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 62/Special Edition
theswcsun.com
November 13, 2018
Special Edition ELECTION 2018
students talk midterm elections governing board lineup ammar’s fight for congress A GOLDEN NIGHT Last week’s election, one of the most anticipated midterms in decades, played out on the national stage like many expected it would, with Democrats taking control of the House and Republicans maintaining control in the Senate. Democrat and former Jaguar Ammar Campa-Najjar came up short in his bid to oust incumbent Republican Duncan Hunter for San Diego’s 50th-District U.S. House seat. In other races, Gavin Newsom is California’s new governor, Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas won re-election, John McCann and Jill Galvez were elected to seats on the Chula Vista City Council and the city’s cannabis tax passed. The Sun also talked to SWC students about the issues that mattered most to them in the election.
CAZARES
takes seat BY BRIN BALBOA, MIKAYLA MOORE-BASTIDE & JORDYN BRYANT
CAMPA-NAJJAR Victoria Sanchez/Staff
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Leticia Cazares won a hard-fought victory over Nicole Jones in last week’s election for a seat on the Southwestern Community College District Governing Board. Cazares, who won 44 percent of the vote to Jones’ 35 percent, was endorsed by current SWCCD governing board members Norma Hernandez, Nora Vargas, Roberto Alcantar, Tim Nader and Griselda Delgado. She said their support shows their trust in her. She will join the Governing Board in the 2019 spring semester. “In a sense, it does give me an advantage,” said Cazares during a recent interview with The Sun. “It shows that I have a working relationship with these people. They know my track record, they know and believe in my ability to serve effectively. They believe that I can truly represent all students.” Jones, meanwhile, ran as an outsider who didn’t owe anyone favors. “I’m like a newcomer on the outside looking in,” said Jones in a recent interview with The Sun. “It started looking like to me that people expect something in return for supporting you. I don’t operate like that.” Jones would have been the first African-American elected to the governing board, and the first to serve on any school board in Chula Vista. SWC is reported to have “one of the two to three most toxic” racial climates of 50 colleges studied by USC’s Race and Equity center. “There’s a limited amount of African-American women who are leaders in the entire system,” Jones said. “I have somewhat of a responsibility to shape this narrative of what it means to be a person like me in the community colleges as an African-American woman. Even though there were challenging moments for me, I showed up anyway. I just keep working in that regard in face of the many of the obstacles that came my way as a person who is from an oppressed group.” Cazares said she understands the problematic race climate that is taking over SWC and hopes to strengthen policies to make campus more inclusive. “If we’re gonna work through this, we need to acknowledge that there’s been issues historically,” Cazares said. Cazares has eight years of policy experience. From 2009 to 2011, she was a legislative assistant for former Congressman Bob Filner, who also served briefly as San Diego’s mayor before being forced to resign amid claims he sexually harassed women. She is currently the vice president of the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego and the commissioner of the Chula Vista Cultural Arts Commission. “There is an experience here that I think I can share, especially for women who are considering leadership roles,” Cazares said. She said she hopes to establish “free or debt-free community college tuition” because many students struggle with financial aid. She said she understands the hassles of tuition and FAFSA and wants students to know they are heard. “College affordability is a huge issue,” Cazares said. As a part-time public health lecturer at SDSU, she assists students in finding internships and directing them to various career paths. She said she aspires to give all SWC students
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It’s always important to participate because it’s changing our state, or even our country.
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out
Composed by: Victoria Sanchez
They give you the right to vote, but they don’t show you how to vote.
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RAMERIZ
AURTHOR RAMERIZ,18, ENGINEERING
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Now that I’m in college, I’ve been hearing a lot of ‘oh you need to vote.’ I haven’t experienced that from my parents or my brother.
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CHAVEZ
JANNEL CHAVEZ, 18, EDUCATION
loud
Students speak on the midterm elections, what issues matter to them and where their political participation has the heaviest impact.
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Education is a big thing that needs to be fixed with student loans, and any necessary supplies as needed for schools.
DULLANO
Affordable housing is one of the biggest issues right now. I have a lot of relatives moving out of state just trying to make a living because living out here is crazy.
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JOSHUA DULLANO, 19, NURSING
NICOLE HOERNER, 25, ENGLISH
“It determines our future.
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BARRETT
JAMES BARRETT, 20, PSYCHOLOGY
” MEZA
JONATHAN MEZA, BIOLOGY, 18
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We either fix things or we don’t.
ROBLES
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ANDONI VALLEJO, 20, ENGINEERING
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HOERNER
Mostly my family is pretty conservative, but I’m kind of liberal on most issues. My family is pretty much hardline opposite.
VALLEJO
“ THINKING
You can say what you want, but if you’re not voting doesn’t really matter.
Tel: (619) 482-6368 email: news@theswcsun.com
ANDRESETTE TORRES. 25. NURSING
TORREZ
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Designed by Alyssa Pajarillo
NEWS
Nov. 13, 2017 — Vol. 62, Issue 2
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It’s like the younger generation dipping their feet in and getting that experience.
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SHAMS ANGELICA ROBLES, 21, DANCE
SORAYA SHAMS, 18, MUSIC
NEWS
The Southwestern College Sun
Nov. 13, 2017 — Vol. 62, Issue 2
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GOVERNING BOARD LINEUP Southwestern College’s Governing Board faces a slew of issues as 2018 comes to a close, including race relations, transparency and academic success.
NORA VARGAS
TIM NADER
Elected: 2010
Re-elected Elected: 2013
Nader has actively slain corruption during his eight years as trustee. His Constitutionalist nature has not swayed him from advocating for restorative justice and immigrant student protections.
LETICIA CAZARES
Re-elected
Vargas is a self-proclaimed “border child.” She said she was raised on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border and advocates for immigrants and women.
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RUDOLPH VILLEGAS
GRISELDA DELGADO
ROBERTO ALCANTAR
Elected: 2015
Elected: 2016
Elected: 2017 Student Trustee
Delgado has aimed to combat sexual assault during her time as trustee. She has been a staunch advocate for transparency and accountability since she was elected to a two-year term.
Alcantar has been immersed in SWC culture since he was 5 years old. His mother, a former SWC student, instilled the spirit of a student advocate in him.
Villegas has been a student since 2009. He has advocated for a transparent governing board and said he has held administration accountable during his near-decade as a student.
ammar’s fight
for congress
Victoria Sanchez/Staff
FORMER JAG — Ammar Campa is surrounded by his dedicated supporters as he enters the Golden Hall to keep their hopes alive while the polls were feeding unfavorable results.
NEWLY ELECTED
the chance to a job opportunity or at least experience within their career choice. “I’ve always been an optimist,” she said. “I look at things as opportunities.” Cazares has spent significant time assisting San Ysidro Health, a non-profit health center. She has been working for the center for about 15 years and has enrolled more than 16,000 residents in low-to no-cost healthcare. She also developed educational programs about the prevention of HIV/AIDS, developmental-behavioral pediatrics and women’s and senior health. Cazares is a South Bay native. She volunteers with arts and youth-serving organizations such as Outdoor Outreach and the Old Globe Theater. Being a SWC alumna, Cazares said she knows first-hand what to do to strengthen the college and community. “We have to work together to give students the opportunity to succeed, thrive, and contribute in ways that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and our community,” Cazares said. Jones was a 22-year-old- single mother when she graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a degree in criminal justice. Jones said she ran for the Governing Board because of her son, Christian, and his experiences as a SWC student. “Something my son said that stuck with me was that there didn’t seem to be a lot of support for black students at the campus,” Jones said. “He said there wasn’t one thing on campus that represented African-American culture. I couldn’t really believe what I was hearing, and I didn’t want to believe it.”
Although still trailing by nearly 12,000 votes, first-time Democratic candidate - and former Jaguar - Ammar CampaNajjar feels he still has a chance against incumbent Duncan Hunter in the race for the 50th District seat in the U.S. House. His confidence stems from the fact that as of Tuesday about 500,000 votes had yet to be counted in San Diego and Riverside Counties, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The Campa campaign maintains the uncounted votes could still swing the election. “We know this campaign, this election is full of surprises and I believe that we have one more surprise left by the time all the votes are counted,” Campa-Najjar said late on election night during a speech to supporters who had gathered at downtown San Diego’s Golden Hall. “We’re going to win the seat.” It is not known how many of those outstanding votes are in the 50th district. This considered, flipping the district is still a long shot despite the optimism of his supporters. “Don’t give up on the people in District 50 and don’t give up on Ammar,” said volunteer Danny Jackson said. “I’m just asking you stay the course. Be positive. We can do this. We didn’t come this far to stop.” Hunter did not show up to Golden Hall and Sun reporters could not reach him for comment. Many doubted Campa-Najjar’s ability to gain traction in the historically red 50th district which encompasses central and northeastern San Diego up through a small portion of Riverside County. But at 29 with virtually no public political experience, Campa-Najjar surpassed many people’s expectations. He built his campaign from the ground up by relying on the south San Diego county community he grew up in. Campa-Najjar maintains many of his personal connections to the community. He is still in contact with his pastors at EastLake Church and with SWC instructors like philosophy professor Peter Bolland, who has known Campa-Najjar for about nine years. “We call him our adopted son,” Bolland said. “Because my wife and I don’t have any kids. He would come over and we grill steaks and stuff. We’d hang out.” Bolland met Campa-Najjar in a world
religions class. Bolland said CampaNajjar takes a philosophical approach to politics, asking questions like “what is the just society?” “Those are questions Plato asked 25 centuries ago, Buddha and everybody else. So this isn’t a Christian thing, it’s about being a man or woman of integrity, values, where the word compassion actually means something,” Bolland said. “Those are things that really matter a lot to him. That’s what makes him really an unusual candidate. He comes from a place of a real lived passion around those philosophical questions.” Campa-Najjar chose to run his campaign without taking corporate PAC money, instead funding his campaign through individual donations. “It’s about putting country over party. It’s about putting patients over pharmaceutical companies. It’s about putting your interests over the special interests in Washington,” he said while campaigning only a month prior to voting day. “I can honestly look at all of you in the eye and tell you that I will be able to stay true to my word because I never took the bait of corporate money and so that’s something I could I could hang my hat on.” Campa-Najjar’s views on the future of America and the constitution are simple. “The founding fathers had a vision of America that was ahead of their time, and these are people who own slaves,” he said. “So they didn’t think freedom extended to people of color or women. I think ever since then we’ve been trying to broaden our definition of what equality is, and I think that means, regardless of your views or your faith or your orientation, you should be protected by the Constitution.” “His future is bright,” Bolland said. “We talked about this two years ago when he was toying with running. We both agreed this is a ridiculous long shot. We never thought it would be this close, but he was going to go for it and he was always in it to win it. This isn’t a career move for him. He wanted to serve the community.” Campa-Najjar wants young people and supporters to keep pushing for change. “It takes a couple steps forward, two steps backward, but the arc of history bends towards justice and bends toward equality and progress,” he said. “If we keep pushing, we’ll be able to do that.”
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Nov. 13, 2018 — Vol. 62, Issue 2
NEWS
Designed by Alyssa Pajarillo Tel: (619) 482-6368 email: news@theswcsun.com
A GOLDEN NIGHT Photos by: Victoria Sanchez and Brittanny Cruz-Fejeran
HOPE ON ELECTION NIGHT — Voters eagerly kept an eye on their candidates progress during the race streaming at Golden Hall. Adoring supporters of Ammar Campa-Najjar recorded his uplifting message about poll results despite his opponent Duncan Hunter being in the lead. Campa reminded his crowd that only 60 percent of the votes had been counted and a potential victory was still in sight.
Hundreds flocked to last week’s election celebration at Golden Hall in downtown San Diego. Even students who were not old enough to vote showed up to celebrate democracy’s big day. Politicians such as Humberto Gurmilan, Monica Montgomery, Nicole Jones, Jen Campbell, Ammar Campa-Najjar were on hand to personally thank voters for supporting their campaigns. As the night wore on, the environment became more intense. Some stared at the election results in disappointment, some could not contain their happiness. But all will likely remember the experience.