although not the most aesthetically appealing work, the piece contained incredibly crafted details and was a testament to the artist’s skill. “The Darkness Inside” by Leo is a cracked dark grey round work resembling an egg with a hole revealing a white mouse figurine hanging from the top. Obscure and innovative, it left viewers questioning what darkness is. Color used in the piece was literal, but the big issue was either suicide or the mass slaughter of animals. Like good conceptual art, this piece can be interpreted in numerous ways causing viewers to think. Julie Mosele Green’s “Three Feet” contorts the image of feet into an oddly intriguing work of art. Complex and unexpected, “Three Feet” is daring and memorable.
“Origins” by Myra Jurado was bizarre and did not fit with the rest of the innovative and professional pieces. It features female fallopian tubes connected to the labia’s outer and inner layers. While the concept of acknowledging our origins started off as a good idea, the end result was awkward and strange. One of the more charming pieces in the exhibit was “Dreamer” by Wendy Ontiveros. Energetic and adorable clay characters wearing bug-like suits of a yellow caterpillar and black butterfly were beautifully designed. They have potential to be characters in a colorful children’s book. Reminiscent of “Alice in Wonderland” characters, the piece is delightful to look at. Humorous “Monkey Games” by Patty Palenschat depicts two monkeys, one playfully holding the tail of the other, while the other is filling out a crossword puzzle with the words “games,” “apes” and “monkeys” connected. Their startled expressions felt authentic as if we the audience truly caught these primates in a moment of sheer amusement. Clever, well crafted and original, the piece stands out. Not all pieces were showstoppers. A teapot, mug, jar, pitcher and a tea set remained in the typical spectrum of clay pottery. Despite their clean finish and professional appearance, these pieces were overshadowed by the more innovative pieces. Professor of Ceramics John Lewis has clearly challenged his students to reach for a higher level. SWC’s Clay Club raised the standard for college art shows to follow.
Karen Tome/staff
FEET OF CLAY— (top) Brenda Glad presents her sculpture“Window to the Perplexed,” (r) Zaide Diaz’ “The Hippie Van,” (above) Julie Mosele Green’s “Three Feet.”
Young airbrush whiz creates truly moving art perfectionist.” Mercado, a graphic design major, paints at a body shop called Imperial Beach Auto. He said he enjoys collaborating with the owners of the cars to come up with art that everyone is happy with. Like many talented artists, he is not primarily motivated by money. “ I d o n’t p a y attention to the pay,” said Mercado. “I take my time on my work to make the costumer happy. If they are happy, then I’m happy.” A s h e g re w u p Cindy Borjas/staff Mercado’s interest in cars also grew. ROLLING OUT A NEW CREATION— Artist Jonathan Mercado is just 18 but a pinstriping protege. M e r c a d o e n c o u n t e re d l i ve By Saira Araiza and Brianna Perea from low rider art such as el Dia de los pinstriping while attending a car show Staff Writers Muertos and la Virgen of Guadalupe. on Third Avenue in Chula Vista when He is proficient in the pinstriping styles he was 14. Kong, a pinstriping artist Jonathan Mercado is the creator of of squirreling and fine lines. at the event, left Mercado in awe and moving art. Sometimes it is moving 75 Mercado said he appreciates all the inspired him to try. miles per hour. attention he has gotten, but makes it Besides Kong, Mercado said he Just 18, Mercado is already gaining a clear that he thinks he has a long way looks up to pinstriping masters Mike Renaissance-sized reputation airbrushing to go before he would consider himself Lamberson and Danny D. images, lettering and pinstriping on great. Mercado said he started to gain real cars, trucks and almost anything with “Artists are our worst critics,” he confidence when Danny D told him he wheels. He incorporates Latino themes said. “I started finding out that I’m a had talent.
“Many people told me that my work was good, but I did not believe them,” he said. “Hearing top painter Danny D say my work was top notch made me think it must actually be true.” Mercado participates in many charity events, donating his work to fund raise money for deserving organizations. “I really enjoy what I do,” he said. “If you stay humble, you get more in return.” Raul Espinoza, Mercado’s SWC airbrush instructor, said he is confident about Mercado’s talents and abilities. He said Mercado could be a standout artist in many disciplines other than automotive design. Mercado should be working on larger projects, Espinosa said, and vary his work to further develop his talent. “He is young and he is probably at the right place at the right time,” Espinoza said. “As he gets older he will probably develop new horizons.” Gabby Aligada, an SWC airbrush student, said Mercado is an honest artist. “He is a guy who truly enjoys his art,” said Aligada. “ People who enjoy the art produce the most amazing pieces.” Aligada said Mercado is a friendly and humble classmate who encourages others. Mercado’s humility and desire will help him to improve, Aligada said. Espinoza agreed and said Mercado has a bright future no matter what he does. Walls and canvas beckon, but right now Mercado is all about cars. Mercado–and his art–are on roll.
ARTS
The Southwestern College Sun
Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 — Volume 57, Issue 3
B6
SWC Mariachi saves the day for high school musicians
By Rick Flores and Gabriel Sandoval Staff Writers
Serina Duarte/staff
MASTERFUL MARIACHI — More than 200 students local high school students attended a mariachi conference organized by Dr. Jeff Nevin and SWC’s Mariachi Garibaldi.
Dr. Jeff Nevin’s blazing trumpet announced the start of the Southwestern College Mariachi conference. It could also have been announcing that a hero was about to save the day. Sounds of Mexico’s grand music filled Mayan Hall as more than 200 students from the Sweetwater Union High School District attended the lively conference hosted by Professor of Music Jeff Nevin and his Mariachi Garibaldi. Sweetwater’s Visual and Performing Arts Department inexplicably decided not to hold its fall mariachi conference this year, but Nevin would not stand by and let it be the day the music died. “Sweetwater decided not to do its conference this year, so I stepped in to present a conference in its place,”
Nevin said. “I did not want students to lose out on the experience of attending a conference because Sweetwater could not organize it.” Students divided into groups based on the instruments they played and learned proper playing technique in multiple mariachi styles. Nevin broke new grounds with an entertaining event, as he planned a conference students would enjoy. “I call them master classes because students worked with former SWC mariachi students and professional classical musicians on instrumental t e c h n i q u e ,” h e s a i d . “ Ma r i a c h i musicians tend to place an emphasis on learning song after song, but they do not realize (sometimes) that you need to spend time improving your technique.” Mariachi differs in every state of Mexico, Nevin said, and the
Sweetwater students learned what songs belong to certain regions. Mariachi Garibaldi performed at Mayan Hall along with all 200 students who later joined them on stage to perform for an eager crowd. Stand out numbers included “De Colores,” “La Valentina,” “El Caballito” and “El Suchil.” Mario Eguia, a professional mariachi player and former SWC student of Nevin’s who now attends San Diego State University, was a teacher at the conference. “The students were highly receptive,” he said. “I was surprised that in such little time I was able to teach so much.” Students were given a copy of Nevin’s book “Mariachi Mastery,” a bilingual songbook and comprehensive guide to mariachi for intermediate students. Students were not the only ones to leave with more than they came with. Eguia provided a quality music education by teaching a handful of students how to read music. “When students were actually able to read music after the little lesson I gave them,” Eguia said. “They were ecstatic.” Professional mariachi player Jonathan Baustista taught at the conference as well. “I feel really good to pass on the little that I know,” Baustista said. Baustista saw that just after a short while students could apply what they learned, lessons as simple as how to hold the instruments and how to stand. “We really appreciate what Dr. Nevin is doing for the community,” Baustista said. Nevin said the first-ever SWC Mariachi Conference was a success. “I can’t wait to host one again next year,” he said.
> REVIEW
Jazz musicians wing it perfectly By Gabriel Sandoval Staff Writer
Pablo Pedroza/staff
BRASSY BOND — Nathan Mills led a four-man group of strangers in an scintillating evening of jazz.
Jazz is the great improvised art, a fact reinforced for dazzled Southwestern College students who experienced an inspiring evening of music by a group that had not played together before. Like the best of Jazz, everything worked out just fine. Nathan Mills with Special Guests was alternately smooth, uplifting, radical and heavy. A superb rendition of Freddy Hubbard’s “Little Sunflower” featured Jeff Blanco on bass and Mills on trumpet. Although they had never played together, both performed with energy and confidence. Mills showcased his experience as a trumpet player, improvising blistering solos as keyboardist James Forston followed along with a pulsing rhythm. Drummer Tim McMahon and Blanco improvised magnificent solos when it was their time to step out, otherwise
they unified the group throughout the night. Between songs Mills gave short impromptu lessons on jazz. The rules of jazz, he said, are that there are no rules and that every band member gets a solo. Perhaps the best song of the night, “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” by Don Raye and Gene De Paul, triumphantly captured the beauty of live jazz. Back and forth, the melody swelled and subsided in a musical conversation between the players. It was smooth, strong and inspiring. A blind person could see the sound. Clifford Brown’s “Sandue” was less inspiring and too long. As the musicians clearly enjoyed their session, audience members played with their phones and looked adrift. It was a free show, but priceless. Jazz is new again every night and the audience was reborn.
Film fest speaks students’ language(s) By Kael Heath Staff Writer
Polylinguist Surian Figueroa can travel to more than 100 countries of the world and speak their languages. Southwestern College students heard many of the same languages without ever leaving Chula Vista thanks to this year’s International Film Festival. Il était pop-corn aussi! Figueroa, the multitalented professor of Italian and ESL, said students enjoy films and learn amazing things about other cultures. “You can learn about the multiple realities that exist in this complex world we live in,” she said. “Not only linguistic information, but also traditions, values, humor, cultural differences and similarities, and the universal themes
that everyone can understand and share.” All films are in languages taught by the World Languages department, including Italian, Spanish, French, Filipino and Japanese. This year’s films included “A Better Life,” “Benvenuti al Sud,” “A Mother’s Story,” “Intouchables,” “La Chispas de la Vida” and “Always 3.” Spanish professors Dinorah GuadianaCosta and Angelina Stuart organized the festival. Guadiana-Costa said language is best learned with context and culture. “This festival is culturally rich and it speaks of themes that are important for students to be aware of, whether they are political or social,” she said. Guadiana-Costa said that viewing these films could change a student’s
outlook on another culture. “Students will develop their language skills and show sympathy towards the culture,” she said. “Positive and negative sides about it may be shown, and this only reinforces a student’s perspective of the culture.” Spanish professor Deana AlonsoPost said the festival has benefits for all students. “Bilingual students have the advantage of keeping their language alive and gaining vocabulary skills, possibly some slang, or more advanced skills depending on the movie,” she said. “For the non-bilingual students it is an opportunity to expose them to another culture and another way of life. It helps the student realize we are more similar than different.”
October 19 - November 24, 2013 — Volume 57 Issue 3
The Southwestern College Sun
SPORTS
Jaguars Champions Again
B7
The
Give Go and
DANIEL GUZMAN
Time to end hazing in all pro sports H
John Domogma/Staff
TUSSLE FOR THE TITLE— Freshman forward Walter Parra fights for possession against Cuyamaca. SWC won, 2-1, to clinch the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference title.
Men’s soccer team claims second consecutive Pacific Coast Athletic Conference crown By John Domogma Assistant Sports Editor
Maroon 5 may be a hot rock band, but Southwestern College’s Maroon 11 are the conference champions again. For the second consecutive year Head Coach Cem Tont has led his squad to the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference title, this time with an undefeated 10-0-2-conference record (15-3-3 overall). “We are expected to be the top team,” said Tont. “Whenever we put on the maroon jersey we are the favorite to win the game and that’s the mindset that we have.” A lot of maroon jerseys were pulled
off and swung wildly in the air to celebrate a 2-1 win over the scrappy Cuyamaca College Coyotes. Forward Walter Parra scored his second goal of the season five minutes into the match on a difficult head-on play against Cuyamaca goalie Avrin Yakou. “I felt very happy,” he said. “Not only for scoring the goal, but because I dedicated it to my mom who was watching in the audience.” Midfielder Joseph Monzon authored the second goal 17 minutes into match when he took advantage of the goalie’s poor positioning. Cuyamaca defender Irvin Vorbon responded with a goal in the 26th minute in a comeback effort, but when the final whistle blew the 2-1
win officially clinched the Jaguars’ first back-to-back championship. Friends and family swarmed the field. “It is everyone’s victory,” said defender Andre Diaz. “I don’t believe in individual effort. We have an excellent coaching staff and I am thankful to everyone that came to support us today.” The Coyotes were not the team’s only tough opponents though. The Jaguars proved again they are championship contenders by defeating San Diego City College, 2-0, while down two players. “The City game was a pretty tough match up,” said Tont. “We got two red
cards. We were down nine to 11 and then nine to 10, but we still outplayed them.” SWC also ran over San Diego Mesa College thanks to a pair of unassisted goals by the conference’s second leading goal scorer Marco CarrilloLeon. Forward Omar Hernandez scored another for a 3-0 win. The Jags’ dominance continued against Imperial Valley, winning the series with an aggregate score of 7-1. Diaz said SWC is determined to continue their dominant run that has convinced voters to rank the team fifth in the state. “We are a little tired,” he said, “but we will fight until the last moment.”
Soccer star scores goals on and off the field GOAL-ORIENTED STUDENTATHLETE— Marco Carrillo-Leon led the Jaguars to their second straight PCAC title. He is also a champion in the classroom.
John Domogma/Staff
Itzel Alonso Assistant Viewpoints Editor
Marco Carrillo-Leon can score goals like few others, but he can also set goals. Next up, a state championship for his Southwestern College soccer team. CarrilloLeon is an enigmatic young man of many dimensions. Aggressive on the pitch, he is gentle off. One of the state’s best soccer players, he has no interest in a professional career. He is a vocal and passionate team captain who is quiet and reserved when the game is over. His 21 goals are third in the state, but he is proudest of his grade point average. He loves to slug it out with tough competition, but plans to study nursing. Carrillo-Leon’s life started in Tijuana, but when he was five his family moved to Imperial Beach. His best friend in kindergarten convinced him to play soccer. A natural, he was soon a pint-sized goal-scoring machine for elite soccer clubs. Carrillo-Leon starred at Mar Vista High School where he was captain of the varsity for two years and Most Valuable Player during the 2009-10 season when his team won the South Bay League title. Carrillo-Leon said he is a low-keyed and patient man, but
not when it comes to soccer. “I like getting mad,” he said. “I like when they provoke me, it helps me become a better player.” Co-captain Tony Alcaraz has known Carrillo-Leon for two years and said he is a fan. “We both have confined in each other and know our capabilities and potential as soccer players,” he said. “We both do a good job leading the team. Carrillo always comes through in tough situations and he never disappoints.” Former high school rival Josh Estrada said Carrillo convinced him to play for the Jaguars because there was going to be a good squad this season. “I know his style of play better because I had to study him as an opponent,” said Estrada. “This built great team chemistry, which led to winning. Carrillo has always been a game-changer. He creates a lot of opportunities for the team and has a way of putting the ball in the net most of the time.” When Carrillo-Leon transfers in a year and a half he said his goal will not be soccer, but nursing. “I don’t want to play professional soccer and then retire,” he said. “It’s a waste of time.” Armed with his 3.0+ GPA and soccer credentials, CarrilloLeon said he wants to transfer to a university in either the San Diego or Los Angeles areas. “My family and education come first,” he said. “I would rather stay homebound and become a nurse than tour around with a soccer team. I’ve traveled because of soccer and it’s become a part of me. But I would choose school.” For now, though, his focus is leading his undefeated team to victory. Playoffs and championship tournaments bring out his best, Carrillo-Leon said. “I like to compete versus the best,” he said. “That’s how you know where you stand.” Led by Carrillo-Leon and Alcaraz, the Jaguars have won back-to-back PCAC championships, something no other SWC soccer team has ever accomplished. Carrillo-Leon, the prototype of a student-athlete, said he is in athlete mode right now. Can SWC win its first-ever state title? Carrillo-Leon did not flinch. “I like our team, I like our chances.”
azing has a long tradition in the military, fraternities and locker rooms. That does not make it right. Slaver y was once an American tradition and so was child labor, racism, homophobia, sexism, child marriage, indentured servitude and share cropping. That does not make them right. The case of Miami Dolphins teammates Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito is a blessing in disguise because it has surfaced an ugly cancer in the NFL. Incognito’s flurr y of racial slurs and threats against Martin were grotesque and unacceptable in 2013. Incognito was used like a rabid dog by his coaches on the young and struggling Martin in a twisted attempt to “toughen him up” like the Marine Corps’ now illegal “Code Red.” As expected, Incognito has received support from some of his peers deeming the suspended player a worthy teammate, but those in the front office aren’t as forgiving. The “Boys will be boys” defense is past its expiration date. Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross told ESPN that he was appalled by the incident, describing it as his “worst nightmare.” Already under fire for its cover-up of head injuries data and swarms of players with violent criminal convictions, the NFL is not in position to be soft on bullying and racism. Professional basketball has done a much better job so far. The Minnesota Timberwolves have banned hazing in the locker room and the rest of the sporting world should follow suit. Rookie guard Shabazz Mohammed was told he no longer had to wear a Jonas Brothers backpack issued to Timberwolves rookies. “ They actually said they don’t want us carrying them, but I understand with the stuff going on with the football thing,” said Mohammed to the Los Angeles Times. “They want us to be separate from that. Now I think rookie hazing won’t exist anymore.” We live in a time where society has stood up against bullying, thus l o c k e r ro o m s a ro u n d t h e w o r l d should follow the natural cadence of a progressive society. Jo n a s B r o t h e r b a c k p a c k s ( o r the San Diego Padre pink Barbie backpacks) pale in comparison to Inocencio’s sadistic treatment of Ma r t i n . St a n f o rd e d u c a t e d a n d brighter than most dozen NFL players combined, Martin decided enough was enough. In many sports newcomers are hazed with harmless antics such as carrying gear or singing a funny song, but Inocencio was not harmless or funny. His vicious abuse, racism and ridicule crossed every line, including legal ones. His racism and bullying created a hostile work environment and exposed the Dolphins to an enormous lawsuit. Ross apparently gets that. Racism, homophobia, hazing and machismo have always been a part of the culture predominately in some sports for generations. That is not an excuse. Allowing hazing to continue is as ignorant as continuing Jim Crow, gay bashing, repression of women and child sweatshops. Sports – especially the NFL – needs to do better. Its players are role models and need to act the part. The League needs to imbue a new culture demanding a higher standard of character, progressiveness and leadership. “Old school” is dead when it comes to abuse. It is time for a new lesson. The Give & Go can be reached at TheGiveandGo@theswcsun.com.
B8
Oct. 19 - Nov. 24, 2013 — Volume 57, Issue 3
Nicholas Baltz, editor
SPORTS
Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: sports@theswcsun.com
Lady Jags end strong, fall just short By Zayda Cavasos and Madeline Cabrera Staff Writers
Carolina Soto said she longed to coach soccer at Southwestern College. A little more notice, however, would have been nice. Soto was hired just weeks before the first game and after several key players quit due to tumult. Even so, she led the squad to an impressive 12-7-2 record and barely missed the playoffs. “It’s been a difficult transition,” she said. “Coming in as a new coach, the last minute stuff was more challenging than the circumstances that I came into. But I feel so fortunate to be working for SWC because it was my dream when I was in high school.” The Lady Jags finished second in the Pacific Coast South Conference with a 5-2-1-conference record. They won four of their last five games. The final loss was a 3-0 heartbreak at home against conference champions San Diego Mesa. Had the Lady Jaguars beaten Mesa, they would have won the conference and punched a playoff bid. “I’m satisfied, if anything it has been a successful season,” said Soto. “I always give the recognition to the girls
because they have always been working really hard and working their butts off in games and that’s what counts.” Another memorable moment in the season was when the team swept Cuyamaca College. “It’s the first time we beat Cuyamaca twice since 2008,” said Soto. The veterans had difficulties adjusting to the new coach, although defender Alyssa “Ganzo” Gonzales felt the season got better as it progressed. “Honestly, it was a tough transition but we definitely worked through it,” she said. “Getting the girls motivated was a big part of a smooth transition.” SWC women’s soccer team has been perceived by their opponents as the underdogs for years. Freshman Olivia Serna said that the team worked hard to gain their respect. “I like when people say that we are the underdogs,” she said. “I like proving them wrong.” Serna predicted a strong recruiting season. “Hopefully next year we come back stronger than this year.”
Photos
by
John Domogma
AIR BALL — (above) Jocelin Camacho, left, fights for the ball with Sophia Gutierrez of Cuyamaca College. (l) Freshman phenom Jenny Rodriguez sets up a score in a 2-1 victory over Cuyamaca.
SWC athlete-dad reborn as student Devoted counselor helps Jaguars cornerback Vicente Stafford tackles opponents and diapers
athletes win as students
By Colin Grylls Assistant Sports Editor
and move on to [a university] to play separated my tibia and fibula. I had to football and still have an opportunity have three surgeries. I’ve never been to fulfill my dreams,” he said. hurt before so it took me off course a aguars starting cornerback Vicente Unfortunately, the little bit. Then I started St a f f o r d l o v e s h i t t i n g w i d e highest level Stafford running into the trials receivers, crunching running backs can play football is and tribulations of life.” and smiling like Minnie Mouse – just Division II because “Hopefully Stafford finished the not all at the same place. He’s a tough he lost his Division year at Mesa and withdefender on the gridiron, but a tender I eligibility. A Divi- [my daughter] drew from school. He father to his one-year-old daughter, sion I student-athlete will go on and spent the next year workKylie. has five calendar years ing and recovering from Having a child causes many young from initial enrollment do the same the injury. After enrollmen to drop out of school to support in a two- or four-year thing - go to ing at SWC he found out their new family, but 22-year-old Staf- school to compete for that he was going to be ford said he is more inspired than ever up to four years. Staf- college.” a father. to press on with his studies instead of ford is already in the “[Having a child is] no dropping into a prevent defense. fifth and final year of Vicente Stafford added pressure at all,” he “She’s my drive to do everything,” his Division I clock. said. “It’s a blessing.” he said with his ever-present smile. In 2009 he gradu- Jaguars Cornerback Head football coach “If I didn’t have her, it would be easy ated from Granite Hills Ed Carberry supports his to fall off course, but I know I have to High School and at5’10”, 180 lbs. corner’s stay positive and do positive things to tended San Diego Mesa path to redemption. make her future better.” College that fall. He played five games “He’s the kind of guy that a comStafford enrolled at SWC in the fall for the Olympians before suffering a munity college is there for,” Carberry of 2011, though he did not play for season-ending injury. said. “Not just in football, but in the Jags until the 2013 season. He is “It was my ankle,” he said as his grin school. [Community colleges] give a declared liberal arts major, but he flickered for a split second. “I was mak- people an opportunity to reshape wants to study psychology. ing a tackle and this big guy fell on it. their lives.” “I just want to get my AA degree I tore my tendons, a few ligaments and Wide receiver Jason Gaines said he also believes in Stafford. “For him being out here, being so old and having a family, a lot of young guys look up to him,” said Gaines. “We wouldn’t imagine ourselves doing that at such a young age and he’s out here doing that, feeding his family and going to school at the same time, so a lot of people really do look up to him for that.” Stafford credits football for teaching him the most important skill a parent can have. “Patience,” he said. “Out here you can know what you’re doing, but if you’re not patient about it, if you don’t wait until it actually happens, either it can go really good or really bad. It’s the same way with parenting.” Stafford is the first person to admit that he has not always been an ideal student. “I was lazy, very lazy,” he said. “Barely going to class lazy.” His daughter’s birth kicked his focus into high gear. He said he does not want to be a hypocrite in Kylie’s eyes. “I don’t want to tell her to do something and I’m not doing it for myself,” he said. “I wouldn’t be on her like ‘you gotta stay in school, you gotta do your grades, you gotta do this’ and I’m not doing it myself.” Stafford and Kylie’s mother, Bree Albrektsen, a member of SWC’s softball team, bring their daughter campus daily. “I’m kinda happy she’s always on campus with me,” he said, his signature smile growing to a size that would have made Minnie Mouse, Kylie’s favorite cartoon character, jealous. “She doesn’t understand it, but no matter what it’s a picture in her head that she’ll remember. Hopefully she’ll go on and do the same Karen Tome/Staff thing – go to college.” He looked over at Kylie’s stroller BABY MAKES THREE — Vicente Stafford and Bree Albrektsen are motivated to and smiled again. finish school and make a better life for their daughter, Kylie. “Education is everything.”
J
Priscila Berumen/Staff
WINNING THE GAME OF LIFE — Counselor Ed Cosio advises volleyball star and nursing major Amerika Rocha. By Alma Hurtado Staff Writer
Counselor Ed Cosio admits he would finish a mile behind Southwestern College’s champion cross country runners out on the course, but ask the athletes and they will tell you he is always running alongside. Coach Dr. Duro Agbede’s women’s cross country team has a great record over the past decade, including a state championship, but he said he is even prouder of his athlete’s transfer rate. It’s perfect, 100 percent, everybody. Most on full scholarship. “It’s all because of Cosio,” Agbede said. “He is the angel of the cross country team. All credit goes to him.” Cosio, a low keyand humble man, blushes and scoffs at the notion. “It’s the students,” he said, “and Duro.” Counseling and sports are a perfect match for him, Cosio said, because he loves both. He plays no favorites, though. He said he sees no difference between a student who is an athlete and a student who is not. “I treat all students with care and respect each time,” he said. “I advise students, whether they are an athlete or a student wanting to go to medical school. They are no different in my office and I treat people the best I can.” Cosio said being able to counsel young athletes is special to him because it allows him to give advice in a subject he is knowledgeable in. “It is nice to see our athletic students here have a great opportunity to use their talents to continue on and use that as a way to pay for their education,” he said. “I like to see kids transfer.” Cosio said he has developed many relationships with students and staff. Agbede said he is Cosio’s biggest fan, but other coaches and professors would argue. “My work is 30 percent as a coach,” said Agbede. “Ed Cosio does the other 70 percent. If one of my students needs help in their academics, I send them to Cosio. He finds a way for students to succeed. He is positive but honest. He will tell them exactly what they need to do to stay on track.”
Agbede said Cosio is a great educator. “The most important thing is the changes we make in the life of the kids,” he said. “He is somebody I respect very dearly. He is highly professional and willing to go beyond levels to help.” Terry Davis, dean of athletics, is another Cosio fan. “We are blessed to have him,” he said. “He can work at any level with anyone and use his diplomacy to get things done. Many students have to juggle multiple responsibilities and even more so a student involved in athletics. That is where Cosio comes in, to help balance their education as well as their lives. He sets a plan and follows through to help students be more successful.” Kindness and patience are Cosio’s hallmarks. “I will treat students like they were my best friend’s kid,” he said. “I am very fortunate to have this job and I look forward to coming into work every day. I am joyful when I watch the students I have interacted with over the years graduate from SWC and move on to bigger and better ventures.” A little empathy also helps, Cosio said. “I use myself as a an example,” he said. “I wasn’t a brilliant student in college, I just had a yearning to continue on and earn a degree.” Cosio began his education at SWC in the early 1970s. He transferred to UC Santa Barbara to earn a degree in education. Back in San Diego County he landed a job as an admissions counselor at the University of San Diego where he recruited students from all over the country. “I felt I found my true calling in counseling and decided to enroll in the counselor education program at University of San Diego,” said Cosio. “Later I earned a Master’s degree in education and was hired as a counselor at SWC in 1991. This job hits closer to home for me. Having graduated from here and having my three children attend SWC brings personal sentiment to why I love my job so much.” Cosio said he feels he is winning the game of life. “I am doing something I love and I get paid for it.” said Cosio.
A N AT I O N A L PA C E M A K E R AWA R D N E W S PA P E R
n o i t i d E Special theswcsun.com
Volume 57, Special Edition
November 24, 2013
La Frontera’s disposable people
Photos By Marshall Murphy
Squalid refugee camps crowded with American deportees By Jason O’Neal and Lee Bosch Staff Writers
DEATH HANGS OVERHEAD— Santa Muerte (Saint Death) is the personification of death. Her devotees believe she offers healing, protection and safe passage to the afterlife for individuals whose lives may be less than pure, including criminals. Some deportees in the canal leave her offerings for protection.
TIJUANA, MEXICO—Misery has an odor. It is worse than sewage, worse than filth, worse than death. Misery has a face, hundreds of them. They are the faces of the forgotten, the ignored, the faces of throw-away people two nations have rejected. Misery has an address. It is the fetid drainage canals of the Tijuana River where a squatters colony hides what remains of once-ambitious people who have been reduced to begging, drug abuse and crime. It is the gaping crack in a damned corner of la tierra where earth and hell intersect
in a chasm of despair, drugs, disease, dread and death. It is las America’s secret refugee camp. Misery has company. More is coming over every day. Carved between the Tijuana Centro de Bomberos fire station and a ramp to the via rapida highway is a refugee camp like no other. It gets no Red Cross or United Nations support. Tension crackles through Campamento para Migrantes Deportados like static electricity. Apathetic faces drift about the malodorous tent city. Angry car horns on the adjacent via rapida stab the dead air, but the people are oblivious. More than 600 deportees deprived of showers create a cloud of nauseating
David McVicker/Staff
smell that almost pushes aside the reeking sewage nearby. Wretch-inducing stink is the least of the deportees’ maladies. Police abuse, abject poverty, extortion and powerlessness bind the deportees to the camp like paralysis. Just days, weeks or months ago the refugees were living and working in the United States, free to eat, sleep, play and shower in peace. Then la migra swept in and turned their lives upside down. Men and women, boys and girls who lived in the United States—some for decades—were deported, led through the gates of San Ysidro, Otay please see Deportados pg. C3
FROM BAD TO WORSE— (top of page) A Border Patrol agent peers through the border fence. The yellow line is the actual U.S. - Mexico border. (above) A border encampment at Plaza Constitution, La Mapa is home to more than 500 homeless deportees. Clothes hang to dry at the camp run by Angeles Sin Fronteras, a non-profit organization. (l) Deportees who cannot get tents live in the river bottom in dirt, mud and trash.
C2
2013 SPECIAL E
The Southwestern College Sun
By Joaquin Basauri Staff Writer
W
here misery and despair dominate the rancid canals of the Campamento para Migrantes Deportados refugee camps, Carlos Sanchez offers hope. His ministry, Ministario America Libre is a sunbeam of the divine is a pit of the profane. For more than 20 years Sanchez has spread the word of God in Tijuana and San Diego County. It was not until he visited the Tijuana refugee camp, however, that Sanchez formed his ministry. “I came to the camp and on my first day there were about 30 burritos to feed 300 people,” he said. “The Lord spoke to me that night and told me that my place was here. He told me that these were all his babies and that without his word they would be lost forever to the darkness.” After his loaves-and-fishes epiphany, Sanchez sold everything he had with monetary value and gathered as many followers as possible. “We are a collection of deportees and people who have found a life in the Lord,” he said. “My ministry and
I have almost no income, but we live abundantly through the Lord.” As Ministario America Libre has gathered some steam, its reach has extended to Southwestern College and as far north as Camp Pendleton. Dario Tapia, an SWC architect major, said he is a member of the flock. “I have so much love in my life and to keep that for myself would be selfish,” he said. “I try and help here every weekend. I live in Tijuana so I feel responsible for my fellow citizens. We are all brothers.” North County resident John Certone agreed. “Being able to help out here is very humbling,” he said. “Everyone has a standard of living and none of the deportees here are having that quality of life met.” Despite growing interest, the road ahead looks bleak for Ministario America Libre, said Sanchez, but that has not hindered his ambitions. “The aim of my ministry is to spread the word of God to the deportees of Mexico, Central and South America,” he said. “For me, it is impossible, but through the Lord, anything is possible.”
By John Domogma Assistant Sports Editor
M
David McVicker/Staff By Gonzalo Quintana Assistant Campus Editor
A
poet’s voice has been drowned by the wailing of police sirens, highway traffic and the cries of despondent deportees. Tom Zarate’s poetry is no longer in motion. El Bordo, a Tijuana deportee camp located less than a mile from the affluent Las Americas outlets in San Ysidro, is home to many bent but not quite broken dreamers. Zarate said his residency at the camp is temporary. “I cannot tell you ‘I’m planning to do this. I’m planning to do that,’ like a politician,” he said, “but I would love to go back to the place where I grew up. I really like the lifestyle out there.” After living in California for 25 years Zarate said he is struggling to adjust to his new “home.” “I feel like a fish out of water,” he said. “Over in the United States I felt great.” Zarate said he has been living in the camp for two years and eight months. He even pinpointed the exact date of his deportation, Monday, March 14, 2011. A day that lives in infamy, he said, cannot be forgotten. His time in the United States ended badly, he admitted. He was arrested for drug possession and spent 6 ½ months in jail before he was deported. Though he described his arrest as a “confusing situation,” Zarate spoke freely. He said his friend was driving that day, along with someone who was later identified as a DEA agent. “It was a Wednesday, September 1, 2010,” he said. “I was aboard a pick-up truck headed to Huntington Beach from San Diego. There were a lot of drugs, 280 grams (of cocaine).” Zarate said the police report noted he was involved in a transaction with a DEA agent. While he admits to being present, he insisted he was dealt a bad hand, especially since his friend took full responsibility for the drugs. “I was charged with conspiracy, but they
couldn’t prove the drugs were mine,” he said. “I should’ve been set free, but instead, my record was sullied.” Before his deportation, Zarate worked many jobs. He was a host at a Denny’s, a cashier at an AM/PM gas station convenience store, worked construction and sold rims for cars on eBay. His education, he said, stems mostly from reading books and encyclopedias. He also credited two psychologists for whom his aunt worked. “I got to know them well,” he said. “They were very intelligent people and they were very patient with me.” His affinity for poetry, he said, comes from his love of reading. “I really like literature,” he said, “in English, Spanish and Italian.” Zarate said he attended Torrey Pines High School in 1988, but dropped out. He eventually completed his GED during a stint at East Mesa Detention Center. He did not divulge the reason for his stay there. He said his life before the camp was one of tranquility. “Authorities (in the U.S.) never harassed me for not having an ID,” said Zarate. “You don’t have to worry about delinquents or cops because police are there to protect citizens, not to screw them like they do here.” Zarate reminisced about his younger days in the U.S. “My first car was a 1979 Honda Civic when I was a kid,” he said. “I bought it with my own money that I earned at my first job.” Zarate said he just wants to be selfsufficient again. “My coffee would cost five bucks including tip,” he said. “Here I can’t even afford a five peso coffee.” President Obama needs to come through on his promise of immigration reform, he said, not for himself, but for his paisanos and all immigrants. “They deserve to live like human beings, not animals,” said Zarate.
a u r i c i o Me l e n d e z , a n immigrant from El Salvador, said he now dedicates his time to helping deportees survive hard times in Tijuana’s concrete river channels. “It’s not easy,” he said, “but the purpose is to help the newly-deported have a decent place to stay and rest for a couple of days. Most of them come tired because they have been walking through the mountains. We are hoping to build a hotel where people can be treated with dignity.” A bricklayer in the San Fernando Valley’s Canoga Park for nine years, Melendez admitted that he was deported due to assault with a deadly weapon and attempted homicide charges. “Honestly, I did do it,” he said. “I made a mistake and for being on probation and then parole I was deported. I am not going to say that it has been joyful, but that is my life and I have left all of that in the past.” Melendez said he is now an evangelical Christian, baptized at La Ultima Llamada (Last Call) ministry in Los Angeles by Pastor Fernando Sicario of Tijuana. Melendez now attends the Last Call
congregation in Tijuana led by Pastor Ruben. “If we were not here the police would be rolling up (on the camp),” said Melendez. “Us being here and the media attention keep the police from arresting here directly.” Melendez said he was arrested by Tijuana police officers and is now providing unpaid labor for police on a station renovation project. Police often coerce free labor, he said, by threatening prison time. “The police have always respected this perimeter,” he said. “Once we go out in search of food they arrest us before we cross the street and take us to the famous Veinte de Noviembre, a local jail. They are building something at the station and they use the labor from the people that they pick up. Instead of doing 36 hours in jail, you work around mixing the concrete or help around the construction.” Melendez said the camp’s future is uncertain. “People are starting to say that the city is trying to get rid of us,” he said. “Some are saying that we will be going to the canal but no one knows what is going to happen. The reality is that we are not receiving humane treatment.”
John Domogma/Staff
EDITION
Nov. 24, 2013 — Vol. 57, Special Edition
Deportados: Tijuana river basin is teeming with impoverished deportees Continued from Page C1
Photos By Marshall Murphy
A LIFE TURNED INSIDE OUT— (above) Arnee Estrada spent 35 years in the U.S. in Santa Ana working in the restaurant industry. “All of my family is over there, my brothers, sisters, mom and wife.” He said he was deported in June and was picked up off the street. “In all my life I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t know why I got picked up.” Estrada said he turned to alcohol to cope with his situtation. “I drink because there is nothing to do. I am an old man. It is hard to get a job. I can’t get a job with no papers,” he said. “My family doesn’t know I’m here.” (l) Scores of deportee “homes” line the banks of the Rio Tijuana drainage canal.
David McVicker/Staff
John Domogma/Staff
David McVicker/Staff
IT’S A THIN LINE BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL— (clockwise from top l) Mauricio Melendez guts a pigeon caught for dinner. Deportees rummage through a pile of garbage for clothing, bedding or anything they might find useful to survive. A fish found in the garbage is made into soup. A pile of trash pulled together to make shelter. An ironic “Welcome Home” sign at the edge of the tent colony. In the background beyond the fence are the green hills of the United States, the former home of the deportees.
Mesa and Calexico, then abandoned in Mexico. They returned to a birthland that does not want them and s e g re g a t e s t h e m f ro m Me x i c a n society. Neglected, forgotten and scapegoated, they have been rejected by two nations. Even God seems to steer clear of Campamento para Migrantes Deportados. On any given day there are hundreds of people hunched in small igloo tents in a community square across the street from the municipal headquarters of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), the current ruling political party of Mexico. Misery does not appreciate irony. Although the size of the camp does not compare to refugee camps in Somalia, Syria or Jordan, the level of misery is comparable—if not worse. Surviving the satanic squalor of stale water, sludge and the stench of sewage, inhabitants must fight the elements of nature as well as harassment from local criminals, drug cartels and the Tijuana police. Neighborhood gangs extort the inhabitants for their paltry money and property. Police br utality is even more shocking. Residents of El Bordo, their name for the camp, are easy prey for lazy police officers eager to close highprofile cases. Tales of wrongful arrests and detentions of the “usual suspects”
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are a daily occurrence at the migrant camp. Tijuana police, residents claim, will sweep in and randomly grab men whom they later book as perpetrators of unsolved crimes. Case closed, and no one misses the “criminals.” Most are never seen again. Ju l i o C e s a r a d m i t s h e w a s a criminal. He grew up in the U.S., but was arrested and deported for a crime. His wife avoids the emotional burden by staying with their child in Los Angeles. Phone calls are rare because most of the money goes to heroin. It dulls the depression, he said. Juan Manuel, 63, worked in Los Angeles for 30 years in construction before being apprehended while on his lunch break last summer. He was deported, leaving behind 12 children. He now withers away in Tijuana with a drug addiction in a place he had never been before. Many of the deportees lived in the United States for decades, some since infancy. Contrar y to talk radio rhetoric, most undocumented m i g r a n t s a re n o t a p p re h e n d e d while committing crimes, but are caught without identification during traffic stops, inland checkpoints or immigration enforcement operations. Once processed for removal, the migrants are transported to the border and turned over to Mexican immigration. Arriving like tourists in a foreign land, the repatriated nationals are left to fend for themselves. Some speak little to no Spanish. To address the growing number of deportees that are ignored by the Mexican government on local, state and federal levels, Sergio Tamai please see Deportados pg. C4
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November 24, 2013— Vol. 57, Special Edition
SPECIAL EDITION
In mystical visions and cosmic vibrations I refuse to give up my insane obsessions Confined, isolated, I cannot change my past I dream in seclusion and dwell in the dark She found me confined to my insane mind Looking for affection searching for perfection in her wicked land Deceived and misled by her cunning ways We played childish games finding great relief to my strife and pain She, erasing my mind which colors my grief Dancing until dawn drinking poison wine almost every night In my longing eyes I wander around walking up and down In darkness the streets of this shady town Where I’m just another face in the crowd Must be the devil in the bottle Sure makes me feel like a lion, king for a little while My emotions are shocked Who am I to search to seek to find and keep what I never lost My senses are numb, wake up realizing I wonder why it’s difficult to say whether its night or whether its day She glows like the moon and shines like the sun to portray herself as the only one Show me the way back to the sacred path take me there and hold me in your sight as I pray for love to the lord above and my dreams My ambitions and all those vivid pictures vanish were in smoke Secrets from her world do not wish to know. Amen. -Tom Zarate
Deportados: Rejected by two nations, deportees stranded in filthy camps Continued from Page C3
founded Angeles Sin Fronteras (Angels Without Borders) in 2010. “We were born in Mexicali in 2010,” he said. “We realized that the United States government was deporting between 200 and 300 people on a daily basis.” America has deported nearly 450,000 people under the Obama administration, Tamai said. National Public Radio places that number closer to 1.5 million. Tamai said El Bordo was opened in August and more than 600 migrants now live there. Angeles Sin Fronteras volunteers are helping residents return to their home states in Mexico by working with Grupo Beta to assist them with travel costs and obtaining identification cards. Javier A. Reyes lived in the United States as a successful home repairman for 10 years until he was deported two and a half years ago. He is a “coordinator” at the camp who hopes to return to the U.S. legally, but has no idea how or when that will happen. Jobs in Mexico are hard to come by and require valid identification. Without a birth certificate and a permanent residence, a deportee cannot get the necessary identification. In order to pay rent to have an address they need a job. This cycle of dysfunction leaves most deportees with no options but to work on the streets and save enough money to try and cross back into the U.S. Residents of the camp struggle to guard their meager possessions. Savage fights are common. “Coordinators” wearing green vests attempt to police their own. They are chosen from camp members to maintain order. If residents want to remain in the camp, they have to follow some rules. But not many. Alcohol and narcotics flow like the nearby sewage. Not all the deportees are model citizens. Some were criminals, or, better said, desperate people who broke the law. Many, though, did nothing more than roll through a stop sign or “drive while brown” in the wrong neighborhood. It comforts many Americans to think undocumented immigrants are all criminals or uneducated laborers, but many are also award-winning writers, gifted musicians, law students, architects and business owners. They are also among the deported. Tent dwellers at El Bordo are the lucky ones, if the word applies. Skimming the basin of the river canal, hundreds more people live in lean-tos made from tires, wood and cardboard boxes the locals call ñongos. El Bordo’s resourceful individuals use whatever trash is available. With more inhabitants the dangers also increase. Used hypodermic needles and trash litter the landscape of a concrete riverbed covered in mud, garbage and slime. Plastered in spray paint and graffiti, the walls offer words of inspiration like the gigantic El Sol Brilla Para Todos (“the sun shines for everyone.”) Other signs are not so cheerful. Atop the northern bank of the river is a reminder of the doom that lingers so close to the people that live here. A lone grim reaper hangs from a noose like a skeletal scarecrow, taunting inhabitants that they must face death to cross tov the other side. Less than 100 yards north of the dangling la muerta is a sparkling new multi-million dollar inspection station built for the Aduana Mexico, Mexican Customs. Just beyond that another construction project is underway, new inspection facilities on the U.S. side designed to protect the country under the pretext of national security and the war on terror. Undocumented immigrants are collateral casualties of the war on terror. For three centuries people and goods moved freely across la frontera. Travelers returned home when it was time. A metal wall now forces people who are undocumented to stay put in el norte and live in the shadows. Those are the ones who survived. Thousands die crossing. Thousands live in refugee camps like Campamento para Migrantes Deportados. It is possible that the dead are actually the fortunate ones. SWC Sun staff writer Pablo Cervantes and designer Amanda L. Abad contributed to this section.
The Southwestern College Sun
John Domogma/Staff
SOUP’S ON— (above) Making soup out of scavenged fish and other leftovers. (right) Maria de la Luz Hernandez comes to the camp to help prepare food for the deportees. She said she has been coming for more than a year because God loves her. “I was going blind, now I can see. I now can look to the sky. He said ‘wake up my little one.’” (below) The ironic message “El Sol Brilla Para Todos”(The Sun Shines for Everyone) is considered inspirational by some deportees, but others say it taunts them.
Photos By Marshall Murphy