Spring 2016: Volume 59, Issue 5

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

theswcsun.com

Board to poll community about bond

By Cristofer Garcia Assistant Campus Editor

Bond is back!

Maybe.

Following a 4-1 decision by the governing board, Southwestern College has contracted with FM3, a public opinion research firm, for a district-wide poll to gather public opinion about the college and decide whether it will pursue a new bond measure on the November ballot.

A survey of 620 high-propensity voters will cost $39,500 and an election consultant will likely cost $20,000 if the college decides to move forward with a campaign.

SWC would seek a Proposition 39type of general obligation bond, which requires 55 percent approval rather than Proposition 13’s threshold of 67 percent.

Bond money may be used for software, equipment and technology, in addition to building construction. A new bond could raise $356 million at a cost to property owners of $25 per $100,000 of assessed value.

Tim Flood, SWC Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs, said if a taxpayer’s property in the district is assessed at $300,000, property taxes collected would not exceed $75 per year.

Flood said polling will inform college leaders about the community’s opinion of SWC and whether or not a bond proposition could get the 55 percent approval.

Flood said the college plans to pay for the poll with redevelopment funds.

Flood said redevelopment funds come from taxes collected from developers for the burden they place on schools,

Volume 59, Issue 5

March 1 - April 10, 2016

College Estates parking district passes Southwestern students parked in neighborhoods will be cited and fined, city staff and CVPD expect fall 2016 implementation and enforcement

By Domonique Scott Campus Editor

A unanimous vote by Chula Vista’s City Council has created the first residential permitted parking district in the city in an effort to dissuade Southwestern College students from parking in College Estates.

For a decade College Estates residents have complained that their streets have been overwhelmed with trash, drugs

and noise from SWC students. Many have complained that student parking has suffocated the area.

Council Member John McCann said it has been a long-festering issue.

“For many years I served as an adjunct instructor,” he said. “I’m no longer with SWC, but back then I knew there was a parking problem. I’ve actually driven through the neighborhoods to make sure I understood this problem. I’ve noticed there are parking issues, there

is trash and there is some activity that may not be the best.” Bill Valli, Chula Vista’s assistant director of engineering, proposed a plan that would include about 250 houses running through the 1600 block of Columbia, Gotham, Yale and Elmhurst Street to the eastern boundary of Vassar Avenue. Fordham, Xavier and Wayne Avenue along with the 1600 block of Harvard Street and Ithaca Street will be included.

Permitted times would reflect the hours

Bernie

Cristofer Garcia/Staff

PEACE THROUGH POWER —Supporters at the Bernie Sanders rally in San Diego raise their hands in peace as the Democratic presidential candidate expresses condolences for the victims of the Brussels terror bombing. Sanders said America will stand with its allies and fight ISIS. His call for free college has resonated with students.

More than 15,000 supporters flock to see Vermont senator and hear his progressive message that is shaking up American politics Voting Millennials

2016 2012 2008

Meet Elections Candidates: Aspiring 2016-17 ASO candidates will participate in a public forum on May 3 and 10 from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. to present the policies the plan to implement.

Elections: Student votes will be recorded online through WebAdvisor from May 9-12 with hopes of increasing participation.

Stress Relief Week: Before finals, students will have a variety of stress relief options which may include candy, ballon artists and therapy dogs. May 16-19 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Hydration Stations: The first of many is located in the Student Center. Seven more have been purchased and will be installed in the near future.

Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n : A S O i s in the process of providing transportation from the San Ysidro satellite to the main campus. Partnerships with a shuttle service are being explored.

Food Pantry: In partnership with the child development department, ASO is planning to create a campus food pantry where students will have access to meals or packaged food.

Evolution Wraps: Vegan students now have more options!

Evolution vegan wraps are now available at the Time Out Café.

Shelter in Place: ASO leaders said they want to implement an active shooter drill every semester to improve student and school employee preparedness.

For more information follow t h e A S O o n Fa c e b o o k a t : Associated Student Organization of Southwestern College and on Twitter at: SWC_ASO.

please see Parking pg. A2

Students turn out for

please see Poll pg. A3

ASO springs into action

the neighborhood is most impacted, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A limit of four annual permits per residence (three resident and one guest) would be purchased for $20 each.

Valli said he wanted to see the process implemented by the end of May. “I don’t really have a good timing estimate,” he said. “I’m guessing it would be 30-60 days to figure out the permit process and then we would have to purchase the stickers and placards.

However long it takes to get that in place and then alert the community,

Polls show young voters are growing 69 million 23% in size and are 28% 88 million overwhelmingly supporting Bernie 36% 116 million Source: U.S. Census Sanders.

Bureau

Millennials are considered to be Americans currently 18-34 years old.

9% Undecided

54% Sanders

18-29 year-old Democrats support Sanders by 17% 37% Clinton

March 14 USA Today

Exercise building shapes up Consultant to examine racial strife

By Brelio Lozano Staff Writer

As more than 12,000 cubic yards of fill dirt create the foundations of the new Wellness and Aquatics Complex on the corner lot, two decades of frustration are finally buried.

A three-story building will house a gymnasium that can be converted to a 2,500-seat auditorium, seven fitness classrooms, faculty offices, cardio facilities, training and testing rooms, locker and shower facilities. A pool complex will include two 50-meter pools. One pool is designed for competitive swim events, multi-team water polo competitions and practice. A second pool is designed to support diving, physical educational programs, recreational swimming and please see Construction pg. A3

By Bianca Quilantan Editor-in-Chief

GEM OF A GYM—A rendering of the new Wellness and Aquatics Complex currently under constuction on the corner lot.

Let’s connect! Follow and like us at: TheSWCSun

College trustees voted 5-0 to hire Oakland-based InPartnership Consulting, a s e l f - d e s c r i b e d “o r g a n i z a t i o n a l development and strategic change firm,” to mediate a controversy that has divided scores of campus employees along racial lines. Dr. Michael Bell will lead a team of mediators studying the foundations and flashpoints of recent racial tension on campus that many Southwestern College leaders have called “a crisis.” InPartnership may be paid up to $45,000, according to the consultant contract.

In Pa r t n e r s h i p c o n s u l t a n t s h a ve interviewed select campus employees in an effort to root out the causes of please see Consultant pg. A2

A2

Student salaries shorted due to clerical error

By Andrew Dyer Assistant News Editor

California’s minimum wage increased to $10 an hour at the beginning of the year, but some student workers at Southwestern College were still being paid $9 an hour at the end of February.

Electrical engineering major Mayra Paulido, 23, said no one from payroll or student employment services notified her.

She said she found out only after checking her account after receiving her pay for the month of January on Feb. 29.

“I called my supervisor first,” Paulido said.

“She said to call payroll, so I did. The lady said yes, there had been a mistake, but I needed to wait for a call from a supervisor.”

Paulido said the call never came.

“I went to Southwestern (payroll) to check and they didn’t even remember me,” she said.

“I talked to the supervisor, Veronica, and she said they were going to pay me back the money and that some student workers fell through the cracks.”

Interim Payroll Director Janet Taylor confirmed the mistake and said students could expect to be compensated on their March 25 checks.

“We have done the research and identified the students,” she said.

Taylor said payroll did not send out notices to affected students and that Student Employment Services was responsible for updating students’ wage rates.

“There were maybe 29, 30 students that we know were affected,” said Student Employment Services supervisor Nelson Riley. “We have asked that their supervisors check with the student workers. If there are any more out there that need to be corrected we can do that.”

Students were not notified directly by Student Employment Services or Riley, who said that getting the word out through other students was more efficient.

“We usually deal through the supervisors,” he said.

Paulido said her wage was correct on her March 25 check.

The student payroll error came to light at the same time as a school-wide payroll delay.

District employees who receive their pay through direct deposit were not paid on time at the end of February.

In an email to school employees Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs Tim Flood said the college had sent the payroll on time to Wells Fargo, but that an update to payroll software had reset the coding required for the bank to process it.

“There were a few issues that combined to cause this delay,” Flood said in his email.

“Steps have been taken to ensure it does not happen again.”

Some faculty reported receiving overdraft charges due to the delay in their pay, but Flood said these expenses would be covered.

“Anyone who got a late charge can file a claim with us,” he said. “If there’s a problem, just let us know so we can look to resolve it.”

Student worker wage discrepancies were not associated with the Wells Fargo issue.

Taylor said anyone with questions about their pay should contact her in payroll.

“We want to make sure it’s right,” she said.

DeVore Field House

Luz Aurora Aramburo, editor

NEWS

March 1- April 10, 2016 — Vol. 59, Issue 5

Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: news@theswcsun.com

Most students are eligible for BOG fee waivers

By Josh Navarro Assistant News Editor

About 95 percent of Southwestern College’s 19,867 students are eligible for the Board of Governors Fee Waiver (BOGW).

State leaders are working to make sure qualified students are taking advantage of the benefits available to them.

BOGW covers health fees, student center fees and lower parking fees, among other expenses. Though it pays for courses, it does not cover course materials like textbooks or lab equipment. Cal Grant Competitive Awards provide financial support beyond the BOGW, including books and transit passes.

The California College Promise (CCP) is proposed legislation that would increase Cal Grant awards from $1,600 to $3,000 and boost the number of community college students who receive awards from 25,500 to

30,000. It would also expand access to the California Community College Transfer Entitlement Award by raising the age limit from 28 to 31. About 30 percent of community college students are 29 or older.

A potential increase in the BOGW eligibility is also on the table, according to the SWC Public Information Officer Lillian Leopold.

“The California Promise would expand the BOG Fee Waiver and Cal Grant B and C to include more than just fees,” she said.

Among the California community college students eligible for BOGW, about 1 million have their fees waived each year.

BOGW students take 66 percent of the total units taught at state community colleges.

Leopold compared the CCP to President Obama’s call for free community college tuition.

“California has always been ahead of

the curve,” she said. “With the BOG Fee Waiver college is pretty much free already, except for materials. That is why we’re encouraging students to apply for the Cal Grants.”

Cal Grants are available to four-year university students, who receive 94 percent of the funding, while community college students receive the remaining 6 percent.

“Once the total cost of attendance and all available financial aid is taken into account, it is more expensive for a financially needy student to attend a community college than a UC or CSU campus,” according to CCP campaign materials. “Only 25,500 awards (are available) for over 300,000 qualified applicants. It is significantly easier to gain admission to UC Berkeley or UCLA than to receive a Cal Grant.”

Leopold agreed.

“Although the community college system is a much larger student population

“Freeway Flyers” teach most of the classes for less of the pay

Adjuncts rally to address inequalities that are damaging higher education across America Percentage of college faculty that are part-time instructors across the years

1970

Being an adjunct does not add up Adjuncts earn 40% less than full-timers per hour SWC employs 729 adjuncts and 227 full-timers 27% average turnover from year to year

Otay Lakes Road

Graphic and Story Alberto Calderon

S

WC adjunct leader Geoffery Johnson stepped to the microphone in front of the Cesar Chavez building and sat down his prepared speech on top of a trashcan — a podium he said was “fit for an adjunct.”

“I teach a 120 percent workload (36 class hours a week) and get paid $40,000 a year,” said the part-time English instructor. “If I was a full-time professor, I would be making in excess of $85,000 a year.”

Workers publicly comparing their salaries to those of their friends and colleagues is a rare sight, but the stated goal of National Adjunct Rally Day was to start a dialogue about the disparity in pay and opportunity adjunct instructors face.

English Professor John Rieder, a former adjunct, said these conversations are uncomfortable, but necessary.

“Sometimes it feels awkward,” he said. “In the U.S. we try to pretend like we are not a class-based society, so people don’t talk about their income, but

Prohibited parking district

Andrew Dyer/Staff

OFF LIMITS — Chula Vista’s City Council approved a parking district in College Estates that bans SWC students.

Parking: City council establishes new district in College Estates Continued from pg. A1

give them a 30-35 day time frame to come in and purchase the permits, before enforcement actually begins.”

Valli said initial plans had included the 1700 blocks of Yale, Harvard and Ithaca Street totaling 283 homes in the district.

College Estates resident Gilbert Valdez said he and his neighbors residing at the east end of Harvard Street were not completely informed about the petitioning of summer

than the CSUs and the UCs, (2.1 million vs. 713,271) we get a smaller percentage of the Cal Grants,” she said. “That’s why this legislation is coming forward, to not only increase the number of students who would get it, but also increase the amount they would get.”

Leopold said the legislation also calls for a simplified FAFSA form.

“When I had to fill that FAFSA for my daughter when she was in college, it was really hard to understand,” she said. “Then if English isn’t your first language, forget it.”

Film major Gonzalo Luis Gutierrez, 31, said he relies on the BOGW. “Just having the waiver helps me come to school,” he said. “It’s direct and I get the benefits for it right away, meaning I don’t have to pay for my classes. For this level of college, it’s a good alternative to other financial aid because I don’t need that much money, just enough to get through classes.”

2015 and wanted homes in the 1700 block excluded. He said he had circulated a list to neighbors who felt they had not received full disclosure on the new district and opposed buying permits. City officials contracted the district to 250 homes, and excluded the 1700 block entirely.

“We have never had issues with parking in our area,” said Valdez. “We requested for modification because we did not want to be included.”

Homeowner Bob Muff said he was happy that after a decade of fighting he and his neighbors were able to take back their community.

“We have been overwhelmed for 10 years now and finally we have a foot in the door,” he said. “There’s room for

corrections, additions and subtractions.

There is a lot of flexibility built into the ordinance.”

Muff said he was going to enjoy being able to park without hassle in front of his home.

“I am very happy right now about it,” he said. “It’s been a real struggle and I’m just so relieved.”

A happy ending for the College Estates residents has upset some SWC students.

Biology major Lorena Aguayo said she parked across the street because she felt she should not have to pay for parking on campus.

“Paying for tuition, my classes and all my books just seems to be so much,” she said.

“Students either take the bus, get dropped off or park. I’m being forced to pay. That’s it, we’re being forced.

in this case we know there is this built-in inequality, so it is troubling.”

A nearly two-to-one pay disparity forces many SWC adjuncts to accept multiple teaching positions at colleges all over the San Diego County.

Rieder said their hectic schedule and lack of office hours dilutes their effectiveness. They have been affectionately nicknamed “freeway flyers” for the hours they spend on the road between schools.

Adjunct instructor Gregorio Pantoja told the SWC gathering that his schedule last semester was unsustainable.

“I was on four campuses in the same day,” he said.

“In the morning I would teach at Grossmont, in the afternoon at SWC and then I’d go to the San Ysidro campus. After that I’d drive and teach a night class at SDSU. I would leave my house at 10 a.m. and get home at 10:30 p.m., all for four classes.” Adjuncts comprise a growing portion of collegiate faculty nationwide, which educators argue, is lowering the

Consultant: Outside firm to mediate racial strife Continued from pg. A1

long-simmering racial tension at SWC and to help the college move forward. Governing Board President Nora Vargas said trustees were deeply concerned by recent events and will work hard to find a comprehensive solution.

“I do want to emphasize that this is an item that is extremely important for us as a governing board,” Vargas said. “We are committed to ensuring the fostering of systemic intervention and making sure that this environment is of respect, equity, diversity and inclusion to really support our students. We are taking these matters very seriously.”

Long-time college employees have said Southwestern has bubbled with underlying racial tension for more than 25 years, going back to hiring controversies in the early 1990s. An NAACP investigation in 2003, complaints of racism by minority custodians and charges of preferential treatment by administrators preceded the latest incident involving Dr. Guadalupe Corona, hired in January as SWC’s Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Controversy erupted in February after Corona

please see Parking pg. A2

was said to have unilaterally cancelled the first meeting of a brand new EDI committee she was to tri-chair with Student Development Director Janelle Williams and Facilities Coordinator Ursula Morris-Williams.

Corona said her main reason for the cancellation was a time crunch related to a grant deadline. She also expressed concern that the EDI Committee may not have been diverse enough to truly represent the district’s racial, ethnic and sexual constituencies. Williams said she felt Corona was implying that the committee had too many African-Americans. Corona strongly denied that she said or implied that, but the campus soon erupted when President Dr. Melinda Nish repeated the notion that there were too many African-Americans on the EDI Committee during a meeting of college leaders.

Nish has since apologized for her statement and insisted she was thinking statistically about the diversity of the committee.

Several campus faculty and classified leaders called for the termination and resignation of Nish and Corona. Academic Senate representatives discussed the possibility of a Vote of Confidence against Corona, but no decision has been made, pending a report from InPartnership.

For more complete coverage of this issue please go to theswcsun.com.

NEWS

The Southwestern College Sun

Adjuncts: Part-timers raise awareness of job inequalities on campus

based.”

Vice President of Academic Affairs Kathy Tyner laid it out more explicitly.

“I think the main reason is that it’s very cost effective for schools to employ adjuncts as opposed to full-time professors,” she said.

Continued from pg. A2 “Let’s say, for example, you compare, sadly, the pay rate of an adjunct (to a full timer).

If an adjunct is teaching 10 classes, which is basically a full contract for a full-timer, they would make about $43,00. And if we hire a new full-time faculty member we would pay that person about $70,000 for the same amount of work.”

SWC employs about 750 adjuncts and 225 full-time professors.

More adjuncts means less attention for students, according to Adriana Kezar, head of USC’s Delphi Project, on the changes in faculty and student services.

“Institutions that have large number of students that take classes with adjunct Cristofer Garcia/Staff instructors have lower graduation rates,” she said.

THROWAWAY TEACHERS—Geoffrey Similar statistics and anecdotal evidence Johnson calls for better treatment of partwas presented at the SWC rally. About 200 timers at a campus adjunct rally. students gathered for an hour to hear their quality of higher education. It is a trend that adjunct instructors make their case. At the seems likely to continue. In 1870, 33 percent end, Johnson passe out letter templates and of college instructors were adjuncts. Today it urged the students to write their school is 67 percent. administrators n a show of solidarity.

Tim Flood, SWC Vice President of Kyle Lord, 21, a philosophy major, said he Business and Financial Affairs, said he found found the rally illuminating. the growing figure curious.

“I really had no idea the income gap was so “I couldn’t say what the overall cause of big,” he said. “I plan on becoming a teacher, that is,” he said. “I would assume it’s dollar so this issue really hits home for me. It

Poll: SWC explores the viability of a new construction bond Continued from pg. A1

and from taxes collected from city redevelopment agencies. SWC receives about $1 million annually from the redevelopment agencies of Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego.

“Approximately half of the funds end up being allocated for capital improvement and the other half helps support the general fund,” said Flood. “We utilized funds from the capital improvement allocation to fund the poll, as this allows us to plan for future expansion and campus modernization.”

Trustee Tim Nader cast the only dissenting vote at the special meeting.

He said if the board wanted to allocate funds for a poll it should do so knowing that the money was originally intended as general fund replacement money.

Trustee Humberto Peraza voted for the poll.

“I think it’s important to find out what the community thinks about it because obviously there’s a need for infrastructure at the college,” he said.

SWC has $466 million of unfunded capital needs, said Flood, including $383 million to complete its 2013 Facilities Master Plan. He said there is $99 million left of the $389 million from 2008’s Proposition R. Polling will conclude during the first week of May and will be followed by a board presentation of the results, he said.

Flood said 2016 is the best opportunity for a bond measure as he expects a record voter turnout and a bond-friendly electorate. He also said he expects a $57 million escalation of construction costs for the same amount of work if the bond measure is deferred to 2018.

Peraza said he does not expect the college’s recent accreditation issues to

March 1- April 10, 2016 — Vol. 59, Issue 5

definitely makes me think twice about what percent of the teachers need to be full-time, I will go through.” but the Legislature just never followed it up Pantoja said it was time to take drastic with money.” steps.

Adjuncts are beginning to make progress “The students, part-times, full-times, on some of their demands, said Johnson. these three sectors need to get together In the last contract negotiation, adjuncts and stop accepting their blatant lies and received a slight pay raise and eight paid stand by thefact that the money does office hours per semester. SW is going to pay exist,” he said. “Why not shut down the more than $300,000 for adjuncts to attend campus? Until those who are making the opening day seminars. decisions within our admiistraion come to Tyner said SWC is doing what it can to a sincere and conscious realization that by address adjunct concerns. so disproportionately hiring adjuncts they “I don’t think that you would find anybody are puposely degrading the educational that would disagree that we ned more fullexperience of most students on campus.” time faculty,” she said. “And some of these In an attempt to curb the people argue that you need to rising rate of adjunct hires, “Every day I woke get rid of the administrators the California Legislature has up feeling extremely or there needs to be a lot less, created a complicated formula because I don’t bring in any capping adjunct hires based on fortunate like I had money. I basically do a lot of a college’s funding levels. The won the lottery.” meetings and reports and make Faculty Obligation Number decisions, but in terms of the John Rieder way (the college is funded), (FON) includes a mechanism to heavily fine institutions that we get paid by the number of do not have enough full-time faculty. This students that attend our classes.” has created a cat and mouse game where Rieder, who was an adjunct for six years colleges and universities hire more profesors, before being hired as a ful-time professor in but only enough to match the state andate. 2011, said the stakes are very high. He said Tyner said community colleges are in the it was life changing to become a full-time same position. professor.

“We’re right at the minimum, we pretty “It was very strange,” he said. “Every day much hover right at that FON number,” she I woke up feeling extremely fortunate like I said. “That is going to be the same at most had just won the lottery. For omebody like colleges. The state is desirous of maximizing me, my graduate degree is in English, I’m the number of full-time faculty. There is never going to be a multimillionaire. So actually a law that basically states that 75 getting a full-time job at a college has been

A peek into Southwestern’s near future

COUNTDOWN — The Performing Arts Center (top), budgeted at $30 million, will include two theatres and dance studios. The Math, Science and Engineering building (middle) will cost $78 million and include a greenhouse, pond and rooftop telescope platform. The Wellness and Aquatics Complex (left) is a $52 million project that it will include a gymnasium and three pools. affect community support for the college.

“The college is going to resolve the issues that we have with accreditation,” he said.

“I feel pretty confident in saying that.

The need for (new) infrastructure and the (modernization of ) old infrastructure that exists at Southwestern College is still going to be a need and I think that people in our community understand that.”

Flood said he is optimistic about a new

bond.

“I think we’ve shown some very good due diligence,” he said. “I think we’ve shown that we’ve cleaned up our issues within contracting. I think we can show the public the district has been a very, very good steward of public funds.”

ASO President Melissa Rodriguez said there is full support for a poll from the ASO Senate.

“All the student representatives voted unanimously in favor of moving forward with the poll, as long as the funding didn’t come from general fund,” she said.

Southwestern may have company on the November ballot. Sweetwater Union High School District is exploring the possibility of a bond, and the city of Chula Vista is considering a half-cent sales tax increase or a $200 million bond for infrastructure.

A3

my dream. This was something I had been gunning for and positioning myself for for many years. I come from the community college system, so I wanted to give back to the students in whom I see myself.”

Johnson said there s a long way to go, but the adjunct rally as a happy reminder of the support part-timers get from students and professors.

“A good amount of people came out and it seemed to go well today,” he said. “We just need people to understand that adjuncts are not being equitably trated and it really hurts the student learning experience.”

Construction: New complex includes three pools, gym Continued from pg. A1

instructional water safety programs.

A third and smaller 25-meter therapy pool will support the multi-generational wellness programs offered at the existing facility.

SWC’s existing pools will be demolished this summer to make way for the new math, science and engineering building. SWC’s water polo and swim teams will temporarily practice in National City at the Las Palmas Pool.

Proposition R, a $389 million general bond approved by voters eight years ago, will fund the $52 million Wellness and Aquatic Complex. These new facilities are designed to support the entire South Bay community, along with SWC students, said Jim Spillers, dean of athletics.

SWC swimmers and water polo players expressed excitement over the aquatics facilities, though some said they were disappointed with the timing.

Krysdel Garate, 18, a nursing major, is a member of the women’s water polo and swim teams. She said moving the teams out during the competitive season was bad for the athletes. Swim coach Matt Ustaszewski agreed.

“It’s tough,” he said. “Our entire competitions are 25 yards. That’s the difference between short course and long course. At the community college level everything is short course, 25 yards. Las Palmas Pool does not have a 25-yard course. In a perfect world, our facility doesn’t close until the new facility opens.”

Ustaszewski said he hopes the new facilities will attract more and better swimmers.

“Our facilities will be head and shoulders above everyone in our conference,” he said.

Spillers said he is excited for the future.

“Once again we are going to have a visible facility that screams commitment to students and the community,” he said. “I believe that these facilities define community in community college.”

Public Information Officer Lillian Leopold said she was “ecstatic” about the new projects.

“I’ve seen (the corner) as the Christmas tree lot, I’ve seen it as the pumpkin patch,” she said. “It’s so nice that the college is going to realize the potential in that area and be even more welcoming for the community.”

SWC’s Wellness and Aquatics Complex will be managed by Metafit, a company specializing in high-intensity interval training, said Leopold. This will allow a health club sort of facility to be put in place for the community, she said, and allow the gym to run for longer hours and on weekends.

Showing student ID saves 8% on campus food

By Eliza Cana Senior Staff Writer

Student identification cards are now doubling as defacto discount cards at campus cafeterias. SWC IDs can save students eight percent on every purchase.

Food service employees on campus are asking students to show their IDs when purchasing food so they are not charged tax.

IRS Regulation 103 states food sold to students by schools, school distrit and student organization is exempt from tax, except for carbonated beverages. For years, apparently, no one had been taxed when buying food at Southwestern, including employees who were not eligible for the tax reak.

SWC was caught violating regulation 1603 in 2008 when auditors noticed that cashiers were not taxing faculty and staff. Jackie Watts, food service operatins supervisor, said SWC might have been fined or back taxed with interest or penalties. “(Auditors) were monitoring here at the time when it was The Snack Bar, it wasn’t Time Out Café,” said Watts. “They were

doing the walk around and one of the things they noticed was that the staff and faculty were not being charged tax.”

When Time Out Café was called The Snack Bar in 2008, signs were posted to have students show their IDs, Watts said, but they were taken down during a paint job and never reposted.

When Watts took over food services this semester, he required cashiers to ask students for school IDs and he put up signs at Tradewinds, Time Out Café and the cafeteria.

Andrea Reyes, 21, a nursing major and barista at Tradewinds, sai she is monitored by cameras installed at the start of the semester.

“The cameras have to catch you showing your ID,” said Reyes. “(If ID is not shown) we have to charge you tax on the computer.”

Watts, however, said as long as people can prove they are a student at SWC, tax can still be waived.

“They want to make sure (cashiers are) doing their job,” said Watts. “I would just ask everyone to be patient. If they know you, they won’t ask for it. If you have some other form that can prove that you go to school here, we

are fine with that as well.”

He said SWC credit cards are also valid identification.

Watts said he does not want to hassle students.

“We’re not the ID police, we’re not going to stalk anyone for their IDs,” he said. “If this happens again with the auditors, I just want to tell them that we are taking our precautions.”

SWC students iterviewed for this story said they are on board with this policy.

Isabel Bedolla, radiology major, said she shops at Tradewinds.

“I can get a venti drink and a granola bar for only $6, when I used to buy a venti drink for $5,” she said.

A grande iced tea lemonade at Tradewinds is $2.95 and the same drink at Starbucks is $3.25.

Jairo Hernandez, ulinary arts major, said he usually buys lunch once or twice a week on campus.

“If SWC takes taxes off, then yes I will use my ID,” he said. “People come here because they have finacial problems, so it’s better for them to buy food here.”

The Grateful Eight (percent)

Key: =1 medium coffee at Tradewinds Cafe

= $100 + ID

Brady Gutierrez and Josh Navarro/Staff

A LATTE CUPS —$100 without a student ID buys 40 cups of coffee, with an ID it buys 52.

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The Southwestern College Sun

VIEWPOINTS

March 1 - April 10, 2016 — Volume 59, Issue 5

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.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Bianca Quilantan

ALYSSA PAJARILLO

Writing about my own rape was difficult

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Jaime Pronoble ONLINE

Mirella Lopez, editor NEWS

Luz Aurora Aramburo, editor Andrew Dyer, assistant Josh Navarro, assistant VIEWPOINTS

Alyssa Pajarillo, editor Dan Cordero, head cartoonist CAMPUS

Domonique Scott, editor Cristofer Garcia, assistant ARTS

Cesar Hirsch, editor Kenslow Smith, assistant

Michelle phillips/staff

editorial

SPORTS

Alberto Calderon, editor PHOTOGRAPHY

Mary York, editor Sergio Esparza, assistant SENIOR STAFF

Nicholas Baltz Eliza Cana COPY EDITORS

Brian del Carmen Viandy Gonzalez STAFF WRITERS

Darcy Aguayo

Brelio Lozano

Maria del Carmen Alonso

Natalie Mosqueda

Jessica Briseno

Chariti Niccole

JoseLuis Baylon

Samantha Ojeda

Bo Chen-Samuel

Jessica Osiecki

Elibeth Esquivel

Cody Quigg

Priscilla Gallardo

Jeanette Sandoval

Henry Gentile

Netzai Sanchez

Diego Gomez

Mariana Saponara

Victoria Gonzalez

Stefanie Tellez

Martin Loftin GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATOR

Alejandro Durán CARTOONISTS

Andrea Aliseda Stephanie Garrido Michelle Phillips Blake Tomczak PHOTOGRAPHERS

Melody Davalos David Hodges ADVISOR

Dr. Max Branscomb

AWARDS/HONORS Student Press Law Center National College Press Freedom Award, 2011 National Newspaper Association National College Newspaper of the Year, 2004-16 Associated Collegiate Press National College Newspaper of the Year National Newspaper Pacemaker Award, 2003-06, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012-2015 General Excellence Awards, 2001-16 Best of Show Awards, 2003-16 Columbia University Scholastic Press Association Gold Medal for Journalism Excellence, 2001-16 California Newspaper Publishers Assoc.

California College Newspaper of the Year, 2013, 2015 Student Newspaper General Excellence, 2002-16 San Diego County Multicultural

Heritage Award Society of Professional Journalists National Mark of Excellence, 2001-16 First Amendment Award, 2002, 2005 San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards 1999-2015 Directors Award for Defense of Free Speech, 2012 Journalism Association of Community Colleges Pacesetter Award 2001-16 General Excellence Awards, 2000-16 San Diego County Fair Media Competition Best of Show 2001-03, 20052015 American Scholastic Press Association Community College Newspaper of the Year

The Issue: Southwestern College has failed to keep up its technological infrastructure.

Our Position: Our governing board needs to apply pressure to president, IT to fix this mess.

College technology meltdowns damage students and our reputation Southwestern College’s software update is ready to install.

Administrators, however, keep pressing ignore.

Course Managment Civil War SWC’s brown vs. black racial flare up is clearly the Fight of the Year, but the Blackboard vs. Canvas dustup has likely ruffled even more feathers. Canvas is being evaluated as a possible replacement for venerable Blackboard as SWC’s Course Management System (CMS). SWC CMS guru Larry Lambert is highly respected by faculty, but has butted heads with the Academic Senate. Lambert supports Blackboard Learn Ultra, an updated system of SWC’s current system that was created to compete with Canvas.

Maybe it is a case of the devil you know. Google Maps is trusted because people are used to it.

Conversely, iPhone Maps is new and unfamiliar, therefore mistrusted.

Senate leaders insist Canvas is more popular in higher education and has leapt beyond Blackboard.

Faculty have pointed out that Sweetwater Union High School District students use Canvas and would have a smoother transition to college if SWC adopted it, too. Both Canvas and Blackboard Learn Ultra boast features that would be new to SWC, including video/audio responses, applications and interactive interfaces. Each program could change how professors teach their courses.

Lambert, SWC’s award-winning Online Instructional Support Specialist, wrote in an all-staff email that the Online Learning Center, a team of classified employees who maintain SWC’s Blackboard and other online learning, has been excluded from the conversation about changing CMS programs.

Lambert maintains our current Blackboard program and would manage whichever CMS program SWC chooses. He prefers the devil we know.

The Academic Senate released a study that acknowledged “inconsistencies” in Canvas, but supported a switch. Senators plan to vote April 26 on which CMS program they will recommend to the college.

This decision will not immediately help the students and faculty frustrated with the current CMS program. Like too many things at our dysfunctional college, it will likely take years to actually implement.

SWC will remain years behind the rest of our collegiate community due to poor planning, lack of communication and glacial processes. Most of today’s students will be long gone before any progress is made.

Online Comments Policy

WebAdvisor Antiquated SWC’s Colleague program has had some updates, but still has the earliest version of WebAdvisor, which is hopelessly outdated.

SWC’s antique version of WebAdvisor is like Apple’s dead iPhone 4, it can no longer support the company’s newest updates.

Director of Admissions and Records Nicholas Montez said SWC is behind Grossmont and other community colleges.

“Ever y time you do a modification (to WebAdvisor) and let’s say when there is an upgrade to the product, now you have to account for every modification along with that upgrade,” he said.

To eliminate issues with WebAdvisor we must upgrade to the latest version and completely clear the original version. SWC needs to do this immediately, lest students continue to suffer with crashes, lost data and other registration nightmares.

Technological Systems Last summer’s notorious server meltdown destroyed vast quantities of data, including critical records from SARS, a scheduling and drop-in program. SWC’s servers are unreliable and technology on this campus is embarrassingly outdated. Technological advancements SWC owns are often not utilized. For instance, there are classrooms that have the ELMO interactive document camera, but are not hooked up to the computer.

Our IT department, like much of our college, is guilty of the racism of low expectations. Lowincome, minority students in this community deserve the same level of technology, the same quality instruction and the same competent leadership as other more privileged colleges.

Instead, we settle. We settle for mediocrity. We settle for obsolescence.

With all of SWC’s technological hiccups, students rightfully worry if they will be able to register for their classes or graduate. This is your time, administrators, to make changes. It is time you learn from I.T. departments at better run colleges. It is time to listen to the students and community. Stop pressing ignore.

Please, press update and join the 21st century where the rest of us are.

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When my Editor-in-Chief pitched the idea of a sexual assault special edition last semester I was immediately on board. I had written about sexual assault in my columns before. I knew it was an epidemic and wanted to contribute in any way I could.

Then she said she wanted to have people share their personal sexual assault experiences.

That was me. My stomach turned. I am a sexual assault victim, just like so many others.

I would not be writing as an observer, reporting on faceless statistics. I would be telling my own story of being raped as a 13 year old.

I nonchalantly told her I would do it. But something in the back of my mind shuddered.

Could I actually write this?

For the next few months, I went back and forth with about writing it.

I didn’t have to write it.

Why reopen that memory?

It happened so long ago, but it is something I live with daily. I think about it every time I smell clove cigarettes. I remember it whenever someone does something as innocent as a surprise hug. I remember it when I play fight with my partners. And I especially remember it when someone tells me things were okay when I am angry or emotional. It is not something I have to dig up, because 10 years later I’m still healing.

It would be so much easier to just not talk about it.

But it could help someone if I did talk about it. It might even help me. Perhaps it could be something therapeutic.

Since my assault I had grown strong. I became someone who speaks her mind. I would not let him stifle my voice again. I was going to do it.

I was going to finally face what had happened to me. I was going to tell the world when I had not even told my parents. I had only told a few people. I had not told my partner of more than a year. As I sat staring at my computer screen, though, anxiety crept over me.

What if they did not believe me?

My parents have always been supportive of me, but I have seen these conversations go bad before. I have watched as women I knew came out with their story and heard the snide reactions. Friends and family would not believe them. She was only being “dramatic,” “it wasn’t really rape,” and “she’s just trying to cover the fact that she slept with him.”

There may be people who read the article that will not believe me. But the thought of the people who matter most to me — my family, closest friends and partner — not believing me scared me.

I could have fought harder.

I remember watching CNN reporter Don Lemon smile at a woman he was interviewing about being forced to perform oral sex on her assailant.

“There are ways of not performing oral sex on someone if you don’t want to,” he said on national television, “meaning the using of the teeth.”

In that moment, Lemon had stifled so many victims from telling their story and he planted doubt in my head.

Don Lemon is not the only person to make these kinds of insensitive statements. Victims of sexual assault get hit with stupid questions like, “Why didn’t you scream or run or fight?”

For me, the answer is simple. I was scared and did not think about it.

Sure, in hindsight fighting sounds like an option. But during the rape my mind could not even process what was happening, let alone conjure an effective defense.

Why did I not tell anyone?

There are several reasons I never reported him. The main reason is, at the time, I was not sure what exactly had happened to me.

I was not sure if it qualified as rape because he was my boyfriend, not some stranger. In my 13-year-old mind I thought rape only happened to girls who were pulled into dark alleys or accosted at parties.

My sexual education had not informed me about consent. I did not know rape could please see Sex and the Sun pg. A5

Alyssa may be reached at sexandthesun@theswcsun.com

Alyssa Pajarillo, editor

VIEWPOINTS

Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: viewpoints@theswcsun.com

March 1 - April 10, 2016 — Vol. 59, Issue 5

A5

Mixed messages still haunt people of mixed race

By Chariti Niccole A perspective

The one-drop rule: a person with any known African ancestry regardless of amount, is black.

Growing up in a predominantly African-American family I was always the outsider because my skin was light, my hair curled differently, I had a private school education and my biological mother was Caucasian and Arabic. I was labeled the white girl of the family at an early age.

As one of the handful of African-American kids at my Christian private school, I was the outsider.

Although I talked like them, went to the same school, lived in the same neighborhood, listened to the same music and even dressed like them, my skin was naturally tan.

I was the token black friend everywhere we went.

At a young age confusion and self-hate consumed my life. Where do I fit in? Does that place even exist?

Being considered the white girl of the family because I had no rhythm and walked outside without shoes on echoed daily. Constantly not invited to family functions or told to sit down when good songs came on made whatever self-confidence I had disappear. The spotlight placed on me from my white friends and family did not help. In history class when the teacher talked about slavery all eyes were on me. “How do you feel about slavery Chariti?” The teacher would ask while everyone was eager to hear my response.

Hatred of both cultures overwhelmed me as I grew older and began to form my opinion of the world. “I am not black, I am not white, I am mixed and proud,” was my response when I was asked my ethnicity.

Every year Black history month presented itself and every year I refused to celebrate my ancestors and remember the struggle they went through that allowed me to be who I am.

Instead I made jokes about the probability that one side of the family owned the other side of the family.

Ignorance.

In 2013 a movement standing up against racial violence in America, Black Lives Matter, forced me to wake up and realize that race is an issue that needed to be addressed.

Blake Tomczak/staff

Countless nights of reading stories about the ongoing racial tension in America and personal interactions with people telling me they believed Michael Brown got what he deserved forced me to connect with my African-American side. After all, according to the one-drop rule, I was black and there was nothing I could do about that.

In Ebrahim Aseem’s blog, “Dear Mixed People you are not Half Black. Sorry,” he explains being mixed does not make you only half black.

“Black is not a race, it is a color and a culture-substitute when you do not know the specific country in the motherland you are from,” writes Aseem.

Mathematically and socially it does not compute, but a person that is multiracial and connected to each race that makes them up is 100 percent of each of those races. Being mixed does not mean that I can only accept and celebrate half or part of a culture.

Unfortunately many people in our country do not see it in the same way. Former Republican primary candidate Ben Carson questioned President Obama’s “black card” in a published interview.

“He didn’t grown up like I grew up,” Carson said. “So for him to claim that he identifies with the experiences of Black Americans is a stretch.”

So even though President Obama’s skin is naturally tan, like myself, he is discriminated against as a black man, he is not allowed to identify as black because where he was raised? Could you imagine the backlash he, or any other mixed race, fair skin American, would receive if they only claimed to be white, we would all be considered crazy.

In 2000 the national census finally decided to, for the first time, add a multi-race option to the form.

The 2010 census the amount of people who reported to be multiracial (9 million) grew by 32 percent from 2000 to 2010. The blackwhite combination grew by 134 percent, more than 1 million people.

With the continuous growth of mixed Americans there must be a change in how we look at race. Being black does not have to mean that a person is loud, from the ghetto and only talks in Ebonics. Being white is not being proper and stuck up. Everyone should be allowed to be completely proud of all parts that make up who they are. Stop making them choose one side and making them fit into a racial stereotype.

After years of self-hatred and confusion, this February I celebrated Black History Month for the first time by accepting who I am, all parts included. Yes, I am Arabic, yes I am White, and yes I am Black and I would not trade my mix for anything.

By Domonique Scott A perspective

“No taxation without representation” rang out loud and clear from the angered colonies during the American Revolution.

Well Southwestern College, HEAR THIS! “No Taxation without Realization.”

Students who purchase items at SWC food services may be paying taxes they do not have to. All they need to do to save the tax is show a student ID. SWC, however, has utterly failed to communicate this small detail.

SWC has silly handmade signs posted around vending areas such as the Time Out Café and the Student Union that read, “Effective January of 2009 applicable sales tax will be charged to all staff and non-students.”

Um, 2009 was seven years ago.

These “official signs” are on printer paper and scotch taped to the walls like

last-minute meeting notices. Nowhere are there signs that say students should be prepared to show IDs to avoid food taxes. There are even video cameras looking over the shoulder of student workers to make sure taxes are collected or IDs shown.

Article 8 of the Sales and Use Tax Regulation in California: Sales by Schools, School Districts and Student Organizations number 1603 reads, “Sales of meals or food products for human consumption to students of a school by public or private schools, school districts, and student organizations, are exempt from tax.”

California State Board of Equalization tax specialists say this regulation was implemented at K-12 campuses with set lunch periods, which explains why students never had to pay taxes on school lunches or show ID. Community College and University students are exempt from food taxes under this regulation, but employees are not.

Southwestern was warned by auditors

that it faced fines for not taxing food and beverage items purchased by employees.

SWC leadership decided to tax anyone who could not prove they were students.

Hence, the creation of the amateur signage this spring.

SWC has been sloppy about enforcing regulation 1603 and is now demanding student IDs without proper disclosure of its new policy.

The San Diego Community College District, which includes City College, Miramar and San Diego Mesa, also tax staff and non-students at their food service locations, but they do not enforce the surrender of a student ID at the time of purchase because IDs are not mandatory to attend the college at all.

SWC should look into this honor system SDCCD follows because an ID is not mandatory to attend SWC either.

It is offered upon enrollment, but not required.

Miramar College student Miguel Carranza said he has never had to prove he is a student at the check out line and

that he has not carried a student ID for the two years he has attended the college.

“As soon as they are about to charge me up all they ask me is if I am a student or not,” he said. “They don’t ask for ID.” Last fall SWC enacted a zero tolerance policy toward smoking on campus. More than 100 signposts and five banners were posted to educate students about the policy.

SWC even gave students a grace period to become accustomed to this new policy.

Why are not these same measures being taken when it comes to having to show an ID in the cafeteria.

Communicate to students why this enforcement is happening and educate them on regulation 1603. Allow those who do not have an ID to buy one. Be consistent when staff asks for IDs at the checkout line. If one student is getting asked but not another, what is the point?

If taking these steps are too complex, just ask us if we are students or not and let us get on with our lunch.

Continued from Page A4

Female campus police officers are long overdue and a welcome addition at SWC that a suspected perpetrator was released by our campus police only to be arrested a few days later for committing the same type of vulgar behavior at another local campus.

One more thing, do not be alarmed if the sexual assault statistics seem to increase from zero to some soon after your arrival. That too, has a long time coming. At least four years without a case in a country where one in five female college students has admitted to being sexually assaulted, (along with males too, though fewer guys would admit it).

When sex crimes are not reported it causes emotional harm to survivors and allows predators to roam free. Perhaps disclosing such assaults to a female officer will make a difference, encourage students to open up and report assaults, and if campus police begin documenting such incidents, the result should not surprise anyone.

However, an increase in reports may well be offset by a decrease in perpetrators, and once perps receive the message that our campuses will not be victimized, a true decline in sexual assault cases should be the effect. Only when crimes of a sexual nature are logged and investigated so that

The straw that broke the camel’s back.

Sex and the Sun: Rape is too often kept quiet by victims

Letter to the Editor

Change is afoot. Rumblings, grumblings and whole lot of bunglings have finally injected new life into the SWC Campus Police Department.

With inclusiveness in mind, new officers have been hired to serve and protect, including the first female officers in more than 10 years. Let me be among the first to say thank you and to welcome Emalee Pallis and Jessell Chaloux.

You’ve been a long time coming. Now that you are here, there are a few things I would like to share in support of your presence.

First of all, I am certainly hoping that your presence will indeed help soften the emotional sting and embarrassment felt by a survivor of sexual assault when facing campus police officers to talk about the crime. You see, recently a female student was blamed by an officer for dressing too provocatively thus encouraging the inappropriate behavior from a male student that she was reporting.

In addition, a stranger placing his hand inside a female student’s thigh failed to be documented as a sexual assault. In fact, just last year “The Sun” reported that three instances of sexual assault failed to even reach police logs. Not to mention

Mary York/staff

It is unfair to tax students without ID in college cafeterias

offenders can be prosecuted will our campuses actually become safer.

Finally, I understand that female officers may be under a lot of pressure to be tough living up to the expectations of machismo counterparts and students who may believe that women officers are apt to be more lenient. I admit that I want female officers who have managed to maintain a quality of sensitivity that promises to provide better listening skills than their male counterparts.

However, the last thing I want is for officers Pallis and Chaloux to be regarded as push-overs.

Besides, I am sure that being part of a maledominated profession has had considerable influence upon their identities as police officers and as women.

These new officers have been a long time coming. My hope is that they will be integral part of the solution for SWC campuses.

-Lorise Diamond

happen when the assailant was your boyfriend.

He had not bound me and beat me like in the movies.

All I knew was that it felt wrong and I did not want to engage with him.

As my education in sexuality widened, I realized that I had actually been raped. It was years later. Who would believe me now?

As all of these things came to mind, I realized I was no different from many of the women I had written about in this column.

Victims of sexual assault often do not report because they are afraid no one will believe them.

They are afraid their credibility will be attacked and police and peers will write it off as nothing more than a “he said, she said.”

A disturbing 35 percent of victims do not understand that rape does not need to be violent or done by a stranger to be considered rape, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

I looked at the statistics reported by The National Sexual Violence Research Center and realized that I, too, am a statistic.

I am the one in five American women who would be sexually assaulted.

I am the eight out of ten victims who knew their assailant.

I am a part of the 63 percent of women who did not report their assault.

I am, however, one of the fortunate women in America with a column in a highly-respected newspaper. Today I shed the fear, stigma and embarrassing cultural norms. I am telling the world what happened to me. I hope other women will do the same.

March 1 - April 10, 2016 — Vol. 59, Issue 5

?

Thinking Out

Loud

What are some of your pre-baseball game superstitions?

“I always have to eat two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

Eduardo Perez, 19, Kinesiology

“Red sock, black sock.

That’s about it. Just lucky socks.”

Timothy Biggs, 19, Computer Science

“It really depends on how I did the game before. I’ll take certain side streets or listen to certain playlists.”

Julian Briseno, 18, Telemedia

Alyssa Pajarillo, editor

VIEWPOINTS

Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: viewpoints@theswcsun.com

Clinton is an option for some conservatives

By Andrew Dyer A perspective

Primary season is the Hunger Games of American presidential politics. With each Republican culling, the options for rational conservative voters to consider more closely resemble a Saturday Night Live ensemble than viable, serious candidates. Foul-mouthed proto-fascist Donald Trump paradoxically remains the favorite and presumptive nominee. A spate of attacks on rival Senator Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi mark a new low, his campaign has long abandoned any semblance of civility or decorum.

Cruz is hardly a viable alternative. The unpopular candidate looks like he would be more at home behind the pulpit at a Texas mega church than the White House podium.

These are dark days for conservatives. As the GOP continues its decent into self-parody, they are in need of a lifeline, some shelter from this bitter assault of stupid.

Take heart, conservatives. There is still one serious candidate yet to consider. And while this pill is bitter and jagged, it might be best to just close your eyes, plug your nose and drop it down the hatch. The most viable conservative candidate running for president in 2016 is not even a Republican. She is presumptive Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Right-wing media have been painting Mrs. Clinton as the wicked witch of the west wing since the ‘90s. It has been a tenet of conservative political punditry to kick and scream about any leader from the Democratic Party regardless of fact, doubly so if that leader is a minority or a woman. Apart from a blip in the early ‘90s when she led a failed campaign for single payer healthcare, the common thread among Clinton’s policy positions is they have been anything but revolutionary.

She has proved a hawk on defense. She supported both the 2001 and 2003 invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. She has stated she supports both increased airstrikes and ground troops in the fight against ISIS. Where Republican candidates offer cartoonishly to find out if sand can glow, as Ted Cruz did recently, signaling that nuclear strikes would be on the table, Hillary offers what only in today’s extremist political landscape appears to be the moderate position. It is as war-hungry as any rightleaning foreign policy, and maps out a continuation and escalation of Obama’s policies, as well as return to those pursued by George W. Bush.

More than just drum-pounding posturing and promises of war, Clinton offers more regressive views when it comes to financial regulation. While she has proposed reforms through her campaign website, she has not gone so far as to advocate reinstating the Glass-Steagal Act, a depression-era regulation that separated investment and commercial banks. The law was repealed in 1999 via the signature of her husband, President Bill Clinton.

Many on the left have called into question Clinton’s acceptance of six-digit speaking fees paid by some of the largest firms on Wall Street for engagements with Clinton after leaving the Obama administration in 2013. Her senate campaigns were bankrolled by a who’s who of Wall

Blake Tomczak/staff

A6

Street firms. This should be considered in the context that she was a senator from New York, but the specter of these donations are likely to follow her throughout 2016.

When it comes to lightning-rod conservative issues like guns and abortion, Clinton, while still to the left of the extreme-right, is very much inline with mainstream America. Polls from Quinipiac, the New York Times, Gallup and Pew repeatedly find 90 percent of Americans support increased background checks for firearms, and, according to Gallup, half the country identifies as pro choice. Despite the power these wedge issues wield over the extreme right, most voters are more moderate than the outrage manufacturers in conservative media would have the public believe. Clinton’s positions are entirely mainstream.

One of the benchmarks of conservatism is the preservation of the status quo. When weighing candidate positions in this context, the choice of candidate becomes

clear. More of the same is the best conservatives can hope for. Repealing Obamacare is a pipe dream of a promise only the most gullible primary voters believe. Trump’s promise of a border wall paid for by Mexico is complete nonsense and little more than red meat for the white nationalists in his camp. Considering the alternatives, there is a dearth of viable options for moderate right-ofcenter voters. Ignore conservative punditry’s reactionary bluster and thinly veiled sexism in their Clinton coverage.

Like it or not, she is the thinking Republican’s best bet for electing a rational, viable conservative for president.

If moderate Republicans accept this now, and support her in the primaries, they could thumb the scales for her over Sanders. If not, come November, they might just find themselves choosing between a National Socialist and a Democratic Socialist, two populists at opposite ends of the spectrum. And that would be the bitterest pill of all.

Trump would be a bad joke, but he’s winning “I don’t really need luck. I just feel like God has my back.”

only to metaphorically hand his supporters pitchforks and torches to drive out hardworking immigrants.

Tr u m p p h o b i a i s shrill and false.

Latino migrants are rarely criminals, far less than any other group residing in America.

Tr u m p does not

Anton Melendez, 19, Business Administration

“Using my little brother’s glove is my luck.”

Oscar Rodriguez, 19, Psychology

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statement flaunted in an audacious manner on his website.

Throughout the Southwestern campus faculty and students break into laughter at the mention o f Tr u m p ’ s name. His selfaggrandizing campaign has boosted his notoriety, but not everyone shares

By Katy Stegall the same inflated opinion Dan Cordero/staff A perspective of Trump that he has of himself. His hostility toward Latinos “ Tens of thousands of violent and other ethnicities has turned the beatings, rapes and murders are minorities he has belittled into a happening” in the crimson stained scorned resistance against a tyrant in hands of the “incarcerated alien the making. population,” or so Donald Trump Fear and finance are the candidate’s claims in his “immigration plan.” twin weapons. Trump uses right-wing Trump said his brand of immigration resentment over diversifying America reform will make America great again, a to seduce his cult-like following,

acknowledge that immigrants are g o o d f o r A m e r i c a’s economy. Former SWC student Jesus Salmon said Trump is scapegoating Latinos.

“When you think of the American dream, it’s starting from nothing to make something,” he says. “Trump was raised in money. He knows nothing about the life of someone born in poverty.”

By building a wall to separate Mexico and America, Trump says he will block miscreants, but he would actually stifle progress.

Trump blames immigrants for America’s crime rate.

“They (Latinos) are responsible for this problem and they must help pay to clean it up,” he thundered.

While Trump has presented a fanciful solution to the country’s crime rate and financial crisis, his racism has alienated huge swaths of the electorate.

“Not a single candidate (Trump or other wise) has a good grasp of the immigration challenge in America,” said professor of political

science Victor Chavez. “A solution for immigration will not be found until people begin to see the bilateral phenomena and embrace the totality of emigration and immigration. This will not happen anytime soon. Why not? Because it would force people to see the causes of (emigrants) leaving.”

Chavez said a wall will not work due to Trump’s lack of knowledge on immigration.

“He does not understand the gravity of this phenomenon,” Chavez said. “It is unstoppable. Until politicians start addressing why emigrants are leaving their countries instead of what it takes to keep people out, no policy Trump proposes will work.”

Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon said his country will not pay a cent for Trump’s “stupid wall” and called Trump a “not very well-informed man.”

Trump responded by threatening to increase fees on visas for Mexicans or even cancelling all visas and banning Mexicans from the U.S., which Salmon said is shocking in the 21st century.

“He’s trying to stop everyone from coming to America,” he said. “He’s racist, he’s a blatant racist.”

Trump’s dogwhistle rhetoric has become a summoning hymn for those who mask their racism with phony patriotism.

S a n D i e g o U n i o n - Tr i b u n e photographer Misael Virgen shrugs off Trumpismo.

“His comments are ignorant to say the least, but he has as much right to express his opinions as you and I,” Virgen said.

America was built on the foundation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Natural born citizens, as well as immigrants, have the right to pursue this ideal, regardless of race.

“This country was built by immigrants escaping this exact type of prosecution and intolerance,” Virgen said.

Trump, by the way, is descended from immigrants. Oops.

March 1 - April 10, 2016 — Volume 59, Issue 5

The Southwestern College Sun

CAMPUS

A7

Student angel fights for migrants

By Elibeth Esquivel Staff Writer

While bombastic presidential candidate Donald Trump promises to build a wall across the Mexican border, the Border Angels are working to mitigate the damage of the wall we already have.

Dulce Aguirre, 22, a Southwestern College child development major, has become a young but influential leader for the region’s most important human rights organization. She works on public relations, recruiting, fund raising and leading meetings.

Aguirre also helps to connect migrants to legal and health services.

“Border Angels is an organization that I think has really made a difference to all those that have taken advantage of our resources,” she said.

In this toxic new age of Trump and a rise in hate crimes, Aguirre said, it is more inportant than ever for volunteers to speak up for powerless migrants and represent them.

Cristofer Garcia/Staff

A DREAMER SHARES THE DREAM — Border Angels volunteer Dulce Aguirre informs day laborers outside a Home Depot about their labor and immigrant rights. Border Angels’ Day Laborer Outreach Program distributes food and water to day laborers and offers them services.

“A lot of people just judge those crossing the border and they’re not aware of the different steps that a lot of people take,” she said. “That’s why they cross, as a last resource.”

Border Angels serves migrants and underserved Latinos in many ways, Aguirre said. Members place water on desert migrant trails to save lives, provide legal services, assist Central American children, and promote humane, comprehensive immigration reform. They also periodically peal back the great metal border wall itself with transnational events at Border Field State Park.

“There are a lot of people that, because of their immigration status, aren’t able to go to Mexico and there are people in Mexico that can’t come here, so we arrange for them to visit each other after so many years.”

Border Angels also hosts yoga classes for immigrant women, organizes Mass every Sunday at local churches in San Diego County and takes groups to the infamous Terrace Park Cemetery in Holtville where more than 700 unidentified migrants are buried in paupers graves.

Aguirre said that perhaps the most prominent contribution Border Angels makes is assisting men and women who work as day laborers, migrants looking for any temporary day jobs, usually near the Home Depot stores.

Border Angels volunteers brief day laborers on their rights and advise on ways to stay safe.

“Many immigrants are unaware of their rights,” Aguirre said. “I think just by hearing their stories, a lot of them are afraid.”

Border Angels founder Enrique Morones said he was inspired to start the organization after a young lady from El Salvador told him about Mexican immigrants living in the canyons of Carlsbad, in the shadows of million dollar homes.

“It grew from being just me, and then my family, to being all these volunteers from all over the world,” he said. “At first I thought that my vision to help would last maybe a few months, it’s now been almost 30 years.”

Border Angels is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization that advocates for human rights, humane immigration reform and social justice please see Angel pg. A8

Former Sun editor overcomes injury, becomes a star at Telemundo sports

By Netzai Sanchez Staff Writer

Hu m b e r t o Gu r m i l a n m a y b e Southwestern College’s most famous alumnus. Handsome, smart and talented, the Telemundo sports anchor has been seen by millions on television, billboards, buses and posters. He is an author, a college instructor and the subject of a documentary.

He is also paplegic and scoots around the borderlands in a motorized wheelchair, which the preternaturally cheerful journalist steers like a chariot of fire.

Today’s media star and role model was a 15-year-old guitar-playing surfer in September 1994 when he and some pals set out to surf at Playas de Tijuana.

After a dive from his surfboard, Gurmilan floated motionlessly in the surf and nearly drowned.

He woke up in the hospital, but could not move. His head had struck the ocean floor and his spinal cord was damaged. Gurmilan struggled to stay alive fueled by the love of his family.

“For me the family is the most important thing and the greatest support,” he said. “From recovering, going back to school, in my personal and spiritual life, my family has always been there and they motivate me to do good and positive things.”

Doctors told Gurmilan he would

never walk again, but they never said he could not fly. He became a star at the Montgomery High School convergent journalism program, then he came to SWC to study journalism.

While serving as news editor of The Sun, Gurmilan asked his journalism professor what he should do to prepare for a career as a broadcast journalist. His professor told him to master writing, interviewing and reporting, and to join the college’s award-winning speech and debate David Hodges/Staff team to develop his speaking talents. CIRCLE OF ADMIRERS— Telemundo sports anchor Humberto Gurmilan did everything he was Gurmilan signs copies of his autobiography “From My Chair.” advised to do. He became a forensics star as well as a journalism star. After graduating from SDSU he was hired autobiography “From My Chair,” and being open on how and who I am,” he

by Telemundo as a sports writer. His a documentary of his life, “Una Vez said. “That is how someone that has big break came when the producer Mas” (“One More Time”) premiered a disability lives, it’s a different than of the evening news asked Gurmilan in 2015. people that don’t have a disability.” just minutes before airtime if he could After 20 years Gurmilan faced down Gurmilan said he enjoys conducting fill in for the absent sports anchor. his greatest fear and returned to the seminars for people with questions Gurmmilan said yes, put on a coat and same beach in Playas de Tijuana where about his lifestyle and how to overcome tie, and has been Telemundo’s sports he was injured to surf again. Zeji Ozeri a disability. anchor ever since. directed the film.

“That was a goal I had while writing Every weekday at 6 p.m. on XHAS “The idea of the documentary the book, telling them what I think Telemundo 33 San Diego/Tijuana, was to make his return to the ocean and what I feel so they can value their Gurmilan hosts his own popular sports motivating and exciting,” said Ozeri. life and what they have,” he said. “It’s segment. He is so much more. He has “The message we wanted to give out the same with the documentary. We an even better mission. is that everything is possible.” knew it had to be open and I think it’s “One of the reasons to why life gave In the documentary, Gurmilan part of my responsibility and mission me another opportunity is to be able took the audience into his home and if I want to inspire and teach people, to motivate, teach and inspire people,” showed them his lifestyle. he said.

“One of the ways I think I can do please see Gurmilan pg. A8 In 2011 Gurmilan published an that is by being clear, honest and

JoseLuis Baylon

Fracking is cracking Oklahoma

America is breaking apart at the seams and this time Donald Trump is not to blame.

Fracking is cracking the U.S. like an egg.

Oil-rich Oklahoma is the epicenter of fracking and the Sooner state is taking a beating. Cities in Oklahoma have noticeable earthquakes daily and they are increasing in severity.

Fracking is when water is pumped into subterranean rock in order to break it apart to reach oil.

Rather than paying the cost, oil and gas companies dispose of the contaminated water under the surface of Oklahoma.

Waste water does not belong in subterranean rock in Oklahoma.

The ground beneath the mid-continent and the majority of the East Coast are made from upper paleozoic sedimentary rocks and has remained relatively stable for the last 600 million years.

Water pumped in is causing the rock to slide because fissures are created from the high pressures. Similar to a fissure forming on an iceberg, once a crack is made, it flows.

Oklahoma has fault lines that are 300 million years old, which were inactive until 2009.

Between 1978 and 1999 Oklahoma experienced an average of only 1.6 earthquakes per year.

Suddenly, in 2009, there were 20.

Between 2010 through 2012 there were 141.

It escalates from there.

2014 had 585 and 2015 had 890.

Oklahoma racked up 45 percent of all central and eastern U.S. earthquakes of M3 scale or higher between 2008-2016.

Just as San Diego would be unprepared to handle a tornado, Oklahoma is not ready for earthquakes.

Earthquakes behave differently in the Midwest than on the West Coast because those sedimentary rocks radiate their energy outwards as opposed to West Coast earthquakes where they carry their energy in.

Any time an earthquake happens in Virginia it becomes a very inportant scientific event. It reveals rare data from the inside of the ancient North American Craton, the largest chunk of Earth’s crust that creates the continent we live on.

The edge of this particular craton ends at Oklahoma which is now engaged in an epic tug of war.

Oil and gas conpanies could not have picked a worse place to frack and inject destabilizing wastewater.

Nothing is being done about stopping the fracking or the wastewater injection process.

There is no government intervention.

Oklahoma seems so endeared to oil production it simply can not be stopped even if it blows the state apart.

California has happy cows, Oklahoma has oil.

Fracking has become the hottest ticket in petroleum mining.

With respect to the technology, it is an incredible engineering accomplishment.

Water made the drilling more cost efficient.

Digging for black gold was made cheaper and easier. Unfortunately, the Earth does not like it and is trying to shake it off.

Science again could ride to the rescue.

Scientists from Virginia Tech discovered how bacteria in wastewater can create energy. Lowly germs can convert organics in wastewater and sewage into electrical energy utilizing microbial fuel cells.

Their paper, published in the February 2016 issue of “Nature,” lays out a revolutionary form of capturing electrons from a pair of bacteria working synergistically, formate and lactate.

A bacterial battery can be created in the future, producing the energy needed to treat wastewater at treatment facilities. Wastewater plants across the world currently burn the energy, not create it.

John D. Rockefeller never let waste to go to waste.

In the 1850s, scientists told Rockefeller that the by-product of kerosene, called gasoline, was a volatile and unusable substance.

He knew better.

His stubbornness to pursue experimentation with the chemical lead to the discovery of its properties, finding its use in the combustible engine. More than 160 years later, we are still dependent on gasoline.

“Willful waste makes woeful want,” said Rockefeller’s mother.

We should all be listening to Mother Earth.

JoseLuis may be reached at plutotoplato@theswcsun.com

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March 1 - April 10, 2016 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

Domonique Scott, editor

CAMPUS

Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: campus@theswcsun.com

Women Warriors Saluted Story by Jeanette Sandoval Photos by Cristofer Garcia

M

VETERANS, STUDENTS AND ROLE MODELS— (above, l-r) Veterans Danielle Dorame, Ashley Bigalke, Caroline Razcon and Alena Vasquez are honored for their service by the SWC Student Veterans Organization. (l) Military Liaison Officer Holly Shaffner standing in front of a Sikorsky H-60 Seahawk helicopter, speaks about her experiences serving

Gurmilan: Star sports anchor advocates for borderlands’ disabled

arine Corps veteran Caroline Razcon earned two Meritorious Masts, the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, National Defense Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal and North Atlantic Treaty Organization International Security Assistance Force Medal.

She also earned a Southwestern College student activities sticker.

Razcon was one of three women honored by the SWC Student Veteran Organization at its annual Sisters In Arms ceremony to salute women veterans furthering their education. Marine Corps veteran Sean McGinty said Razcon is a terrific student and a great Marine.

“Her overall experience in the military was an honor,” said McGinty. “If she were to go back in time, Caroline said she would do it all over again. She’s extraordinarily proud to hold the title of Marine.”

Razcon began her military career in 2009 and participated in Operation Tomadachi, the U.S. assistance to Japan’s disaster relief following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, and the Global War on Terrorism in Operation Enduring Freedom. She was honorably discharged on Ocober 12, 2013 and enrolled at SWC soon after.

SVO also honored Air Force veteran Danielle Dorame, deployed twice during her eight years of service, once to Saudi Arabia in 2011 and in 2013 a split deployment between Kuwait and Afghanistan. Master of Ceremonies Vincent Avila-Walker said Dorame was a tough airwoman.

“Security forces is a male-dominated career field,” Avila-Walker said.

“What was hard about being in that particular career field is that the feminine needs were not always met. She suffered back pains from everything she had to carry and said that there was little to no sensitivity whatsoever to the needs of females. But make no mistake, this female was not afraid to stand up or speak her mind.”

Dorame received Air Force Achievement Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal,

Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Non Article 5 North Atlantic Treaty Organization Medal and the Air Force Expeditionary Service Ribbon. She also sang the national anthem at five ceremonies, including the Army’s 236th birthday and at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.

Avila-Walker said he asked Dorame, a child development major, why she joined the Air Force.

“She responded by hysterically laughing at me and then said, ‘Because my mom didn’t want me to be a Marine,’” he said.

Nancy Dodd, a 51-year-old Marine veteran, said she served six years in the Marine Corps beginning in 1983. She said the treatment of women Marines has changed mightily.

“We had to attend etiquette classes,” she said. “All of us had to wear bright red lipstick. You had to have that lipstick on anywhere you went.”

Differences were more than cosmetic, she said.

“Women as Marines were not allowed to have the blood strip that runs down the (inseam) trousers that signified the blood that was shed in battle,” she said. “It was during my time in the Marine Corp when that came to be. We were not allowed to go aboard ship. We were not allowed to be anything that was deemed a combat role.”

Dodd thanked her fellow honorees for their service with gifts she said represented the evolution of women in the military and what is yet to come — a challenge coin and a tube of red lipstick.

“If by chance you do keep it, let it just be a reminder of what was and how others like us have dedicated our lives to military service and that we can make a difference,” she said.

Dorame said the military has a long way to go to achieve gender equality, but the ceremony demonstrated that women have made “huge strides.”

“It’s really nice to be recognized, not just myself, but women in the military.” she said. “We’re finally equal to men instead of below them.”

No argument, debate team dominates Southern California

Continued from page A7

there is still a lot people must learn about disabilities. I’m not ashamed of telling them what I go through every day.”

Joaquin Elizondo, the producer, said he admired Gurmilan.

“He is a person that is not afraid of any obstacles, when he overcomes something he looks for a new challenge to beat,” Elizondo said. “The wors thing you can tell him is no. When you meet him you completely forget that he is in a wheelchair, just the way that he projects himself. When we worked together I saw him edit. He did it with such facility.

He ran audio as well. Not once did he complain.”

Gurmilan teaches morning journalism and communication classes at San Diego City College, and said he desires to teach at Southwestern College.

In November the Gurmilan Foundation began working towards its goal to help teens with disabilities to earn scholarships.

“The motive is to help children with disabilities to obtain an education,” he said. “They are the ones that are going to make a change. Throughout Latin America there is still need for (improved) accessibility for disabled people. The idea is if we help these kids get careers they can make changes in the future. We want to help them help themselves and obtain careers.”

Gurmilan said he believes he can help.

“There are two things that I think are very important,” he said. “Number one it is to have good preparation and second is to never quit.

If you have something in mind always keep fighting.

I f y o u c a n’t open one door, try another one. In every Gurmilan profession you will find bumps in the road. There will always be closed doors, but there will also be open doors. Perseverance is very important.”

Gurmilan’s words of wisdom are interrupted by only one thing — it is time to go on the air.

Brelio Lozano/Staff

POINTS TO MAKE, POINTS TO SCORE — SWC’s Jorge del Castillo and Francesca Baird prepare their arguments at the Southwestern College Hannie Shaft Debate Tournament.

By Brelio Lozano Staff Writer

Republican political skirmishes have demonstrated that debates can devolve into charade.

For SWC’s forensics team though, debates are all business.

One of SWC’s most decorated programs, the debate team has won championships all over the West, often defeating behemoths like UCLA, Berkeley and UCSD. This year is no different.

At the Robert Barbara Invitational hosted

by CSU Northridge SWC entered two teams on opposite sides of the tournament bracket. Both SWC teams rolled through the field to face off in the final round. They opted to forgo the championship and share the trophy. Francesca Baird, Daniel Smiley and Jorge del Castillo were all awarded individual speaker awards. Smiley received top speaker of the tournament.

SWC’s debate ascendance began when Professor of Communications Jordan Mills took over the program 15 years ago. Mills has been steeped in the culture of debate competition his whole life.

“When I was a kid, I used to go along with my dad to tournaments and I would watch the debates and speeches,” he said.

“I just got used to the environment so I understood it, and I went on into high school already knowing it. I never looked back.”

Mills’ career in debate started during his childhood and continued to SDSU where he and his partner Lincoln Houde had a streak where they beat six national champions in a row.

Success has followed him to SWC. “Almost every year we are in the top five of the community colleges in the whole country in policy debate,” he said.

Mills said the team’s unorthodox preparation has been the key to itssuccess.

SWC debaters focus on broad systems that they argue wit and against, like capitalism and socialism. This allows the debaters to make broad claims that competitors have a hard time responding to, said Mills.

“We just have a system,” he said, “We have arguments that we make over and over again, and we know how to systematically answer what our opponents say and we just try to be better prepared than they are.”

Throughout the years SWC has gained a reputation for being the “socialists” at debate tournaments, as teams that have encountered SWC have had difficult times coping with the arguments Mills’ teams

have devised over the years.

Diego Salido, 19, said SWC debaters are the craziest students at tournaments.

“We pretty much just say nuclear war is going to happen, so you have to become an anarchist and continue out a revolution, otherwise we all are going to die,” he said.

Thanks to the powerful, well-prepared system and winning culture Mills has instilled in his teams, first-ime debaters like Salido, an aeronautical engineering major, are able to achieve success early. Salido went undefeated and won the D1 Qualifier and Pacific Championship at USC last month.

Professor of Communications Eric Maag urged Salido to join the debate team. Mills is glad he did.

“Diego is technically a better debater than me, considering that has a higher winning percentage and has not lost a round,” Mills joked.

Salido gave credit to his veteran debate partner, Jorge del Castillo, 20, a political science major. It was Salido’s first tournament and del Castillo showed him what was necessary to win, he said.

Del Castillo spent 30 hours before the competition researching evidence and sources for the tournament at USC, said Salido. Del Castillo used that time to create new arguments to gain an upper hand.

“It allowed me to win the tournament,” del Castillo said. “It was all about putting the time and effort into it, which was the hardest part.”

In college policy debate, the arguments students make must be backed up with evidence. Debaters must explain why their evidence is superior based on its logical merits. Each debatr is given 15 minutes to make an argument, including a crossexamination where the teams can pose questions in between rounds. A judge makes his final decision at the end.

Francesca Baird, 19, a communications major who joined the team last year, said debate has given her greater social and political awareness.

“It definitely changed my perspective on things,” she said. “Growing up I had Republican parents. I didn’t really know what that meant until I came to terms with the arguments we make on the debate team.”

Mills said his current crop of debaters is among his best ever and he hopes debate leaves an impact on them beyond this year.

“The best thing about debate is that helps you find your voice and organize your ideas,” he said. “Debate can really change the world.”

CAMPUS

The Southwestern College Sun

March 1 - April 10, 2016 — Volume 59, Issue 5

By Cristofer Garcia Assistant Campus Editor

B

lack History Month had an edge in 2016 after a year of police violence against African-Americans and the emergence of Black Lives

Matter.

Southwestern College students also spoke up. They made it clear they did not feel equal and were vexed that America seems to have reverted to some old bad habits.

SWC’s Associated Student Organization and members of The Exponential Learning Academy (TELA) organized a spoken word as part of Black History Month allowing students open testimonies.

Lorise Diamond, communications major, spoke to the audience about her concerns living in today’s society as a black female.

“I worry about my son, my grandsons, my nephews,” she told the crowd. “They’re being targeted by the ones who are charged to protect us.

It seems as if there’s a group of people that are not to be protected. But we will not live in fear.”

Caleb Henderson, an ASO senator and vice president of the Black Student Union, highlighted the importance of forgiveness in the face of injustice.

“The rason I forgive is to release the spirit of bondage, depression, anger and hate out of my life,” he read to the crowd.

Henderson said society should have a deeper conversation about race.

“Our society loves black culture, but we still for some reason don’t like the black people,” he said. “That’s something that I see as a huge problem.”

Henderson referenced the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech, saying that even though King’s vision was present in the multicultural crowd at the spoken word event, there’s still a lot of work to be done to achieve equality.

“It’s subliminal racism, it’s that underthe-skin racism,” said Henderson.

Black History’s

New Era SWC students make the case that lingering racism has hindered the movement towards full equality

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“(Decades) ago, Dr. Martin Luther King did all that he did and we’re still having the exact same issues. His vision is not being followed at all. Why do we have the Black Lives Matter movement? It’s because there’s an issue with race right now. Why do we have the KKK? Because we have an issue with supremacy.”

Henderson said the black community has faced many challenges over the decades that have not been overcome and society does not realize that.

“We forcefully settled here and we’re being told, you shouldn’t be mad,” he said. “You shouldn’t be angry, you should be grateful that you have a place to stay. It may not be neessarily the best place to stay, the projects, or ghettos, whatever, you have a place to stay. Be grateful. Why are you even complaining when there’s black on black crime? You’re all killing yourselves so why should we help people that don’t even want help? These are things that I hear. You whipped, you enslaved, you tarred and feathered and you hung and you ripped out genitals and cut us up and all of that.

How dare you not even help us qualify for a job? We can’t even get a job. And we can’t get a job becuse of our attitudes. We can’t get a job because of our names.”

Although Henderson said the black community has the right to be angry, he said he would rather have forgiveness and love.

“The point of my speech was to leave across a tone of peace, but yet a revolutional peace,” he said. “I’m tired, too. However, we need to reach a peaceful, diplomatic solution in order to solve the problem.

Learning to love your very enemy is so important.”

TELA president Leah Richie read her poem, “I Am Queen,” which addressed the way society judges her based on her appearance.

“What do you see when you look at me? I’ll tell you what society tells me,” Richie read. “I’m supposed to be a bad chick with no morals or class. All I know how to do is shake my ass. I can be disrespected and that’s okay because I love it. Remember, I’m a bad chick anyway. I’ll tell you what I see. I am the intelligence that can run a nation.

I am the heart that can love past what the world can’t. I am the heart that keeps this country alive. I am love. I am unapologetic. I am queen.”

Students tour Historically Black Colleges

Cristofer Garcia/Staff

ANGELS OUT IN THE FIELD— Evelyn Aguirre follows in her sister’s footsteps by supporting day laborers as an intern for Border Angels.

Angel: Aguirre helps migrant families and future “Dreamers” Melody Davalos/Staff

SOCRATIC SEMINARS — Dawit Begashaw discusses what it means for him to be “Black and Educated” during “The Great Debaters” film screening and post-film panel discussion hosted by TELA.

By Jeanette Sandoval Staff Writer

Martin Luther King, Jr., Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson graduated f rom More h ous e College. Alice Walker, Marion Wright Edelman and Esther Rolle are alumni of Spelman College. Lionel Richi, Rlph Ellison and Marilyn Mosby matriculated from Tuskegee University.

Southwestern College students now have a pathway to America’s best Historically Black Colleges and Universities thanks to an innovative program working to support underserved African-American students.

The Exponential Learning Academy (TELA) was founded six years ago by Professional Development Coordinator Janelle Williams and Assistant Professor of English Henry Aronson, said TEL A counselor Michael Love. TELA is an extension of Umoja, a statewide African American learning organization that draws its name from the Kiswahili word for “unity.”

TELA counselor Abdimalik Buul said professors strive to tie contemporar y African-American culture to the curriculum.

“We make the course relevant,” Buul said. “We talk about ads, black culture, today’s culture and connect it to each lesson.”

Buul said instilling critical thinking skills, learning how to question, networking and leadership are the main foci of the curriculum. Love agreed.

“I think being able to question everything is going to be the most fruitful contribution we can make,” he said.

Leah Richi, 278, psychology major, is TELA’s studet president.

“You come in on your own and you are brought into a team,” said Richi.

“TELA is a family.”

Buul said students who enroll in TELA receive priority registration, p e e r m e n t o r s h i p, f i n a n c i a l a i d workshops and a support group.

There are almost 30 students in the community with GPAs at or above 3.0, he said.

“I want my students to (have) grit,” he said. “Perseverance, resiliency and the ability to look at obstacles and prevail is my main goal.”

Love said the TELA program caters to the African-American experience on campus, but its doors are open to students of all nationalities and ethnicities.

Josue Guerrero, 18, criminal justice, said he enjoys his experience within the organization.

“This program really pushes you out of your comfort zone to do better and helps you keep an open mind,” he said.

Raven Spellman, 18, English, agreed.

“Unity, community and diversity,” she said. “You become unapologetically yourself.”

Tr a n s f e r a g r e e m e n t s b e t w e e n California colleges and universities and nine HBCUs allow admittance to any of the colleges for students with a GPA of 2.5 or greater and 30 transferable units. Buul said this year eight Soutwestern TELA students qualified to visit five HBCUs free of cost. Leni Russell, 19, an anthropology major, is one.

“To know that I qualify to go to a trip like this, to get on a plane and see a school that I may potentially attend, that in itself is its own resource,” said Russell. “It gives us motivation to work hard.”

Russell said the prospect of her younger brother joining the TELA community is important to her.

“For you to push a product on a family member you really have to believe in it.”

Continued from page A7

with a special focus on issues related to the U.S.-Mexico border, Morones said. Aguirre met Morones during one of his visits to SWC and immediately joined his team. ‘‘The most valuable lesson that I have learned since joining Border Angels is to be a lot more understanding to the people,” said Aguirre. “You see a lot of people with a lot of different stories, and just different scenarios and everything that they’ve ben going through, so to be able to be a lot more open minded into helping them and being able to have a different perspective is very important.”

Morones said Aguirre has been an important asset to the organization.

“Dulce has really been a superstar with us,” he said. “It’s great to have somebody like her because she knows the situation from family and friends, so she’s very familiar with the issues.

She’s just doing an outstanding job.”

Aguirre said she is empathetic with migrants because she is one, too. She was brought over the border as a child and is currently protected by President Ob a m a’s e xe c u t i ve o rd e r c a l l e d Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which protects students who are productive, law-abiding migrants from deportation. Both Democratic presidential candidates have pledged to extend DACA, while all Republican candidates have promised to end it and begin deporting undocumented

immigrants.

Aguirre also identifies as a “Dreamer,” students who long for legal residency u n d e r t h e De ve l o p m e n t , Re l i e f and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Originally conceived and sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Il. and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in 2001 the DREAM Act was a bipartisan effort at immigration reform.

Senate Republicans killed the bill.

Durbin and Senatr Richard Lugar, R-Ind., reintroduced a modified version of the DREAM Act in 2009, but it was also killed by Republican conservatives.

“I’m a Dreamer myself, so I knew that I wanted to educate myself as well as people around me, and be able to gain a lot more knowledge of what being a Dreamer really is,” she said.

A g u i r re a s s i s t s B o rd e r A n g e l s volunteers from different cultural backgrounds, states and countries.

Mitchell Regter, a university student from the Netherlands, found out about Border Angels through a fellow scholar who had attended SDSU. “I think what they are doing is really helping a lot of people and I’m glad that I found out about them and that I am helping in some way,” said Regter, who is working on a study of immigrant college students.

Morones said smart, energetic vo l u n t e e r s l i k e A g u i r re a re t h e foundation of Border Angels.

“It is great that a talented young woman like Dulce can show others a way to be helpful and to serve the less fortunate,” he said.

Fo r f u r t h e r i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t Border Angels visit its website at angelesdelafrontera.org.

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The Southwestern College Sun

March 1—April 10, 2016 Volume 59, Issue 5

SPORTS

Video game tournaments draw like rock stars

By Priscilla Gallardo Staff Writer

X

Courtesy Photos

HEAD OF THE CLASS—Paul Arriola connects on a header in a game the Xolos won 1-0 over Santos Laguna.

olos’ cellent patriates

American Paul Arriola is a Southwestern student by day, professional soccer star at night

By Stefanie Tellez Staff Writer

N

BAD FOR MORALE—Paul Arriola sidesteps Monarcas player Carlos Morales in a game that ended in a 1-1 tie.

ine minutes into his professional soccer career, Chula Vista native Paul Arriola, 20, controlled the ball with his left foot, wound up from just outside the box and scored a goal for the Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente against legendary Club America.

In his second match he scored again, catapulting him onto the U.S. Under-23 team and into an elite group of young American soccer players to watch.

In between battling veteran Mexican stars and the best young players on Planet Earth, Arriola takes classes at Southwestern College.

Former SWC men’s soccer star Adrian Ramos recently joined the Xolos second division team even as he continues to take night and online classes at Southwestern. He is glad to have a fellow fútbol pro working on a degree, he said.

“I think Arriola is a very smart guy enrolling in school again,” said Ramos. “You never know when things can go downhill, so having that plan B is a great idea.”

Both Xolos players find themselves

completing homework during their down time at away matches throughout Mexico.

Usually it is in their hotel room before and after matches.

“It can be very stressful being in school and having homework when you have important games to play,” said Ramos. “But overall, I think being in school while playing soccer is a great idea.”

Although Arriola said he enjoys school, his main focus is soccer.

“As important as school is, right now I have a career,” he said. “At the moment my career can take me a lot further than a couple credits.”

Arriola recently received momentous news. Team USA’s U-23 team invited him and 22 other players to participate in Olympic preparation, cementing Arriola as one of America’s foremost prospects. He started at midfield for the second Olympic qualifier game against Columbia, which the U.S.A. lost 2-1. “ The plan for me was to always go professional, that was my dream,” said Arriola.

After starring at Mater Dei High School, he rejected a full-ride scholarship to UCLA for chance at a professional contract.

Arriola landed a spot on the roster of an please see Arriola pg. A11

Staples Center in Los Angeles sold out in one hour when tickets went on sale, same at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

No Kobe, no Springsteen.

League of Legends is in its own league.

League of Legends was released in 2009 by Riot Games for PC users, changing online gaming forever.

League of Legends, known to gamers as “League,” has become legend. Its most recent conquest is earning the designation of eSport.

UC Irvine became the first public research university to launch a competitive gaming initiative. UCI announced at the end of March that it will begin high-end gaming competitions in a state-of-the-art arena as early as fall 2016.

League is one of the top games for PCs and it has 68 million active monthly users, beating its rival Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2 by a factor of five.

Southwestern College criminal justice major Erik Ruiz, 19, said he enjoys playing League with his teammates.

“I like the most that you’re not exactly hindered by physical attributes,” he said. “If you have a bum knee or an injury, that doesn’t exactly stop you from playing eSports like it would football.”

League is played as a five-on-five match-up where players use various champions with individual abilities to destroy their opponents’ nexus or home base. Players have the option of playing solo queue or with teammates.

Nickolas Huerta, 19, political science, is a desktop champion who said he enjoys playing League. He is one fifth of a ranked team, which includes mostly Canadians he met via solo queue.

“They’re just like me,” he said. “Four people going to college for different majors, from different parts of the world, and it’s just a really cool thing, you can go around this game and meeting people who are the same age as you but have seen so many different things and have done so many different things. You can all find a common ground in this one game. It creates a really good community.”

League has an extensive international player base with servers on five continents. If a gamer decides to play solo queue they can get matched up with different people within the server they are connected to.

SWC has its share of desktop champions, spending hours playing for fun or as a stress reliever from school or work. Some play competitively and are ranked.

Last years’ sold out League of Legends Finals in Madison Square Garden were a huge success and the 2016 season finale at the Staples Center is expected to be even bigger.

Fab frosh14 are a formidable force

By Kenslow Smith Assistant Arts Editor

Southwestern College’s softball team roster consists of 14 freshmen, one sophomore – and 13 wins.

Head coach Yasmin Mossadeghi has focused on her players’ skills rather than inexperience.

“I think the season has been a work in progress,” she said. “We have a really young team and they’ve been trying to find their own niche on what gets this team to execute wins.”

Lone sophomore Brandi McCrystal has led her team to a 13-8-1 recod, including a four game win streak, batting average of .443 and 11 stolen bases. Stellar freshmen play and tough coaching by Mossadeghi have the flexible Lady Jags in playoff contention.

“I think the strength of our team is versatility, we have a pitcher that can play middle infield, you don’t find that on most teams,” said Mossadeghi. “I think because we have such a talented group, we’re able to be versatile when adjusting to situations.”

Pitcher Yazzy Jameson can double at infield and outfield. Catcher Carmen West plays outfield and second base. Victoria Finau plays both first and second base. McCrystal started in the outfield all last season and is now playing shortstop and catcher.

Pitcher Marissa Cimmarrusti said their flexibility has been key.

“I think we are very good at being able to switch positions and utilize our players when we need them,” she said.

Unlike her teammates, freshmen Aryn Perez stays in the outfield, where she is a valuable player. After missing the first five games due to a knee injury, she has maintained a .375 batting average, fifth highest on the team.

“I feel like I’ve done a good job of getting back into the groove of things because of my positive mindset,” she said.

McCrystal said she admires her team’s steady progression.

“I think we’ve grown a lot since the beginning of the season,” she said. “I feel like we’re getting

to know each other better and we’re working together really well.”

Camaraderie and team chemistry does not come easily on a team full of freshmen, she said.

“Everyone knows each other’s weaknesses, so we pick each other up,” said McCrystal.

Despite SWC’s improvements, Mossadeghi said players need more growth to make the playoffs.

“We’re getting a lot of hits, but they’re at the top of the line-up and we’re leaving a lot of runners stranded on bases,” she said. “Mentally, we still need to work on confidence, we really need the girls owning their at bats and making the most of their chances.”

SWC’s fab frosh 14 have won six of their last seven games, outscoring opponents 34-15.

With a win over Mt. San Jacinto, SWC will move from third to second place in Pacific Coast Athletic Conference standings.

Mossadeghi is pushing for the post-season.

“I think with the teams so easily balanced among an entire conference, except Palomar, it’s going to be a fight to the end.”

Mary York/Staff

ALL WOUND UP—Freshman pitcher Alyssa Rodriguez is the old hand on a team full of freshman.

SPORTS

The Southwestern College Sun

Illustration by Alejandro Durán

By Stefanie Tellez Staff Writer

TRACKLESS L SWC’s track and field team falls through the cracks as the college forgets to renew contract with the Olympic Training Center, leaving the squad unable to practice translated.”

Campbell said the nonsprinters were the ones who bore the brunt of the clerical error.

“There was a significant effect on them,” he said. “I do believe my jumpers, throwers and hurdlers performances have been retarded, delayed in some respect.”

Sophomore runner Janeth Moya, kinesiology, said she is proud of how her team has dealt with the circumstances.

“Not having a track affects us, especially with the hurdles, because we can’t practice with exact measurements,” she said. “We haven’t really been on a track yet to get the full practice experience, but we are doing really well.”

A new state-of-the-art track and field facility has been dangled in front of Campbell’s face for years, said the Olympic silver medalist.

DeVore Stadium does not include a track and, according to Campbell, a track was never seriously considered in the refurbishment plans.

Proposition R was a ray of hope, Campbell said, but it was quickly extinguished. DeVore Stadium remodels consumed $45 million of the $388 million bond and the

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A paperwork error has knocked Southwestern College’s track and field team off track.

SWC’s contract with the Olympic Tr a i n i n g C e n t e r ( OTC ) w a s inadvertently allowed to expire before the season began. Track athletes were was forced to practice without any facilities throughout the preseason and for the first three weeks of the season. SWC had already competed in three track meets before the contract was reinstated.

Track and field coach Tonie C a m p b e l l s a i d t h e ov e r s i g h t damaged the team’s preparation.

“We got a late start going to the OTC by three weeks,” he said.

“Why, is a question best left to the athletic director. I can’t really speak on that. He gave me an explanation, but I’m not going to give you one. We’re just happy we’ve been restored.”

Je s us A gu ila r, a sophomore sprinter, said the team had to practice on grass, which hindered preparation.

“We would just run on grass and hope for good times,” he said.

“No spikes or anything. We just had to give it our best and hope it

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March 10,2014—Vol. 2016 Volume58, 59,Issue Issue 25 Oct. 131—April - Nov. 13,

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“The athletes were growing frustrated competing against other colleges who are in better shape and have been on a track, but we haven’t been able to do that. We’ve been running on grass this whole time.”

Tonie Campbell

Head Coach

Wellness and Aquatic Center is expected to take another $52 million.

Campbell said he has not lost hope.

“There is discussion about another bond measure and the first phase will, hopefully, be a state-of-the-art track and field stadium,” he said. “We have been a very successful program. My fingers are crossed.”

Athletes’ morale was low while using the inadequate campus facilities, Campbell said.

“The athletes were growing frustrated having to compete against other athletes from other colleges that have their own facilities and who are in better shape,” he said. “Other teams have been on a track, been in spikes, been in the blocks, been in the long jump pit, been in the high jump pit, but we haven’t been able to do that. We’ve been in the grass this whole time.”

James Spillers, SWC Dean of Wellness and Athletics, assumed the position on January 19, 2016.

He said he believes the mishap was due to the large influx of new employees.

“With so many people transitioning, I just don’t think

people were aware that the previous contract had expired,” he said. “A lot of people retired.

When there are so many transitions, you can’t help but lose a little institutional memory.”

Spillers said he was proud of how the athletics employees rallied to fix the problem.

“Ever ybody dropped what they were doing,” he said. “It took about 4-5 weeks. Believe it or not that’s quick when you’re looking at a contract that requires multiple signatures and there are dollars attached. Once people realized that we have this track team that doesn’t have anywhere to practice, I felt people dropped what they were doing and made it happen.”

Campbell said his team is focused on the future.

“It’s all in the past now,” he said. “We are just happy to be at the OTC.” Spillers agreed.

“As a dean I share that with Coach Campbell,” he said. “I don’t get into the why, I’m going to get into the solution.”

Campbell said he has noticed a remarkable change in morale and physical performance from his team since practices started at the Olympic Training Center.

Arriola: Rising soccer star moonlights as a Southwestern student Continued from pg. A 10

elite professional team 15 miles away from Southwestern College. Xoloitzcuintles Soccer Club, a part of Liga MX, Mexico’s top football league, signed Arriola in 2013 to its Under-20 team. He was also offered a contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Arriola said he did not realize the magnitude of the signing.

“The club published it as if it were a big signing,” said Arriola. “They announced it everywhere. They put me in pamphlets. It was a lot of pressure, but I guess I didn’t see it as pressure because I was just supposed to be with the U-20s.”

After just one month of training with the U-20 team, he was moved up to play for the Xolos first division team. Arriola said his early success gave him confidence.

“I think that was a good sign of what was to come in the season,” he said. “Looking back, I think me scoring in my debut was probably the best thing that could have happened to me and the best sign that God could have given me that it was going to be a good season.”

He built on his impressive first game and made an immediate impact before front office shake-ups soured his young professional career. Team struggles led to five coaching changes in the three years he has been on the Xolos.

Arriola said it was difficult to adjust to the stream of new coaches and his confidence waned. With each coach, Arriola got less playing time. He said the uncertainty has tested his resolve.

“I was put on the spot right away and I did well,” he said. “I had really early success, but sometimes that’s not the best for a player as far as growing. When you have success in the beginning you don’t really know how to react when you don’t get as much success.”

During this tumultuous time, Arriola realized education could add some much needed stability. He decided to enroll at Southwestern in 2015 to take online classes.

“I knew I needed to continue studying,” he said. “It wasn’t like people were saying that I

Stefanie Telllez/Staff

RUNNING WITH THE BIG DOGS—Paul Arriola overlooks the home stadium of the Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles.

needed to continue school. It was more like I wanted to continue.”

The 21-year-old plans to major in business management.

“A soccer career is very short,” he said.

“God forbid anything happen to me on the field. I would definitely have a back-up plan and I wouldn’t let life take me on another rollercoaster ride. School gives me a feeling that I’m working toward something else along with playing.”

Average salary for a first team player in La Liga de Mexico is $200,000, but the typical career spans just 7-8 years.

SWC student Jovan Holmes, 21, majoring in public interest law, is a friend of Arriola who has observed first-hand his entry into the hyper-competitive world of professional sports.

“I think what he’s learned from being a professional soccer player is that when you reach a certain level there’s always a next level,” said Holmes. “It’s always an ongoing thing. It’s a never-ending battle with bettering yourself as an athlete. You always have to be better, you always have to be faster and he understands that. He’s always willing to go the extra mile.”

Arriola said signing a professional contract

impacted him on and off the field. Money, recognition and fame were unfamiliar issues he had to wrestle with. Jovan said that throughout the almost overnight avalanche of success, Arriola was unchanged.

“What stands out to me about Paul is that he is a very humble person,” he said. “No matter the circumstances, he has always been humble and stayed humble. He has never let anything get in the way of that.”

Arriola attributed his modest personality to his parents.

“Luckily, I was raised in a very humble environment, not with a lot of money,” he said. “My family always supported me in everything I did.”

Holmes said Arriola always works to shore up deficiencies.

“No matter which angle he takes, it can be on campus or off campus, on the field and off the field, if he realizes he has a weak point somewhere he goes ahead and practices,” he said. “He doesn’t stop until he feels comfortable and where he wants to be.”

Arriola said he grows as a person each day.

“So far I have learned a lot,” he said. “Time management and prioritizing what I need in my life is going to help me succeed in the future.”

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March 1 - April 10, 2016—Vol. 59, Issue 5

The Southwestern College Sun

March 1 - April 10, 2016 — Volume 59, Issue 5

The Southwestern College Sun

ARTS

B1

TEARING DOWN BORDERS, BUILDING UP HOPE Visionary architect and activist Teddy Cruz takes a closer look at border inequities and spurs an architectual revolution

Story By Alejandro Durán

F

ive years ago a team of artists, politicians and scholars entered a small drainage tunnel under the concrete barrier separating Mexico and the United States. As they negotiated their way through the damp corridor, they were met by a distressing sight: waves of trash washing off the slopes of Los Laureles, a Tijuana shantytown. The trash cascaded across the border, polluting the Tijuana River Estuary on the other side.

This was not an illegal crossing.

When they emerged from the tunnel, Mexican officials were there to meet them and stamp their passports.

Their journey was the centerpiece of Political Equator 3, an event that exposed the environmental degradation occurring along the Tijuana River Estuary as a result of the border wall. Political Equator is just one of the ways in which architect Teddy Cruz is raising awareness of the social, environmental, economic and political problems that exist along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Cruz is one of the most provocative voices in architecture today. He has spent the better part of his career focusing on border issues and developing an architectural approach for addressing them. His work has been extensively published and was recently featured by New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Cruz, a native of Guatemala, was born during an era of intense political strife, a fact that he said has informed his interests as an architect.

“I began to become aware that the border between San Diego

and Tijuana is an incredible laboratory for rethinking the role of an architect by engaging very similar issues to the ones that I grew up witnessing,” he said.

Cruz began studying architecture in Guatemala. In 1982, after he finished three years of study, Efraín Ríos Montt seized power of Guatemala in a military coup.

This political turmoil led Cruz to finish his studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Cruz’s studies culminated at the prestigious Harvard Graduate School of Design where he earned a Master’s degree in design studies and history.

During the mid-1990s Cruz began teaching at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, a school known for being at the forefront of the architectural avant-garde.

“I began an experimental studio called ‘Latin America: Los Angeles,’” he said. “That was the beginning of my inquiry on issues of immigration, the impact of immigrants in transforming the city and also the kinds of relations that exist across borders between Tijuana, San Diego and Los Angeles.”

Architecture is more than an act of design, Cruz said, it is a political act with the potential to transform communities and reshape the way people think about a region.

“We forget that as architects we also need to take positions,” he said. “By that I mean political stances, social engagement stances, where maybe the first layers towards a building might not be the building itself, but the processes that engage social, economic and political domains.”

Cruz said his own brand of architectural activism begins at the San please see Architect pg. B2

“(In Latin America) you are confronting injustice and inequality, and you definitely get pissed off.”

Teddy Cruz, Architect

David Hodges/Staff

More than $10,000 Music professor composes fun program for children raised to assist deported U.S. vets

By Kenslow Smith Assistant Arts Editor

By Andrew Dyer Assistant News Editor

It was a great party in honor of U.S. veterans at a hip brew house. More than $10,000 was raised and a great time was had by all.

Unfortunately, none of the guests of honor could make it.

They had all been deported.

Local celebrity chefs Claudia Sandoval and Nick Nappi, former contestants on the show Master Chef, lead a team of some of San Diego’s finest chefs at the fundraising dinner at Barrio Logan’s Border X Brewing. Sandoval was the season six champion, while Nappi took fourth. All proceeds were donated to the Deported Veterans Support House, which serves as a refuge for deported U.S. please see Veterans pg. B3

After her work as music director at Southwestern College, Professor of Music Dr. Cynthia McGregor arrives at Sunnyside Elementary School at 1:30 p.m. She sets-up 25 music stands in the auditorium and arranges 40 tiny chairs for her students.

She hooks up her computer to the projector and re-configures the sound system, which she admits rarely works.

At 2:05 p.m. students pile in. Ages 8 -12 and most measuring less than five feet, they are much different than what McGregor is used to. But Sunnyside’s Pied Piper is undeterred.

The Chula Vista Elementary School District reinstated music into its curriculum this spring, but provided very little funding for instruction. With a swish of McGregor’s baton, the after-school music program, roars to life again.

“It’s not healthy for some of the kids to have an absence of art,” said McGregor, a French horn virtuoso. “The music teachers only get to see the

students once every two weeks, so I figured an after-school band program would really be fun for the kids.”

McGregor’s Sunnyside band has 40 students, more than 20 percent of all grades 4-6.

Former Sunnyside teacher Charisse Hines and McGregor collaborated to create the after-school program. The Bulldog Band consists of trumpets, flutes, clarinets, trombones and a drummer. It is preparing for Sunnyside’s Variety Show on April 29.

Sunnyside’s Parents Club donated $2,000 to purchase music stands, books and mouthpiece pullers. Families are responsible for providing their students’ instrument, and rentals are as little as $20 a month. Most students borrow their instruments from friends and family. Making their music experience free was an emphasis for the program.

“I feel that playing an instrument can teach kids so much,” she said. “It can teach them how to have a goal, work toward that goal, how to work as a team and how to create something you can be proud of.”

Like sports or ASB, Sunnyside’s after-school

music program is allowing students to be a part of something larger then themselves, a lifelong bond and belonging that promotes confidence and self-esteem.

“It’s something that you can say as an adult, ‘I played trombone when I was in elementary school,’” she said. “Rather then saying ‘I did bad on all of my test in elementary school.’ Music gives students something to talk about.”

Principal Dawn Minutelli understands the benefits her students receive from music and supports the program.

“We are looking forward to watching our Sunnyside musicians continue to improve their craft, and see the positive impact it will make on them academically and socially.”

Sunnyside’s band seems to be good luck. A performance at their school’s soccer game preceded a 5-1 win.

“I think we’re the only elementary soccer team please see Sunnyside pg. B2

B2

Cesar Hirsch, editor

ARTS

March 1 - April 10, 2016 — Vol. 59, Issue 5

Tel: (619) 482-6368 E-mail: arts@theswcsun.com

“From these marginalized neighborhoods on either side of the border, we can begin to reimagine the world.”

dy

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A rendering of a community center Cruz is designing in Los Laureles Canyon z + Forman Cru d Te

TIJUANA/SAN DIEGO BORDER MELILLA/CEUTA BORDER

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“THE POLITICAL EQUATOR”

y Cruz + Form an

Cruz’s entourage crosses underneath the border during Political Equator 3 ISRAELI/PALESTINIAN BORDER

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Continued from pg. B1

Diego-Tijuana border, a meeting point along what he calls the “Political Equator.”

This is an invisible boundary located between the 30th and 35th parallels where, according to Cruz, the developed world and the developing world crash against one another.

Hidden away in a small studio teeming with architectural models, loud diagrams and colorful maps at UCSD, Cruz and his partner, political theorist Fonna Forman, engage with the issues of culture, community, economy and ultimately architecture that emerge form the clash between north and south.

“I grew up in a country that was defined in the ’70s and ’80s by huge political and socioeconomic injustice,” Cruz said. “There you witnessed and faced every day the kinds of class struggles that occur in environments like that, hugely militarized with dictatorships pretty much defining the terms.”

That environment defined Cruz’s agenda from an early age, he said.

“There is a saying in Latin America that growing up here, in many of these countries, you are a kind of Marxist by default. Meaning that you are confronting inequality and social injustice and you definitely get pissed off.”

Today Cruz’s focus is primarily in two small, marginalized communities on both sides of the border, San Ysidro in San Diego and Los Laureles Canyon in Tijuana. This work led him to his current position at UCSD. “They were seeking an artist dedicated to issues of public culture and the city,” he said. “Even though

I’m an architect, I was given the position.”

Cruz founded the UCSD Cross-Border Initiative with Forman.

“In the last four or five years we have begun to engage in many projects that address inequality, citizenship and immigration,” he said. “So all of the issues that I began to perceive and work with in Guatemala have become really tangible elements in the rethinking of our practice and our teaching.”

So far, Cruz and Forman have conducted groundbreaking research in cross-border relationships between Tijuana and San Diego.

Cruz, an architect at heart and by training, has yet to build a single building.

“My primary interest (so far) has been to expand notions of design,” he said.

“Some of us might want to be engaged in the design of pedagogy, or in the design of collaboration or the design of new political and economic frameworks within which architecture might be more inclusive, more democratic, more socially engaged.”

Cruz is working with community nonprofit Casa Familiar toward making that vision a built reality.

On a site near the border in San Ysidro, Cruz and Casa Familiar are planning to build what they are calling “Living Rooms at the Border,” an affordable housing project designed to integrate community services, public space and intergenerational housing.

David Flores, design and development director at Casa Familiar, is helping to spearhead the effort.

“The thing that amazes me about Teddy is how

Cou

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Architect: Innovator designs a revolution

y

DESIGNING A BETTER FUTURE— (top) Cruz’s model for “Living Rooms at the Border.” (above) Cruz and his guests debate the implications of the border wall on a site near Los Laureles Canyon. The discussion was part of Political Equator 3, a binational conference that examines border issues.

rte s

Courtesy of Estudio Teddy Cruz + Forman

quickly he can see space and be able to identify really good solutions for the use of that space,” Flores said.

“It is rare when architecture impacts a community because of design.”

“Living Rooms at the Border” democratizes design by incorporating art spaces, open spaces and intergenerational affordable housing around a historic church that will be restored and repurposed as a community center.

A video of the plan on Cruz’s website shows large, empty concrete frames that will be used as incubators for uses like a weekly farmers market, an impromptu art exhibit and communal kitchens, or simply as the backdrop for chance encounters between neighbors.

A later phase of the plan builds sleek, impeccably modern apar tments above the concrete frames and intergenerational housing on the other side of the church. A combination of uses like these is unconventional and bold.

In this scheme, extended families could work and live together as part of an integrated community. Casa Familiar would also be present onsite to help residents. David Flores said this was one of the design’s key components.

“The whole intent of our project with Teddy is to make sure that we design great living spaces for people, while making sure that Casa can provide support services onsite,” he said.

Projects as revolutionary as Cruz’s living rooms face many challenges.

“Laureles Canyon and San Ysidro are on the same line that connects the San DiegoTijuana border with at least two of the most intensive border checkpoints in the world.” - Teddy Cruz, Architect

“Our projects are not typical projects where a client gives us a brief and we design something in response to that brief,” said Cruz. “We are, in fact, the builders of that brief.”

Therein lies the challenge.

“We have to build the money, partnerships and finances to make these projects happen,” he said. “It is a very large effort to connect all these different dots and put together all these broken pieces.”

Flores said that requirements for traditional development projects would prohibit a project like Living Rooms at the Border from being built. This is where Cruz’s political activism came into play.

Andrea Skorepa, CEO of Casa Familiar, was a firsthand witness to his transformation into a fullblown activist.

“When he started, Teddy didn’t know a thing about politics,” she said. “It is because of our work together that he has seen you need to change policies.”

Flores said that this is the most important aspect of Cruz’s work.

“The design is a visual thing and its impactful, but when you can affect the policy so that you can move projects forward and not have them just be a once in a lifetime thing, but rather ideas that can continue to be replicated, then that’s the impact.”

A few miles west of the Casa Familiar site is Los Laureles Canyon, a marginalized Tijuana shantytown that hugs the border wall and the Tijuana River Estuary. It was here Cruz staged Political Equator 3, the latest in a series of binational happenings designed to visualize the problems that arise along the border. This is one of the lynchpins of Cruz’s work as an activist.

“Political Equator is an event that happens every two or three years, we are currently planning our fourth one,” said Cruz. “They are a series of meetings that happen in these environments which bring the conversation away from the institutions and into

David Hodges/Staff

DRAWING OUTSIDE THE LINES— Architect Teddy Cruz sits in his studio at the University of California, San Diego, where he envisions a more civically-engaged architectural aesthetic.

these environments.”

Political Equator is not just an event, Cruz said. It also refers to a line separating what he has dubbed “The Global North” and “The Global South.” “(Los) Laureles Canyon and San Ysidro are on the same line that connects the San Diego-Tijuana border with at least two of the most intensive border checkpoints in the world,” he said. “One of them is the border between Ceuta and Melilla, the main border between North Africa and Europe, a zone which immigrants are crossing over at this moment.

The other is the Israel-Palestine border, which is the

most iconic geography of conflict in the Middle East.

All of these checkpoints are between the 30th and 35th parallels, so I ended up calling this the political equator.”

It is along this equator that Cruz finds inspiration for his work as an architect.

“Part of our practice has been to locate ourselves where ecologies collide and explore the issues that made that collision possible,” said Cruz. “We expose them and use them as material for design.”

Cruz said Political Equator 3 highlighted the destructive results of the wall lining the border.

Sunnyside: SWC music professor strikes up the band at a local elementary school

Photos by Natalie Mosqueda

that has a pep band,” said McGregor.

Students practice Thursdays and perform at soccer games. On Mondays McGregor plays various instruments for her students to help them become attuned to their sounds. She has even created a website full of instructional videos to help students with technique and additional practice.

When McGregor asked her students what their end goal was, some said, “play a concert for our parents,” some replied, “let’s have a pizza party,” while others said, “let’s watch Star Wars!’”

In the spirit of Solomon, McGregor offered them an opportunity to do all three.

“How about we do an end-of-the-year band event where we play for our parents, then have pizza and watch ‘Star Wars,’” she said. The students agreed and plans for the End-of-The-YearBand-Party began.

Sunnyside’s grand finale will be May 26. Pizza will be plentiful, but there is no confirmation Han Solo will attend.

“The premise was to visualize this problem,” he said. “While Homeland Security has built a wall for the sake of national security, the wall itself undermines our own environmental security and potentially produces socioeconomic insecurity in the future.

“After 9/11, Homeland Security claimed a 150 foot jurisdiction from the border to start destroying all the canyons in order to construct a highway of surveillance.”

Cruz said this practice is destroying the environment.

“Basically they have built this infrastructure along the wall that ignores a lot of existing environmental policies,” he said. “This undermines the functionality of the binational watershed system.”

For Political Equator 3 Cruz and an entourage of artists, activists, politicians and scholars from both countries met at the base of the border wall to debate the issue.

“We got permission to set up a tent very close to the wall where they built a drain, beyond which is (Los) Laureles Canyon,” Cruz said. “Not many people here know that 85,000 people live beyond that wall.

The people who live in that settlement also do not know that on this side of the wall there is a precious environmental zone that needs to be protected.”

After debating and discussing in the impromptu forum, Cruz and his guests did something unprecedented and walked right through the border wall.

“We requested an unprecedented permit from Homeland Security that enabled us to transform the newly built drain under the wall into an official

Veterans: Logan brewer gives stage to deported U.S veterans

Continued from pg. B1

MUSICIANS IN THE MAKING— (clockwise) Dr. Cynthia McGregor and her young students at Sunnyside Elementary School rehearse. Diego Dolero, Caitlyn Compton Hall, Emmanuel Train and Darian Clark play the Star Wars theme on the clarinet. Luis Safa makes every beat count on the snare drum.

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Cesar Hirsch/Staff

BROTHERS IN ARMS—Ruben Salgado and his wife Guadalupe Salgado survey the auction items at Border X Brewing in Barrio Logan. The event raised more than $10,000 to help deported veterans.

veterans in Tijuana.

The tasting room, which doubles as an art gallery, was decorated in artwork from donor artists and deported veterans. A silent auction featured donated art, wine and weekend trips to Baja wineries.

Rizing Rezistance kicked the evening off with music. Later, actors performed a scene from “Letters from the Wall,” David Rivas’ play inspired by hardships caused by U.S. immigration policy.

Mark Lane, a local refugee and immigrant rights activist, organized the benefit.

“The biggest thing we can do to help them is raising awareness,” he said. “Not many people know we deport our veterans.”

port of entry from the Tijuana River Estuary into (Los) Laureles Canyon,” he said. “We made it into an official, 24-hour port of entry.”

Behind this exercise was a desire to expose what Cruz argues is a binational problem, one that needs to be addressed through a binational agenda that unites stakeholders from both countries.

“People finally realized that there is an environmental system that is shared by these two cities,” he said. “The informal settlement and the estuary on opposite sides of the border must be looked at as two environments that are interdependent, not separate.”

This is the groundwork needed for a new type of architecture and regional thinking to take shape, said Cruz.

“This is the point of departure for architecture. It is a negotiation across institutions that can become a point of entry into a new idea of public space and binational relations,” he said.

The political partnerships and ground-level activism that Cruz is fostering are huge movements that involve massive political players. One would not imagine that change can begin at a place like Southwestern College.

Cruz disagrees.

“Community colleges like Southwestern are places where we find the demographics, the truer composition of the neighborhoods that surround it on the border,” he said.

Short of issuing a call to action for Southwestern students, Cruz said the college can serve as a seed for the type of movements that can revolutionize the San Diego-Tijuana region.

“Many people who are at Southwestern live in Tijuana or come from these communities that flank the border,” Cruz said. “They could become an important platform to produce new, cross-border, cross-institutional collaborations between universities and colleges in Tijuana, and serve as facilitators of new experiments in education and in the research of new, cross-border city planning agendas.”

Studying places like Southwestern College, Los Laureles Cayon and San Ysidro for new ideas about community and architecture holds immense promise, he said.

“From these marginzalized neighborhoods on either side of the border, we can begin to reimagine the world.”

Lane said fundraisers were important to the Deported Veterans Support House since it operates on donations only. Proceeds from the Border X benefit would be used to purchase a van for the support house.

Sandoval, a former neighbor of Lane’s, said the issue was important to her.

“It (was) a perfect opportunity to give back and in a way that continues to raise money and raise awareness,” she said.

San Diego City Councilman David Alvarez also attended. He said the plight of deported U.S. veterans echoed larger problems with immigration.

“Families are being ripped apart,” he said. “Then when you take into account the fact that these people were brave enough to serve the way that they did, that just compounds it. This is a prime example of why the laws are so messed up and why they need to be fixed.”

Bishop Dermit Rodgers, a former board member of the human rights organization Border Angels, serves as chaplain for the Deported Veterans Support House.

“These are men and women who

served honorably and permanent legal residents who committed a crime,” he said. “They’re entitled to (Veterans Affairs) benefits, but can’t access them.”

There is one benefit deported veterans do get, according to Rodgers.

“When they die, they are entitled to burial with full honors,” he said. “They can come back to the United States in a box.”

Border X Brewing has hosted a number of benefits for the community, including a fundraiser for a local charter school and last year’s Chicano Con, an exhibit of Latino comic art staged during San Diego Comic Con. Owner David Favela said he believes in supporting many of the issues affecting the community.

“We see it as an important part of our mission,” he said.

Offering his tasting room as a venue for fundraisers or as a gallery selling art from neighborhood artists, is, to Favela, just as important as turning a profit.

“We see the brewery not just as a way to sell beer,” he said. “There’s a lot of ways to sell beer. What we love is adding to the fabric of the community.”

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BACKPAGE

March 1 - April 10, 2016 — Volume 59, Issue 5

SANDERS CAPTIVATES STUDENTS

A

s 12,000 people filed into the San Diego Convention Center with their “Bernilution” signs and their pins that read “Huuuge change,” a large screen blaring MSNBC was announcing Hillary Clinton’s Arizona victory.

Supporters who waited an average of four hours in a line that snaked a milelong outside the convention center began to chant in unison, “Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off!”

That Bernie Sanders was trailing Hillary Clinton in delegates 1,712 - 1,011 and that Sanders had been given a 10 percent chance of winning the primary by political quants like Nate Silver, had little effect on the euphoric crowd eager to hear the idealistic Vermont Senator whose populist message is shaking up American politics.

Joaquin Gonzalez, an SWC English major, said the experience was worth the wait.

“This is my first rally ever,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect. My voice is gone. I was cheering my head off. I waited for nine hours, but honestly I don’t care. It was worth it to me, it was so inspiring to be able to see him in front of me.”

After actress Rosario Dawson introduced Sanders, euphoria crescendoed as the crowd raucously cheered creating an atmosphere more reminiscent of a rock concert than a political rally.

On stage, Sanders played the hits, reciting his now well-known campaign themes of Wall Street corruption, Medicare expansion, campaign financing reform,

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affordable higher-education and prison reform.

SWC biology major Natalia Rico, 21, said the issues Sanders focuses on, separates him from other candidates.

“I feel like he speaks about real problems and he’s just so blunt about it,” she said.

“I feel like it’s never been addressed so specifically, like what’s wrong with the government and how skewed it is towards keeping the rich rich. Bernie is the first political candidate that has gotten me interested politics, despite the fact that I hate politics.”

Sanders’ first visit to California comes a full two months before the June 7 state primary. California’s sizeable 475 Delegates (including 71 super delegates) are vital to Sanders’ chances of overtaking Clinton.

Undeterred by the math and energized by the message, dozens of people took to the streets of downtown San Diego hours before the speech to express their support for the Vermont Senator.

IMMIGRATION PORTION

“There are 11 million undocumented people in this country,” Sanders said, his voice hoarse from the campaign trail.

“Many of them are living in the shadows, living in fear, and they are being exploited every day. That needs to end. I am the proud son of immigrant parents and I know a little about that.”

SWC sound engineering major Eric Favela, 24, said he was pleased to hear Sanders address the immigration issue.

“Because of where we are, I thought that what he had to say about immigration was the most important part,” he said. “I’ve never been stripped from my parents, but I know of people who have had that issue before. That really got me.”

Sanders could barely finish his immigration remarks as the crowd erupted into a boisterous “Si se puede!” chant.

Enthusiasm has been a hallmark of the candidate’s campaign and its supporters.

Constantly drawing standing-room-only crowds in every city despite his significant delegate deficit, Sanders has often said that large voter turnouts are his best chance at

“This is my first rally ever. I didn’t know what to expect. My voice is gone. I was cheering my head off. I waited for nine hours, but honestly I don’t care. It was worth it. The man is just inspirational. ” Joaquin Gonzalez SWC English Major

a primary victory. In the last 16 years, an average of only 60 percent of eligible voters participated in the general election and even less in the primaries.

Jeanette Russo, an SWC studio arts major, 22, said Sander’s campaign has stoked her political engagement.

“This is the first time I felt inspired to vote and it’s because of Bernie Sanders,” she said. “He is in the election for the people.

Unlike the others, he has been consistent with his record and hasn’t sold himself to all the corporations.”

MILLENIALS FAVOR SANDERS

Sanders’ campaign has had success appealing to the millennial generation. A report by the Harvard Institute of Politics (HIP) found that in the last six months, Sanders has gone from polling at one percent with millennials to 40 percent. In the first two primaries that took place in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders won more than 80 percent of the youth vote.

SWC psychology major Stephen Gonzalez said he thinks young people love Sanders because of his progressive policies.

“A soon as I heard he was coming, I called in sick to work,” he said. “To me, Bernie’s campaign is about changing the way we think. He has made issues young people care about, like student loan debt and the 1 percent, a really important part of this election.”

HIP also found that millennials, which now comprise the largest voting block in the country, are unlike any American voting group before them. About 40 percent have no party allegiances and are professed political independents. A personalitybased criteria consisting of integrity, level-headedness and authenticity, in that order, are the three traits they value most in a candidate. Political and business experience were farther down the list.

SWC philosophy professor Alejandro Orozco said he has observed a marked difference in the characteristics of his students over the years.

“My generation believed that people would get married, have kids and own a home,” he said. “I don’t think millenials buy into that. I think that makes millenials greater risk-takers, in a good way. So when you have someone like Bernie Sanders, they’re more likely to take a big leap like that, because their future has so much economic ambiguity.”

BIG NIGHT FOR SANDERS

The night of his San Diego speech Sanders won primaries in Utah, Washington and Idaho, but lost to Clinton in Arizona. In the past two weeks Sanders has won eight of the last nine primaries and claims to be gaining momentum, although it may be too little too late.

Gonzalez, one of the last to leave the SD Convention Center after being one of the first to arrive, said Sanders’ candidacy is more important than just winning or losing this election.

“All my friends that I’ve turned onto Bernie have become way more politically involved,” he said. “This is the first time I can remember where I don’t feel like we are just picking between the lesser of two evils. It’s a movement as much as anything.

I’ve been with him since day one and I plan on being with him until the end no matter what happens. The man is just inspirational.”