Spring 2015: 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

Volume 58, Issue 5

February 14 - March 16, 2015

Board upholds closed session policy

Former Sun photographer impersonated police chief

theswcsun.com

2-2 vote means student trustee still cannot join confidential governing board meetings

By Tyrice Simmons Staff Writer

Closed sessions at governing board meetings will remain closed to the student trustee.

A proposal to allow the ASO president to attend closed sessions with the five elected trustees and college president failed on a 2-2 vote. Trustees Humberto Peraza and

Employees launch NAACP complaint

Tim Nader voted for the proposed policy change, Griselda Delgado and Norma Hernandez voted against the measure.

Trustee Nora Vargas was absent.

Peraza said the new policy would have allowed the elected trustees to ask for the student trustee’s perspective on certain issues discussed in closed session. Under the

proposal, the president and vice president would have had to approve the invitation before the student trustee came into a closed meeting.

“The rule that we came up with doesn’t actually allow students into closed session,” he said. “It actually just allows the board president and the vice president to make a decision at some point if they believe that the trustee in a particular case maybe like the corruption scandal that we were dealing please see Student trustee pg. A2

Nader

ADJUNCTS SPEAK UP

By Gabriel Sandoval and Nicholas Baltz Staff Writers

By Anna Pryor Editor-In-Chief

A group of five employees have charged Southwestern College with institutional racism and systematic discrimination in a letter to the NAACP, Assemblymember Dr. Shirley Weber and campus AfricanAmerican leaders.

Custodians Roderick Curry, Thaao Streeter, Eric Matos, Mark Gutierrez and PC Systems Technician Johnny Blankenship signed a letter addressed to Weber and seven other people and organizations spelling out what they describe as discriminatory treatment on campus. Complaints in the letter include placement of rats and human feces in the lockers of African-American custodians, monkey calls, racial slurs, racial profiling and defaced property.

“A number of us who are African-American who are employees (or perceived to be African heritage) of the Southwestern Community College District are constantly subjected to institutionalized racism, differential treatment, harassment and a hostile work environment on a daily basis while in performance of our jobs,” the letter said.

Blankenship said the complainants have been advised by Weber and legal counsel not to speak to the news media until they receive a response from the college. As of deadline, the college has not responded.

Signers of the letter wrote that they have met with their supervisors, gone to development trainings, spoken with college human resources administrators and met with the college president. They have received right to sue letters from the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), the letter says.

“Moreover, our supervisors have told us to be thankful we have jobs and we will not have one if we keep complaining,” reads please see NAACP pg. A3

Dean Mia McClellan assisted secretive publication that accessed student records

Bianca Quilantan/Staff

Gregory Pantoja and other part-time instructors rally for paid officer hours, protection, better pay. pg. A2

A former staff member of the Southwestern College Sun was dismissed from the journalism program for surreptitiously providing personal student information to an underground pamphlet periodically distributed on campus by unknown writers. Just days later Rick Flores, 21, a history major and former assistant photo editor at The Sun, was fired from his job as an SWC Campus Police public safety assistant for impersonating Police Chief Michael Cash in emails in an account he created.

Flores, who also admitted writing at least one anonymous TIMELINE article for the pamphlet OF EVENTS that was critical of The Sun and its faculty For more in-depth while on the college coverage see pgs. A4-A5 newspaper staff, was forced to resign his position of student president of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges, a Sacramentobased educational organization. He was elected JACC student president last spring. He was also pulled from an assignment for The Sun to travel to the Reno Jazz Festival to cover college vocal groups performing at the prestigious event.

The Sun was leaked a trove of documents related to the Jag Wire, an agitprop pamphlet periodically placed without permission in The Sun’s newsstands, on tables and on the ground around campus. Its content generally focuses on grievances with college administrators, faculty, classified employees and The Sun. Essays are usually bylined with names of historic figures, cultural references and first names of former staff members of The Sun. Documents provided to The Sun also include correspondence between the pamphlet’s unknown publishers and Dean of Student Services Mia McClellan. During an inter vie w McClellan emphatically denied initiating contact or assisting the Jag Wire.

Jag Wire staff has access to SWC’s confidential student record system, which it has used to verify the identity of students corresponding with the pamphlet.

Professor of Journalism Dr. Max Branscomb said he notified SWC President Dr. Melinda Nish immediately when evidence of a student records system breach surfaced. Branscomb said he also spoke to IT Director Daniel Borges and Director of Human Services Marvin Castillo about the security breach. please see McClellan pg. A4

CITIZENS RALLY TO KEEP POOL OPEN New calendar trims semesters by two weeks

By Brenda Gregorio-Nieto Staff Writer

Students have longer summer and winter vacations to look f o r w a rd t o i n t h e 2 0 1 5 - 1 6 academic year, but also longer school days.

Southwestern College will join other colleges in the area with a new compressed calendar that goes into effect this fall. Semesters will be condensed from 18 weeks to 16. Course hours per semester will remain the same at 54.

“We want to increase student retention and we also want to increase access to classes…”

A compressed calendar was first proposed in 2005. A 2013 survey conducted by Dean of Instructional Support Services Dr. Mink Stavenga sampled about 660 SWC students.

More than 80 percent said they preferred the compressed calendar. In spring 2013 the Academic Senate approved a c o m p r e s s e d c a l e n d a r.

“After that we began working please see Calendar pg. A3

Tyner

Kathy Tyner, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Chair of the Calendar Committee

Pg. A2

Legislation protects SWC’s undocumented students

By Luz Aramburo Assistant News Editor

It may be the college’s worst kept secret.

Hundreds, probably thousands, of students who are undocumented are studying at Southwestern College. Most still live in the shadows even though college administrators insist they do not have to.

Less than two percent of SWC students

are registered under Assembly Bill 540, legislation that allows undocumented students that meet certain requirements (three years of high school, a high school diploma/GED and enrollment in higher education) to pay in-state tuition as opposed to out-of-state, which is more than four times higher.

SWC is the nearest college to the please see AB 540 pg. A2

A2

Bianca Quilantan, editor

NEWS

Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

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

Part-timers take a stand for better treatment

By Bianca Quilantan and Alan Luna Staff Writers

Part-time instructors—Southwestern College’s silent majority—are silent no more.

Adjuncts held a loud but cordial rally to draw attention to the plight of “Freeway Fliers.” Part-time staff complained of low pay, poor health care, no paid office hours and other hardships suffered by the college’s 617 part-time instructors.

Geoffery Johnson, the representative of the adjunct instructors of SWC and San Diego Mesa College, organized the SWC rally.

Adjuncts with white shirts that read “Adjunct but essential” encouraged students to stand behind their movement.

Tables with petitions had long lines of people, from students to administrators, waiting to sign a petition that will be sent to the California state capitol, Sacramento and explained the issues of adjunctification.

He recounted stories of hardship, stressful drives to multiple colleges, welfare checks, food stamps and the insecurity of providing health care for his daughter.

Other adjuncts had similar stories. Josue Arredondo has been an English adjunct for five years at SWC. He said he worries about his future.

“When I retire I don’t want to have to eat cat food,” he said.

Johnson described part-time teaching as an ever-revolving door where adjuncts are hired and let go without explanation.

Arredondo agreed.

“You’re afraid,” he said. “If you speak up, you might not be here next semester.”

Adjuncts insist they need paid office hours so they can afford to stay on campus to help students.

Many instructors have to travel between colleges that are miles apart, causing them to dash for the door as soon as classes end.

Many instructors teach the equivalent of full course loads (15 units) split among two or more institutions. They are paid less than a full-time tenured professor.

Jessica Posey has taught at SWC for four years as well as at San Diego City College and Vincennes University on local Navy bases.

“I am teaching eight classes this semester.” Posey said. “That is three classes over full-time and I make less than my

Student trustee: Vote keeps ASO president out Continued from pg. A1

QUIET NO LONGER — English instructor Geoffery Johnson leads a rally to promote adjunct issues.

full-time counterparts. Nobody can build relationships with my students the way I build relationships with my students.

Nobody can replace me. I’m an individual and I am very proud of the work that goes into my classes every single semester.”

Governing Board Trustee Tim Nader spoke at the rally and acknowledged that adjunct instructors cannot give students the same kind of attention as full-time faculty.

“I know every one of you is a professional who desires to serve your students to the best of your professional ability,” he said.

“That’s a very difficult thing to do when you are struggling to make ends meet.”

Nader said that SWC is working to address the issues of adjunctification that are preventing student success.

“If we are serious about student success this is an issue we have to address,” he said.

“Three-fourths of our classes are being taught by folks… who lack the benefits that give a professional security to do their best work.”

Of Southwestern College’s 820 educators, 617 are part-time instructors who are allowed to teach only nine units or less at SWC. California higher-education has more adjuncts then ever. They are less expensive than professors and can be hired or let go almost at will.

All full-time faculty at SWC are tenured or on tenure track, and are permanent employees.

Adjuncts are paid by the hour. Work done outside of class, like grading papers or helping a student after class, goes unpaid.

Nader suggested that the Governing Board consider creating a joint powers agreement with Grossmont/Cuyamaca, Palomar and San Diego City districts to assist adjuncts in attaining full-time pay and benefits for full-time work. “(The agreement would) give them some job security and some benefits,” he said, “but not obligate any one district to foot the whole bill for a full-time

Bianca Quilantan/Staff

position when they don’t necessarily need a full-time position for that subject.”

SWC adjuncts will receive paid office hours beginning fall of 2015.

“If a (part-time instructor) is teaching three LHE or less a semester, the payment will be two office hours at the rate of $50 per hour,” said faculty union negotiator Ken Yanow. “(Those) teaching six-seven LHE, the payment will be four office hours at $50 per hour. For… more than six LHE, the payment will be eight office hours at $50 per hour.”

Adjuncts will also be seeing a 5-8 percent pay increase and four paid hours of professional development/ flex activity.

Steven Detsch, an instructor at SWC for 15 years, said adjuncts are indispensible.

“We are the backbone of the college,” he said. “Without us, the campus doesn’t function.”

with and an investigation that had nothing to do with student litigation or anything to do with negotiations.”

Peraza said he thought the idea was reasonable.

“Everything we do is about students, so getting a student’s perspective is a great thing to do,” he said. “At the end of the day I think it gives more rights to the student trustee as a representative of the students.”

Peraza said he is a big fan of the position of student trustee because students have a unique perspective.

“The more we treat them like a trustee, the better, because that’s what they are,” he said.

Vargas agreed but was unsure about the policy.

“I am absolutely always supportive of a student’s voice in everything that we do,” she said. “I really believe that if there’s a big ratio of students that feel like they are not being heard on campus then there has to be other mediums to open that up.”

Critics of the proposed policy change said they worried that student trustees may get lobbied and put in conflict of interest situations. ASO President Sayaka Ridley, this year’s student trustee, said that being lobbied would not be an issue since she does not have a vote.

“The student trustee, in general, does not have the expertise that they do, so I can’t contribute as much in a closed session as they can,” she said.

Ridley said elected board members deal with litigation and personal issues in closed session that do not involve students.

Of California’s 72 community college districts, six permit student trustees to attend closed sessions, according to SWC legal counsel Trevin Sims.

“We followed up with those six, and actually of those six we were informed that none of them actually permit the student trustee (in closed session),” he said. “Really the practice seems to be among the colleges that the student trustee not attend.”

Ridley said she respected the board’s decision.

“In my opinion, everybody on the board genuinely cares about the students,” she said. “So I’m not mad at them and I’m not mad it didn’t pass.”

Pool users protest construction timelines

By Josh Carter Staff Writer

Worried they might be left out to dry, local swimmers and their coaches dove into a rally protesting a college plan to build over campus swimming pools without having replacements ready to go.

Southwestern College’s new Math, Science and Engineering (MSE) buildings could be built one year ahead of schedule on the site of the aquatics facility before its replacement, the Wellness Center, begins construction on the corner lot.

SWC Trustee Humberto Peraza acknowledged there is a problem.

“We need to work with our community and our

campus to find the best thing for our students and for our community,” he said. “The intent is not to kick anyone out.”

Several South Bay high schools currently practice and compete at the aquatics facility. Eastlake High School women’s water polo coach Stuart Sokil said he instructs up to 26 athletes at practice and said finding another home may not be possible in the pool-poor South Bay. “It seems like for the first time girls are interested in club swimming,” Sokil said. “Moving the kids somewhere else is just not ideal.”

Since 1993 the Turtle Aquatics program has conducted basic swimming and water polo classes in the pools. During the warmer months of the

year, more than 350 participants enroll in the classes. SWC women’s water polo coach Jennifer Harper said it might take three to five years to restore the community program to its current level.

“I’m really, really, really worried about closing (the pool),” she said. “It took us 15 years to get these programs to where they should be.”

No interim facility has been identified because there are not enough options in the South Bay, said Harper. Even the U.S. Olympic Training Center lacks suitable facilities to train, she said.

Laura Randall, the parent of an Eastlake H.S.

AB 540: Undocumented students protected under Obama administration Continued from pg. A1

Adriana Heldiz/Staff

SAFE, FOR NOW — Wendy Plata is back in college thanks to AB 540.

students. AB 540 was passed in 2001, but eligible students and their advocates argue that a few eligible students know about it or understand it. Only 360 SWC students are currently registered as AB 540.

“It’s like a secret menu type of thing,” said IDEAS Club President David Ramos Chavez. “Unless you know, you can’t ask for it.”

IDEAS is a support network for undocumented students at SWC. Members pledge to help spread the word about AB 540.

Jairo Garcia, graphic design major and AB540 student, said he knew about the AB 540 option prior to registering. His knowledge kept him from being misled by college admissions employees, he said.

Garcia was told to register as an out-of-state student, and pay out-of-state tuition, after he told an admissions employee that he was undocumented.

“Out of state tuition? How about AB 540?” said Garcia. “The guy just looked weird at me and said OK.” Informative resources are scarce for AB 540, especially when undocumented students are not even aware of it. On the online admissions page, the first requirements are name and social security number or student

please see Pool pg. A3

Bianca Quilantan/Staff

THINKING AHEAD — South Bay secondary schools and swim clubs worry that construction will eliminate pools for too long.

ID number. Unlike the webpage, a flier issued by the SWC admissions office states that a student without an SSN must type in all zeros to register. Students who register online without picking up the flier from admissions are likely to be unaware of this option, said Ramos Chavez.

Wendy Plata, 27, a visual arts major and IDEAS member, graduated from high school in 2006. She came to SWC and registered as a U.S. citizen, but soon dropped out because she could not receive any scholarships and was not sure she could legally attend college.

“It’s very discouraging when they act like we’re invisible when we’re really not,” she said.

Five years later the passage of the DREAM Act allowed undocumented students to apply for scholarships such as Cal Grants, Board of Governor’s Fee Waiver (BOGW) and Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS). Plata decided to go back to college. “(Admissions employees) sent me to residency because the people at the front desk did not know what to answer,” said Plata, “(Residency employees) were a lot more helpful.”

Plata and Garcia both said that once they learned about AB 540 and got past the front desk it was fairly easy to register as AB 540 students.

Ramos Chavez was not as fortunate.

Unaware of AB 540, Ramos Chavez said his sister registered him as a U.S. citizen.

“I was always told if anybody asks you, say ‘U.S. citizen’ that’s it,” said Ramos Chavez. “It’s a don’t ask, don’t tell type of thing.”

Ramos Chavez paid full in-state tuition without of any financial aid for the first few years of his academic career. When he heard about the California DREAM Act he asked

an attorney how to apply. Because his legal status at school was U.S. citizen, it did not accord with the rest of his application, so Ramos Chavez decided to change his status from U.S. citizen to AB 540.

“I honestly thought it wasn’t going to be a big deal, that it was just going to be a click of a button,” he said.

It took Ramos Chavez about four months to get his status changed.

“They would send me from person to person,” said Ramos Chavez. “Go over here, come back at 10, we’re going to have to reschedule you, come over, you need to provide more evidence, more paperwork.”

After jumping through numerous hoops at the admissions office and despite the fact that AB 540 students are only required to pay in-state tuition, he said, admissions personnel wanted to charge him the difference of the out-of-state tuition for all of his previous semesters at SWC, a grand total of $17,000.

“My attorney said, ‘I’m going make sure you don’t have to pay, because it’s ridiculous what they are making you pay,’” said Ramos Chavez.

Non-resident students subject to nonresident fees with an incorrect status will be charged the respective amount once the error is noted, according to the college catalog.

His attorney made a call to admissions and said he was willing to go to court. The charges were im mediately dropped, Ramos Chavez said.

“There are many more (AB 540 students) out there,” said Ramos Chavez. “Hundreds that have wrongfully claimed to be permanent residents, permanent aliens or U.S. citizens when they really fall into the category as an AB 540 student.”

NEWS

The Southwestern College Sun

Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

Prop R revamp whisks away culinary arts building

By Martin Loftin Staff Writer

Southwestern College leaders seem to have put the culinary arts program on the back burner. Students and instructors, meanwhile, claim they are stuck in Hell’s Kitchen.

Robin Leon, an adjunct culinary arts instructor, uses language less salty than super chef Gordon Ramsey, but her message is loud and clear.

“The last time I saw the Master Plan it included a new culinary arts facility,” she said. “We (were recently) told at an orientation for new hires that there would now just be a wellness center.”

SWC’s involvement in the notorious South Bay Corruption Scandal led to the delay or cancellation of many Proposition R construction projects.

BCA Architects was originally granted a $57 million contract to design the corner lot development in 2010, but BCA CEO Paul Bunton pleaded guilty to corruption along with eight SWC employees or contractors.

In 2011 a new board majority cancelled all contracts and projects that were tainted and started over. In 2010 the BCA plan called for a larger college bookstore, food court, art gallery, culinary arts program, wellness center, administrative offices, conference space Kayla Hall/Staff and a police station.

HELL’S CAFETERIA -- Diana Torres squeezes past her classmates in SWC’s “Everybody is due for an upgrade,” cramped kitchen. said Governing Board President Norma Hernandez. “We would be able to start to Hernandez.

Hernandez said it is important that the running these programs in the proper Design for the math, science and new buildings to be designed well. manner. All the programs are scattered engineering building will be completed by “I’m a firm believer that you have to and we’re beginning to consolidate July 1 by Marlene Imirzian & Associates involve faculty, staff and students when them.”

Architects, with groundbreaking in you’re designing a new building,” she Today’s version of the corner lot project February 2016 and completion by fall said. “These are the people who will be features three major projects, though the 2017, she said. living there. It takes time, but it’s worth designs for each are not yet completed.

Tucker Sandler Architects should have it.”

Wellness Center designs should be a new design ready for the performing SWC’s culinary facilities are woefully finished by June 15 by the architecture arts complex by January 1, 2016, with inadequate, Leon said, and students are firm Gensler, with groundbreaking ground breaking by July 2016. It is suffering. likely occurring January 2016 and the expected to be ready for students by “There is a lack of a dedicated facility, completion by summer 2017, according spring 2018. a lack of events to get students involved

and a lack of equipment,” she said.

Leon teaches two baking classes in the 105 building, where food and drink are not allowed. Students explore cooking techniques before walking across campus to their lab in cafeteria’s tiny, decades-old kitchen. About 20 students and an instructor crowd the kitchen shared by the cafeteria staff. Classes are planned around the kitchen’s peak hours and are relegated to late hours when the kitchen is closed.

Students struggle with outdated kitchen appliances, Leon said, including three broken ovens and a single freezer.

Despite the crowded conditions, the students are successful, Leon said. Two recent SWC alums are now professional bakers, Amanda Islas at Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion and Jeanette Guzman at Sycuan Casino.

“It’s an alternative for many students who have not been successful in other educational venues,” she said. “I’ve had several students tell me that being in the culinary arts program was the first time they felt successful.”

Some of Leon’s students have told her they were special education students, she said, and felt they did not have a chance to succeed in school until they got involved in the culinary arts.

“It really opened my eyes that some of our students who fall through the cracks are able to bloom here,” she said.

Culinary arts’ 100 student slots fill up instantly, Leon said, and there is fierce competition among those on the waitlist. Leon said one of her students was so desperate to get into her baking class that he locked the door to prevent other students from getting an add code before him.

“We’re the only culinary arts program in the South Bay,” she said. “If we had a dedicated facility, we could have double the number of students, maybe more.”

Pool: Community protests year-long absence of pools

NAACP: Five employees charge college with racial discrimination Continued from pg. A1

the letter.

Among their examples are racial slurs, monkey sounds, defacing of private property and racial intimidation.

“One of us even had his work locker broken into and feces was placed in it and his picture of President Obama was defaced with the word ‘nigger’ written across his forehead,” the letter said.

In the letter the employees allege that campus staff have unfairly stereotyped them based on their race.

“On several occasions, some of us have even had the College Police called (on) us to investigate us while we were performing our jobs on campus because campus staff told them we looked like a ‘thieves, or homeless or were unknown Black people who had keys to campus offices and walkie-talkies,’”

Calendar: Shorter semesters, longer classes ahead in fall Continued from pg. A1

on putting this together and it takes a long time to do that because it’s a big change,” said Kathy Tyner, vice president of academic affairs and chair of the SWC Calendar Committee.

“The only real difficulty is that we have to generate the schedule from scratch.”

Last October the governing board approved the compressed calendar.

In February Tyner received approval from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

All classes will now meet twice a week instead of three times a week. A winter intersession will be added from Jan 4 – 28 during which students can complete a class. A block schedule will eliminate the overlap of classes and increase schedule efficiency Tyner said.

“Our purpose for doing this is for students,” she said. “We want to increase student retention and we also want to increase access to classes by trying to eliminate the overlapping of classes.”

College hour will be pushed forward from its current 11 a.m.-noon time slot to 11:45 a.m.-1:10 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the main campus at the insistence of the ASO, which wanted classes to maintain a long midday college hour. Classes will be longer to assure students meet the required amount of time for their units.

A class that would normally meet

“It’s a nightmare of logistics. It’s going to take us at least a year to create a schedule that functions at a high level. ” ERIC MAAG, COMMUNICATIONS DEPARMENT CHAIR

Continued from pg. A2

swimmer, said she organized the poolside meeting to examine potential solutions.

“It’s not easy just to move us somewhere else,” she said. “There isn’t really anywhere else to go.”

Ramon Leyba, SUHSD Director o f St a t e a n d Fe d e r a l Pro g r a m s , fielded questions and said the district would have to explore its options for temporarily relocating high school aquatics.

“On the table is the Las Palmas swimming pool in National City or building some type of temporary above ground pool until construction concludes,” he said.

SWC’s current facilities were built in 1972 and are not regulation size for water polo matches, said Harper.

Randall said the community welcomes the Proposition R upgrades.

“The new pools are going to be amazing,” she said. “Everyone is really happy about that.”

Harper designed the college’s new aquatic center to include three new pools: two 50-meter pools used for water polo and swimming events and a 25-yard shallow pool for instruction.

A3

Bianca Quilantan/Staff

SOUTH BAY OASIS — South Bay Aquatics swimmers work out in the region’s only pool large enough to train for competitions.

Organizations such as the California In t e r s c h o l a s t i c Fe d e r a t i o n h a v e expressed interest in using the stateof-the-art Wellness Center for future CIF events.

Harper said the U.S. Olympic Training Center may have athletes train and conduct rehabilitate at the Wellness Center once construction is complete.

Peraza said the new facility will

attract new students and athletes to become Jaguars.

“People come here to play in our stadium,” he said. “The pools will be the same way”.

the letter said.

Custodian Luis Sandoval said that the complaints of monkey noises were consistent with what he has experienced while working for the college.

“Everybody gets it, I get it, too,” Sandoval said. “That’s why I don’t get on the radio as much unless I really need to talk to my supervisor or the lead custodian. I’ll get on the radio and someone will play monkeys or farting.”

Sandoval said that he noticed the monkey sounds got worse when Curry and Streeter were there. He said that it would be easy to identify who makes the monkey sounds if they had newer walkie-talkies that displayed who was in the call. He also said he previously heard Curry and Matos had dead rats put in their lockers.

“When they get on the radio and start playing something, it’s not right,” he said.

“It’s not right for anybody because they’re doing their job.”

Dr. Donna Arnold, dean of the School of Arts and Communication, was a recipient of the letter, but said she does not know how the college will react.

“I’m not sure the direction the school is

going and they probably won’t even involve me in that,” she said. “I was simply copied on the letter because with so few AfricanAmerican’s in positions of authority, I get a lot of stuff. A lot of people come to me.”

Arnold said that this is not be the first time the NAACP has been involved on the campus for complaints of racial discrimination.

“I can’t speak to their issue and how long it’s been going on,” she said. “I can speak to the fact that the college has had some challenges in previous years. I don’t know how long ago it was, but the NAACP was on campus with some issues that are very similar to what the custodians are facing right now.”

NAACP’s previous association with the school was in May 2003 after representatives of the organization, SWC faculty members and classified employees read a list of complaints to the governing board which included charges of mistreatment and discriminatory practices. Arnold was hired that same year, months after the 2003 allegations, as SWC’s first AfricanAmerican dean. Governing board members and SWC employees said they were pleased

with the progress after the NAACP’s 2003 involvement.

Governing Board Trustee Humberto Peraza also said he is aware of the allegations, but because it is a personnel issue, he is not able to disclose what actions the school has taken. Speaking in general, Peraza said racism at Southwestern College will not be tolerated.

“There should be zero tolerance in general for any sort of racism on our campus,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to what particular minority group it is. Racism is disgusting and shouldn’t be accepted on any level.”

Arnold said she is shocked that racial allegations are surfacing on campus again.

“I’m really surprised that here we are in the 21st century and these kinds of things are still happening,” she said. “I’m really hurt and surprised that it’s repeated on the Southwestern College campus. That’s what’s disconcerting to me.”

Southwestern College President Dr. Melinda Nish said that she is aware of the situation, but cannot speak on what the college will do or when it will respond because it is a personnel issue.

twice a week for one hour and 15 minutes per session will now meet for one hour and 25 minutes. Classes that require labs normally meet for two hours and 50 minutes now they will meet for three hours and 10 minutes.

“I could cover more information in my five week summer classes than I could in an 18 week semester,” said music professor Todd Caschetta, “because of longer classes and the fluidity of the class.”

Josue Gonzalez, 21, a political science major, said he thinks the new schedule will work.

“I understand that some students have problems, but we have to understand that this is not the first time a community college has done this,” he said. “Most students throughout the state are used to this.

I think it’s a win-win situation.”

These changes will be challenging for certain departments, said Professor of Political Science Phil Saenz.

“I am concerned that small departments such as political science with fewer classes on the schedule have a dispropor tionately high number of 7 a.m. classes that are exposed to be dropped,” he said. “I think the calendar should be more considerate of each department’s size when allocating 7 a.m. classes.”

Ever y depar tment will have to adjust its schedules.

“It’s a nightmare of logistics,” said communications chair Professor Eric Maag. “It’s going to take us at least a year to create a schedule that functions at a high level. Until then we’re going to be in a pretty tough spot. Although the pros are beneficial to the students.”

Big changes come with pros and cons.

A major drawback of the new schedule is the long one hour, 35 minute break between classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, said history professor Laura Ryan. Laura Jessica Castillo, the 2013-14 ASO president, insisted on maintaining college hour during the noon hour rather than 2:20 p.m.

Tyner said the college will take the new schedule one step at a time.

“We have found overwhelming support from the students and the faculty,” she said. “Of course there are bound to be issues that come up along the way and we just have to address them as they come up.”

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MCCLELLAN A SECRET SOURCE

F

Continued from pg. A1

DISGRUNTLED STUDENT

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

that he was involved in accessing the college’s student records system.

McClellan: Dean invited anonymous pamphlet to campus

lore s w a s in his fifth semester with The Su n w h e n a r e p o r t e r was provided Jag Wire documents. Flores had been in contact with the pamphlet for at least five months, going back to October 2014, possibly longer. His Jag Wire handler encouraged him to vent his frustrations with The Sun in an article. A draft submitted by Flores criticized The Sun, Branscomb and Editor-in-Chief Anna Pryor for not covering topics of interest to him such as South Bay high school musical events, the Imperial Beach mayoral election and the controversies in the San Ysidro School District (which Flores was assigned to cover).

A manipulated version of his article appeared in the pamphlet that was critical of Branscomb and the Editorial Board of The Sun. His emails also shared personal information about students in the journalism program with the Jag Wire.

Branscomb said that was the main reason for dismissing Flores from the staff.

“Although I find the anonymous nature of the pamphlet childish and cowardly, I consistently supported the First Amendment rights of the publishers to say whatever they wanted,” he said. “Mr. Flores and members of the publication crossed some red lines, however, and have engaged in potentially criminal activities. I am also very disturbed to learn that a college dean would become involved in this.”

Flores’ handler at the pamphlet wrote long emails praising his work and stoking resentment toward The Sun. “Your hard work and loyalty have never been appreciated but (The) Sun continues to dangle the carrot in front of you to keep you on the staff,” wrote Flores’ handler. “We think you know the embarrassment that would follow if they fired the JACC President from their own paper and we think that is the only reason you are still there.”

Flores said he confessed to Branscomb on Feb. 25 and apologized for his involvement with the pamphlet and for sharing student information with strangers. Branscomb said he told Flores he would withdraw a letter of recommendation he had written on Flores’ behalf for an SWC scholarship application and would notify JACC that he was no longer a journalism student in good standing. JACC

Bianca Quilantan, editor

NEWS

Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

“I don’t contact (The Sun) generally, right? And I don’t call (The Sun) to say, this is happening.

So I won’t do the same to (the Jag Wire).”

Mia McClellan, Dean of Student Services officials immediately suspended Flores and asked him to resign as state student president. He stepped down the next day.

IMPERSONATING AN OFFICER

F

lores also admitted that he had created an email account to pose as SWCPD Chief Cash. He used the account, he said,

in an attempt to deceive an SDSU band director. Flores, posing as Cash, wrote to SDSU Band Director James Caestecker to inform him that the SWCPD needed Flores to remain at work in his position as a public safety officer and to please forgive his absence from a band performance. Public safety officers are student workers who patrol parking lots and render minor assistance.

Caestecker said he has known Flores for “several years.”

“I received – on I believe January 24 th – an email from a Gmail address claiming to be Police Chief Cash and I responded diligently to that email, more or less out of courtesy,” he said.

“I thought to myself after I responded that I doubted the authenticity of the email.”

Flores responded with another email, which is when Caestecker said he felt compelled to call the SWCPD to verify that it was from Cash. Caestecker was critical of the SWCPD’s inaccessibility and lack of personnel to handle telephone calls.

“You all have a really sleepy police department,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to be around very much, which, coming from a large university with a well-staffed police department, kind of shocked me.”

Caestecker said he called and left a message with parking services, “which is apparently where the voicemail for the police department goes” and “ended up following up with a phone call the following day” because the SWCPD did not return his original call.

Caestecker said he called again in subsequent weeks and was given several reasons for Cash’s absence.

“It was interesting how long it took them to get back to me when really all they had to do was to verify with Chief Cash that he didn’t have a personal email address that he used for business,” said Caestecker.

The verification process, he said, took almost a month.

Cash issued Flores a termination letter on March 2 and wrote that he had violated California Penal Code 529 by impersonating a police officer. Conviction for violations of Penal Code 529 carries a fine of up to $10,000 and one year in county jail.

Flores said his termination by campus police was unrelated to his activities with the Jag Wire and he denied

lores denied involvement in the recr uitment of McClellan by the Jag Wire and said he did not know who her handlers were.

On Feb. 17 McClellan emailed the Jag Wire an invitation to an ASO meeting regarding a review of SWC Procedure 5530 (Student Rights and Grievances) and Procedure 5500 (Standards of Student Conduct). The Sun’s student leadership has complained that McClellan has unfairly and illegally banned reporters and photographers from ASO meetings and, recently, a student grievance hearing where the grievant invited student journalists to witness the hearing. McClellan evicted the student journalists from the hearing and, though the students did not resist, called the campus police. When students returned with the Southwestern College campus policy manual and showed McClellan that student grievants had the right to invite witnesses, she again barred entrance and said the policy was open to “interpretation.”

College President Nish and Vice President of Student Services Dr. Angelica Suarez summoned Branscomb to a meeting in the president’s office to reiterate an earlier promise that journalism students would have “a meaningful role” in crafting a revised policy. Suarez invited the 19-member Editorial Board of The Sun to an ASO Senate meeting ostensibly to discuss the journalism student’s proposed language for the new grievance procedure. Flores unexpectedly attended the meeting, claiming he was there to represent Cash.

Flores later admitted he was actually there to represent the Jag Wire, who had been invited there by McClellan herself, a Feb. 17 email by McClellan confirmed.

“The ASO will be hold (SIC) a special meeting on Tuesday, February 17 at 11:00am in the ASO conference Room,” wrote McClellan. “Procedure 5530 – Student Rights and Grievances and Procedure 5500 – Standards of Student Conduct will be reviewed and recommended changes will be discussed. The SUN editorial board has been invited to provide input to these procedures. I am providing this information, in case this topic is one of interest to you as students.”

When interviewed by Sun reporters, McClellan denied emailing the Jag Wire and communicating with it. She pretended she did not know how to reach them.

“No,” she said. “I mean, how do you approach them? I don’t know. They’re all paper, right?”

McClellan was informed that the pamphlet solicits “juicy leads and

Rick Flores

Michael Cash IMPERSONATING AN OFFICER— Rick Flores, who impersonated SWC Police Chief Michael Cash using a Gmail account he created, was dismissed from the SWC journalism program and resigned as the state student president of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges.

Reporters from The Sun asked McClellan why she would contact an anonymous person(s) that could be a dangerous criminal or someone who could jeopardize campus safety.

McClellan replied that The Sun reporters might be dangerous criminals themselves.

“Well yeah, and so could both of you also, right?” she said.

The Sun reporters told McClellan their identities could be verified, but the anonymous person(s) that represents the Jag Wire could not.

“Sure. Absolutely,” she said.

McClellan was asked again why she would contact an anonymous person(s) and invite them to a meeting with Southwestern College students.

“Yeah. Okay. I’ve already given you my response,” she said.

The interview ended minutes later.

Flores replied to the Jag Wire twice to say that he wanted to go to the meeting.

“I usually work during that time but I am going to try to get chief cash to let me go during my work hours,” he wrote.

Later Flores wrote, “Chief cash asked me to go during my shift so that was an easy cover.”

Reporters from The Sun attempted to arrange an interview with Cash to ask if Flores had attended the

‘JUICY LEADS AND SCATHING LETTERS’ — An excerpt of a post from a fall edition of the Jag Wire discusses its ability to access student records.

scathing letters” by phone and email.

“No. Just like, I mean, we work with The Sun through the ASO, same thing,” she said. “I don’t contact you generally, right? And I don’t call you to say, this is happening. So I won’t do the same to them.”

McClellan, despite her denials, had been in contact with the Jag Wire. Her Feb. 17 email invitation to unknown members of the pamphlet led the publishers to write to Flores.

“We received this email (from) Mia McClellan,” read the Jag Wire email.

“We understand you have had issues with her in the past, but want to know if there is anyway that you can attend this meeting without giving yourself up as our ghost writer. Perhaps they are trying to lure us into revealing who we are by showing up. It is for this reason we would need you to show up with as many people as possible to help cover your identity. We need to know what happens at this meeting but can’t afford to let them know who we are just yet.

If you decide to attend be very careful.”

Pamphlet publishers also encouraged Flores to lie as needed. “ D o n’t Tr u s t a n y o n e D e n y Everything,” urged one Jag Wire email to Flores.

meeting during work hours with Cash’s permission. Cash refused multiple interview requests.

ACCESS TO STUDENT RECORDS

P

ublishers of the pamphlet have the ability to access the Southwestern College student records system and have used that ability to cross check student identification numbers with names to recruit new members and reject others. Flores told Branscomb and reporters from The Sun after he was caught that he had tried to join the pamphlet by using a fake SWC ID number, but was told by Jag Wire contacts that they checked his number and name in the system and the information he provided did not check out. Other students reported similar experiences.

“They asked me my name and student ID number, so whoever it is has access to student IDs,” said Flores. “That could be anyone from financial aid, cashiers, admissions, libraries and (the campus) police department.”

Flores said he never accessed student please see Breach pg. A5

NEWS

The Southwestern College Sun

Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

A5

2

EMAIL EVIDENCE — Numbers attached to the top left corner of images correspond to the chronilogical order of emails sent and receieved by either Mia McClellan, the Jag Wire and/or Rick Flores.

3

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

COMING CLEAN

 January 2013 – Rick Flores joins the Southwestern College Sun newspaper staff.  April 2014 – Flores elected state student president of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges.  May 2014 – An anonymously written pamphlet calling itself the Jag Wire surfaces at SWC.  June 2014 – Flores and a Sun editor attempt to connect with the Jag Wire using made-up student IDs. Jag Wire members accessed SWC student record system to check the numbers and name of the students.  October 2014 – Flores hired by the SWC Police Department as a public safety assistant.  October 2014 – Flores in contact with the pamphlet since October, possibly earlier.  November 2014 – Flores agrees to write an opinion piece critical of The Sun and its Editorial Board decisions for Jag Wire.  November 2014 – Flores goes to Seattle on assignment paid for by The Sun and its advisor to cover jazz workshops for students.  January 2015 – SDSU Band Director James Caestecker receives emails from Flores impersonating Police Chief Michael Cash. Caestecker contacted the SWCPD immediately. Campus police take a month to respond.  February 12, 2015 – Cash notified about Flores impersonating him.  February 2015 – SWC Dean of Student Services Mia McClellan invites members of the Jag Wire via email to an ASO meeting regarding review of SWC Procedure 5530 (Student Rights and Grievances) and Procedure 5500 (Standards of Student Conduct).  February 17, 2015 – Publishers of the Jag Wire forward McClellan’s email invitation to Flores, who replied twice expressing his desire to attend surreptitiously while on the clock with the campus police.  February 17, 2015 – Flores attends the meeting, claiming he was there to represent Cash. Flores later admitted he was actually there to represent the Jag Wire, which had been invited there by McClellan herself.  February 25, 2015 – Flores dismissed from The Sun and the SWC journalism program after he admitted leaking personal student information to strangers and engaging in unethical behavior.  February 25, 2015 – Journalism Professor Dr. Max Branscomb informs SWC President Dr. Melinda Nish of breaches in student records system.  February 26, 2015 – JACC Faculty President Professor Patricia Stark suspends Flores from leadership council.  March 2, 2015 – Flores issued a letter of termination from Cash that cited California Penal Code 529, impersonating an officer.  March 3, 2015 – Flores resigns as the JACC state student president.  March 5, 2015 – McClellan lies to reporters about her involvement with the pamphlet.

lores said he deeply regrets his surreptitious involvement with the pamphlet and sharing private student information with persons he did not know.

“I admit it, I did it,” he said. “I was in a stupid state of mind. I shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t use that as an excuse, either. It’s just a mistake I made and I’m going to fix this.”

Anna Pryor, the editor-in-chief of The Sun, said that the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics requires journalists to police each other.

Flores, she said, engaged in unethical behavior while serving at The Sun. “Rick Flores’ actions were unethical and

unacceptable,” Pryor said. “Each semester we learn about the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics and the importance of it. It is unfortunate to see that he would have total disregard for it. Whatever his personal feelings were about the organization or any individuals here, he violated people’s privacy and the law and that is what matters.

“Although it is an embarrassing situation, we would cover this if it had been any other student on campus, so we don’t plan on letting it go unnoticed.

Journalism, when done right, is self policing and I hope this is a lesson for Sun students as much as it should be for him.” ­ ð­

4

5 Breach: Pamphlet has accessed student records, identification numbers

6

Continued from pg. A4

records when he worked for the campus police and that he was not involved with breaches of the college computerized records system. He insisted he did not know how Jag Wire publishers were obtaining private information.

An editor from The Sun investigating the pamphlet attempted, as Flores had, to make contact using a made-up SWC student ID number and name. A Jag Wire publisher told the editor the number and name did not match up. No further communication was accepted by the pamphlet.

Flores’ handlers discussed the pamphlet’s ability to enter the college’s system in emails to him.

Publishers also wrote about their abilities in the publication itself.

“A journalism student on campus contacted us with a pseudonym and false student ID number, hoping to infiltrate our ranks and write for the Jag Wire,” read a post in the pamphlet.

Branscomb said he immediately shared this information with Nish. He said he also spoke to IT Director Daniel Borges on the phone later that week. Nish said she was concerned about any possible breaches of the student system, Branscomb said, and would direct campus IT professionals to look into it. Borges told Branscomb that there was no evidence the system was hacked, but that it was impossible to know if pamphlet publishers were surreptitiously accessing campus computers with access to the records or getting assistance from an administrator or staff member that had access.

“If somebody is getting into student records that

shouldn’t be getting into student records, we want to stop it immediately,” Nish said. “A lot of people have access to student records as a legitimate part of their job, but they also know that they are not to abuse having that ability to have that access.”

Faculty members at Southwestern College and JACC campuses throughout California have also questioned how the pamphlet obtained staff email listserv addresses.

Eric Maag, SWC Professor of Communication, said he first learned of the Jag Wire last semester when an article was written about his involvement with the SWC faculty union. He said he contacted the pamphlet to respond to inaccuracies and misconceptions. Their communication, Maag said, prompted him to question the Jag Wire’s resources.

“It seemed clear to me that they had information from emails that had been sent through the listserv to all faculty or all staff,” he said. “They were speaking to someone beyond just other students.”

Sun reporters tried to contact the anonymous pamphlet by email, text and Twitter for comment, but no response was given.

F

A6

The Southwestern College Sun

VIEWPOINTS

February 14 - March 16 2015, Volume 58, Issue 5

Editorials, Opinions and Letters to the Editor

Said Thing One to Thing Two with a face full of glee, “While Nish is asleep let’s ruin SWC!”

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.

ALYSSA PAJARILLO

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Time to give IUDs another opportunity

Anna Pryor MANAGING EDITOR

Colin Grylls PRODUCTION MANAGER

Mason Masis SENIOR STAFF

Lina Chankar Serina Duarte Jaime Pronoble Kasey Thomas COPY EDITOR

Brian del Carmen NEWS

Bianca Quilantan, editor Luz Aramburo, assistant Eliza Cana, assistant VIEWPOINTS

Alyssa Pajarillo, editor CAMPUS

Andrea Aliseda/staff

Asjia Daniels, editor Alberto Calderon, assistant ARTS

Gabriel Sandoval, editor Andrew Perez, assistant Cesar Hirsch, assistant SPORTS

Nicholas Baltz, editor Evan Cintron, assistant

The Issue: Dean Mia McClellan has hit rock bottom by lying and exercising dangerously poor judgement.

editorial

Our Position: President Nish now has little choice but to fire an insubordinate and vengeful administrator.

Rudee Amaral III, assistant ONLINE

Adriana Heldiz, editor Adrian Gomez, assistant PHOTOGRAPHY

April Abarrondo, editor Mirella Lopez, assistant

STAFF WRITERS

Andrea Aliseda

Joshua Liang

JoseLuis Baylon

Martin Loftin

Joshua Carter

William Nimmo

Veronica Deck

Guillermo Ramirez

Vito Di Stefano

Netzai Sanchez

Abraham Gertz

Domonique Scott

Elizandra Granillo

Tyrice Simmons

Brenda Gregorio-Nieto

Kenslow Smith

Brittany Henderson

Jennifer Soto

Victoria Leyva

CARTOONISTS

Stephanie Garrido Mark Hyde Michelle Phillips John Ryu Victor Santander PHOTOGRAPHERS

Jocelyn Melody Davalos Kayla Hall David Hodges ADVISOR

Dr. Max Branscomb

AWARDS/HONORS Student Press Law Center

Society of Professional

National College Press

Journalists

Freedom Award, 2011

National Mark of

National Newspaper

Excellence, 2001-14

Association

First Amendment Award,

National College

2002, 2005

Newspaper of the Year, 2004-15

San Diego Press Club

Associated Collegiate Press

Excellence in Journalism

National College Newspaper

Awards 1999-2014

of the Year

Directors Award for

National Newspaper Pacemaker

Defense of Free Speech,

Award,

2012

2003-06, 2008, 2009, 2011,

Journalism Association of

2012 2014

Community Colleges

General Excellence Awards,

Pacesetter Award 2001-14

2001-14

General Excellence

Best of Show Awards, 2003-14

Awards, 2000-13

Columbia University

San Diego County Fair

Scholastic Press Association

Media Competition

Gold Medal for Journalism

Best of Show 2001-03,

Excellence, 2001-14

2005-2014

California Newspaper

American Scholastic Press

Publishers Assoc.

Association

California College Newspaper

Community College

of the Year, 2013

Newspaper of the Year

Student Newspaper

San Diego County

General Excellence, 2002-14

Multicultural Heritage Award

Time for President Nish, board to end college’s destructive Culture of Lying Even a toddler will tell you not to lie.

Sadly, some administrators on campus could use another year of preschool.

Dean of Student Services Mia McClellan and Police Chief Michael Cash have disgraced the college yet again. Rick Flores, an SWC student who was employed by the police department and a former staff member of The Sun, impersonated the campus police chief via email. Cash allowed Flores to work at the SWCPD for nearly a month after the crime.

Flores was also found to be leading a double life as a member of a vitriolic underground pamphlet, which is where things get interesting for McClellan.

Evidence obtained by reporters revealed that McClellan had been in contact with the anonymous pamphlet distributed at SWC, which McClellan flat-out lied about to Sun reporters.

Using her campus email, McClellan contacted the anonymous pamphlet, inviting them to an ASO meeting that included The Sun Editorial Board to discuss Procedure 5530 (Student Rights and Grievances) and Procedure 5500 (Standards of Student Conduct).

Granted, the meeting was open to the public, but McClellan’s motives were hardly about transparency.

McClellan showed a childishly vengeful side by writing to an anonymous organization with a Hushmail account to undercut the student newspaper. Didn’t work. Worse, she engaged in a bit of junior high school behavior that demonstrated very poor judgment. She had no idea if she was cavorting with disgruntled students, child molesters, the Ku Klux Klan or ISIS. Did not matter. McClellan was operating under the idea “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”

When asked if she had considered the possibility she was communicating with criminals, she, not terribly cleverly, suggested that The Sun reporters could also be criminals. At least, they pointed out, you know who we really are.

The question about criminal behavior turned out to be prophetic. Mr. Flores shared personal student records and impersonated a police officer. His Jag Wire colleagues have accessed confidential student records from the SWC computer system. These are criminal activities in all 50 states.

After McClellan’s secret invite, the pamphlet promptly contacted Flores, who attended the meeting under false pretenses of representing Cash. Flores said Cash allowed him to go on company time. We do not know if that is true or not because Cash will not talk. His silence is ominous.

Online Comments Policy

College President Dr. Melinda Nish is a nice lady, maybe too nice. As Enabler-in-Chief, she reflexively protects her administrators at all costs, even the really bad, incompetent ones like McClellan and Cash.

There is not another college in the state that would touch them, but they continue to pull in six-figure salaries at SWC. Maybe Nish would consider firing McClellan for insubordination. Nish and Vice President Angelica Suarez have, on several occasions, promised journalism students that they would be part of the process of revising the grievance hearing procedures.

McClellan wants all hearings closed all the time. That is ridiculous and incongruent with other colleges. We believe the meetings should be opened if the parties want them opened and closed only if a party formally requests privacy.

McClellan, however, blew off her bosses when she blew us off. She rewrote the procedures herself, with no input. She invited students to a 50-minute meeting and talked for 45 minutes. Now, suddenly, there is little time for input…hmm.

McClellan and Cash have violated sections of the SWC District Policy No. 3050, the Institutional Code of Professional Ethics, including: 1. Demonstrate commitment to the highest ideals of honor and integrity in all public and personal relationships and activities.

2. Fulfill the duties of employment to the highest standards.

3. Avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety between obligations to the District and private business or personal commitments and relationships.

4. Refrain from using District time, supplies and equipment for non-District activities.

Nish needs to take action. McClellan needs to be punished.

Flores, at least, was man enough to come clean and accept the consequences of his behavior. McClellan and Cash have not.

What will it take for Nish to give McClellan and Cash their pink slips?

Probably a tragedy.

McClellan and Cash have for years blundered along, failing to protect good students while helping out the bad guys.

With such poor leaders in place, SWC is a ticking bomb. Maybe the accreditation team will notice the 2010 “Culture of Fear” has been replaced in 2015 with the “Culture of Lying.”

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will not consider publishing letters that arrive unsigned.

It is time to take another look at an ingenious birth control device that is out of sight and out of mind.

IUDs are A-OKAY. Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are the most effective method of birth control, but underutilized

by American women. Effective, no-maintence and completely reversible, the new-and-approved IUD is safe, available and covered under Obamacare.

Now IUDS are social also media luminaries.

Hashtag #TeamIUD rules on Tw i t t e r a n d o t h e r p l a t f o r m s .

Some women blog about their experiences with their beloved “plastic T.” The Center for Disease Control found that the number of women using IUDs nearly doubled from 2010 to 2013. After reviewing the research, it is easy to see why.

IUDs are the most effective form of birth control, better than birth control pills, the patch, vaginal rings and condoms. Most other birth control methods depend on correct and consistent use in order to work. Nearly half of unintended pregnancies occur when birth control methods are misused.

IUDs eliminate the chance for human error. Condoms can break and women can forget to take their birth control pills, but the IUD is mistake proof. After it has been inserted by a doctor, it is a carefree method to prevent pregnancy.

A 2014 study published by New En g l a n d Jo u r n a l o f Me d i c i n e reported that providing teenage girls with access to long-term birth control methods like the intrauterine device can reduce unwanted pregnancy and abortion rates by 75 percent.

IUDs can last from 3-12 years and are completely reversible. If a woman wanted to start a family, all she would have to do is make an appointment with her doctor to have the insert removed. While this method may be the most effective against pregnancy, it is important to remember that the IUD does not protect against sexually-transmitted diseases.

It is hard to understand why IUDs are not the number one form of birth control. It may be the most efficient form of bir th control and growing in popularity, but the IUD remains underappreciated.

A stigma still haunts the IUD. In the 1970s and ’80s, the original IUD resulted in bacterial infections, miscarriages and death as a result of the poor design.

Some doctors remain reluctant to discuss this option.

Like computers, photos and cars, the IUD has come a long way in the last 40 years and is n ow h i g h l y - re c o m m e n d e d b y pediatricians and gynecologists.

Price has been a barrier. An IUD costs $500-$900.

Obamacare to the rescue!

Thanks to the Affordable Care Ac t , c h a n c e s a re g o o d t h a t a woman’s health insurance will cover IUDs. This also applies for other birth control methods like the pill and patch. Prescriptions are still required.

Social media is on the IUD bandwagon and here’s hoping that women get the word.

I U D s a re t h e ove r a c h i e v i n g underdogs of birth control.

Alyssa may be reached at sexandthesun@theswcsun.com

Alyssa Pajarillo, editor

VIEWPOINTS

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

Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

A7

Students’ futures are buried in debt before their careers begin

By Brian del Carmen A perspective

Student debt is toxic. It can contaminate personal finances for life, with little hope of escape.

Even catastrophic student loans are almost never forgiven in bankruptcy.

Collection agencies will hound you, wages will be garnished and tax refunds intercepted. Buying a house could be impossible.

Bankruptcy is a fundamental right in

America that is mentioned in the Constitution.

Debt has become an acceptable part of American life. In 2014 alone there were almost 1 million bankruptcy cases filed in the United States. Regardless of whether they classify themselves as rich, poor and middle class, a great number of Americans are indebted.

Growing up we are told that every successful person should have a plan.

Finish college.

Work for 40 years.

Stephaie Garrido/Staff

Thinking Out Loud How do you feel about the changes to the graduation requirements to SWC?

Only change jobs if better opportunities present themselves.

Retire.

Do all of this the while seeking fame and fortune, and balancing family and spirituality.

It is nice to have a plan, but life rarely works out exactly as you plan it.

Life happens.

Economies crumble, companies implode and expectations whither.

In previous generations debt was actually difficult to accrue. Banks were the only major source of loans and in order to gain a line of credit you had to be in outstanding financial standing.

Not anymore.

Something has to change.

The lexicon needed to navigate the world of personal finance is immense. Too few of us can speak the language. “Sallie Mae,” “Stafford loans,” “collection costs,” “original fees,” “debt in collection” and “forbearance” are jargon most SWC students do not know, but should.

“If you want to do something evil, put it inside something boring,” said political satirist John Oliver.

True that.

Student loans and debt are so ruinously high now that graduates might never dig out.

The Department of Education is expected to generate $127 billion in profit over the next decade from student loans alone, according to a report published by the Congressional Budget Office in 2014. This does not include money that will be generated by private loan entities. As long as the money keeps coming in, students be damned.

Cu r re n t s t u d e n t l o a n d e b t outstanding, including both federal and private student loans, is estimated to be more than $1.2 trillion.

So buyer beware. Student loans can buy you a ticket to your future, but it might be a destination you do not like.

“I guess it’s good for the new students, but personally I had a lot of fun with the dance classes”

Anthony Bueno, Computer Science

“It makes it a lot easier for newer students. I wish they would have had it when I was first starting out. It would have made it a lot easier”

Daisha McBeth, Physical Therapy

Undecided: By Michelle Philips

Michelle Phillips/Staff

Time to restore tennis

By Nick Baltz A perspective

Legends die hard.

At Southwestern College they die unnecessarily.

Five years after the college’s successful and cost-effective tennis teams were “temporarily” axed, they are still axed.

“We had a situation where we had to cut our budget,” Athletic Director Terry Davis said in 2010. “My decision was based on the number of students and the program that was the easiest to bring back.”

It is now 2015 and tennis remains on the sidelines at Southwestern College. SWC spent $45 million on the football stadium but $0 resurrecting its least-expensive sport.

Irony is layered upon irony here. Former women’s tennis coach Susan Reasons has raised more than $280,000 for the college with her after school tennis lessons over the last five years, according to documents provided by the school. Reasons, an Energizer Bunny has run the program for a decade with startling results. Reason’s women’s tennis team was one of the most successful and consistently excellent athletic programs at this college.

Why SWC administrators continue to deny SWC a tennis team when our economic situation is clearly better is a mystery. The

“Health was very interesting period. I think everyone should take it.”

school has all the resources it needs. Uniforms and equipment are on hand and a SWC Hall of Famer is standing by.

There is no excuse for this broken promise.

Reasons can have a women’s team back on the court quicker than Terry Davis can say “the program was the easiest to bring back.”

Head volleyball coach Angela Rock said previously that she would be willing to take on a men’s program. Rock, an Olympic medalist, is clearly a women who knows how to get things done.

Our football team alone spends more money on male athletes than all women’s sport combined. DeVore Stadium is a $45 million wonder. Why can’t our college find a few dollars for tennis balls some gas for vans?

Until a women’s football team takes the field, there needs to be a major readjustment and a new commitment to fairness.

Women’s tennis is the most popular sport that SWC does not offer. Our tennis teams used to be a draw and source of pride.

Reasons has produced phenomenal athletes, scholarship winners and great community leaders. A small investment will lead to a big return to the community.

It is time for Dean Davis and this college to keep its word. Next spring tennis should return.

“I learned a lot about women’s health

Leanne Parrick, Child Development

and men’s health and just being healthy in general. I feel like that’s a class we need.”

“It’s also a disadvantage because if I didn’t have to take them then it would have been easy for me because it would be less time and everything.”

“It personally doesn’t effect me because I already took both those classes and I still haven’t gotten my degree.”

Daniel Rodriguez, Undecided

Chelsea Hayes, Communications

Sophia McBeth, Physical Therapy

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Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

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Michelle PHILLIPS/Staff

Stephanie Garrido/Staff

Word of the wise to American women: judge not lest ye be judged

By Asjia Daniels A perspective

Women are expected to be good mothers, great wives, pick up a healthy paycheck and keep a polished manicure.

And maintain a size 6.

A size 16 woman is as real as a size 0. In the 21st century America has advanced in many ways from racial discrimination to women’s rights. Unfortunately, society still has much to learn, body appreciation being the most important. Barbie is still calling the shots.

American women have been suffocating for years on the superficial idea that they must be a certain size, shape and look to be considered beautiful.

Standards women are conditioned to hold themselves to are unrealistic and unsustainable.

Most women have been raised and taught that beautiful looks like Barbie (or Vogue or Victoria Secret.) Good luck with that!

Beauty is vast and incomprehensible.

Students say they feel they have to look a certain way in order to be considered beautiful.

Wo m e n j u d g e o t h e r w o m e n . Mo re importantly, women judge themselves.

When women judge one another it only enflames the judgments that men already hold against them. It is bad enough to have the pressure of society on their shoulders, now add people who are supposed to be on the same team going against you. Women can judge one another viciously. We often feel the discrimination we encounter on day-to-day basis. When women look at other women and say, “She shouldn’t be wearing that crop top” they have judged another women.

Barbie is ever ywhere, but nowhere.

According to the Huffington Post, only 1 in every 4.2 million women can actually match

the shape and size of Barbie physically. It does not stop women from trying. From an early age, young girls begin to create an image of what beauty is.

Being beautiful is important in modern society. Women with extra skin are shamed and looked down upon. They are called “fat” “chubby” and “big boned,” but in reality are none of the above. They are human beings.

Human beings with emotions.

The only way to stop the cycle of hatred and judgment is a simple and laughable response.

Accept and love yourself.

Instead of looking at ourselves harshly, we need to take a step back and appreciate everything that our bodies do for us. Those too large thighs allowed us to get up out of bed. And our tummy that still isn’t flat enough is a part of our body. When we take the time to appreciate our body then we can look at others around us and appreciate them as well. Each day we walk among others and do consider what our words can do to other people. A tongue is a double-edged sword.

We all have someone in this world that we love and cherish, if someone said they were fat how would we respond? Think beyond the moment and consider the effect your words can have on someone. Physical wounds will mend overtime, but mental wounds can last until death.

Learning to appreciate every body will not start immediately, but teaching and practicing good manners can. When people judge women they are just being rude. Children are taught not to be rude. Almost everybody wants to belong and feel accepted. Like Gandhi said, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

We can all be part of the solution, no matter our dress size.

Stealing from cultures is insulting, but appropriation is on upswing

By Bianca Quilantan A perspective

Katy Perry has been ridiculed as the “Queen of Cultural Appropriation” by the media for her racist costumes, including those her backup dancers wear during her “Dark Horse” performances. Padded dancers are attempting to emulate the bodies of AfricanAmerican women.

Perry insists she is trying to appreciate other cultures, but her choices are 21 st century blackface.

Cultural appropriation is a concept that has caused controversy by attempting to define the lines between cultural appreciation and cultural exploitation. Society, however, does not understand the definition.

Nandra Kareem Nittle, a race relations expert from About News, says cultural appropriation involves members of a dominant group exploiting the culture of less-privileged groups, often with little understanding of traditions.

Although traditions of minority groups are mostly appropriated, it is not just Anglos doing the appropriating. “Five Things White People Need to Learn About Cultural Appropriation,” for instance, is not broad enough. Members of all races are guilty.

The fine line between appreciation and appropriation seems to contort, twist and tangle. It is difficult to know when a new style or type of music may be an appropriation.

Cultural appropriation is more than superficial fashion trends, but fashion ist the most common form of

Undecided: By Michelle Philips

appropriation.

Bindis, for example, are Hindu religious markings symbolizing strength and concentration. They are used at important life events such as marriage, yet are trivialized by society to be a fashion statement at parties and concerts. Ultimately these actions are hurtful to people, because they mock the significance of the symbol.

What is fashionable and what is offensive are often poorly defined.

First lady Michelle Obama was unfairly criticized for not wearing a traditional headdress on a recent trip to meet with the King of Saudi Arabia. Her style of dress was a flowing blue top, black pants and no head covering. Many in the United States, such as Republican Senator Ted Cruz, applauded her for making a political statement by going against the norms of a country with a very strict dress code for women.

Although she may have unveiled a Westernized political statement by unveiling herself, some said she was being disrespectful by not abiding by the cultural norms of Saudi Arabia and imposing her own Western norms in a country that demands women adhere to having their face and hair covered.

Mrs. Obama was in the right. No one should have to adhere to someone else’s style of dress if it goes against their own customs. Obama, by not wearing the traditional headdress, showed that women could be around men without being fully covered.

By assimilating to the style of the region, the first lady would have continued to contribute to the legacy of oppression,

“The fine line between appreciation and appropriation seems to contort, twist and tangle. ” as the styles the women wear continue to oppress them.

Wearing references to a culture that is experiencing injustice or violence is a path that cultural appropriation can come about, especially if one’s culture is tied to any oppression that another may be dealing with.

Fashion is never an excuse to oppress people.

Spring breakers in Cabo and college students celebrating Cinco de Mayo should put away on the drinking sombrero and the cheesy bandit mustaches.

Stereotypes have been developed through misunderstandings of cultural traditions and continuing these stereotypes through means of dress are hurtful to the culture.

Just act like any polite houseguest, a good cultureguest is attentive and knows the boundaries. Cultural exchange and appreciation are the ultimate goal, not appropriation. It can be achieved by being respectful cultureguests, by invitation only, for a limited time.

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Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

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Perspective pushes society into the future

By Kenslow Smith A perspective

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” -Abraham Lincoln It is the duty of each citizen to have and share a perspective to aid in the advancement of society. Government officials are elected to office for the purpose of serving the people.

They cannot serve well without knowing the perspective of those they govern. Each person with perspective, therefore, has a responsibility, and to that end a purpose.

In developing a perspective one finds a purpose.

No perspective is irrelevant. Perspective is the watchman against human carelessness and apathy. Without it, indifference would consume society, leaving a planet full of life but destitute of love.

The deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner have drawn the attention of youth and underrepresented people. These tragedies have galvanized the national conversation about racism, spawning protest movements like “Black Lives Matter.” Supporters of police, conversely, have adopted the phrase “Blue Lives Matter.” Both points of view are valid. In fact, “All Lives Matter,” regardless of ethnicity or occupation.

Americans have voiced their tenacious protest with fortitude comparable to preceding generations. But protest is only a battle in a war set on revolution. Voting is imperative, but young adults waste their

chance to weigh in by not participating.

In the 2012 presidential election citizens ages 18-24 made up 41.2 percent of voters, while those 30 and older represented 66.3 percent. For new racial and political ideologies to flourish, young adults need to vote.

In 2012 Curtis Gans, director of nonpartisan Center of the Study of Electorate, revealed that Americans who do not vote opt out due to lack of trust in leaders, political institutions and quality of education.

In 2000 only 54.2 percent of those eligible to vote cast a ballot in the presidential election.

That election resulted in the inauguration of George W. Bush, a detrimental decision for America and the world. He won a contested election by a few hundred votes. Individual votes matter.

In the 2008 presidential election America had the highest number of voters in any presidential election since 1960. But even then almost 80 million eligible citizens did not vote. People who are not a part of the solution are a part of the problem. Each person has an effect on the world whether they believe that or not.

There are about 7 billion people on this earth. Our earth is just one planet in one galaxy of an estimated 100 billion galaxies.

Some think we are insignificant compared to the vastness of the universe. Others think of themselves as important because they are a part of it.

People have a choice to live meaningless lives or fulfilling lives. It all depends on their

MTS should be run as a public service and help area students succeed Guillermo Ramirez A perspective

There are few things than chasing down MTS buses to see the message board read “Out of Public Service.”

In reality our hard-hearted MTS has been out of public service for years. There is no real service in the Metropolitan Transportation services.

Although mass transit works smoothly in scores of cities around the world people in San Diego County that rely on buses, trains and trolleys have to put up with onerous obstacles, including limited operation, irregular schedules, inadequate coverage and lack of restrooms. Southwestern College students in particular are treated as second-class riders.

MTS needs to do a lot of to improve.

SWC administrators need to get moving, too.

SWC lacks a fast service to move students from campus to campus. MTS buses provide just three express runs a day from the H Street or Palomar Street transit centers to the main campus.

Overloaded Route #709 buses that do not stop to pick up passengers along H Street, causing students to arrive late for classes. SWC students deserve an express service system aligned with busy school hours.

Express buses serving SWC are few and far in between.

MTS trolleys and buses often run and operate at reduced frequency in the afternoons, evenings and weekends (forget travelling on Sundays). Services run in a unsynchronized manner causing passengers to miss their connections between other buses, trains and trolleys.

Riders get off vehicles to see the other transport just departing. Long waits ensue.

Trolley Renewal Project, a $660 million dollar trolley station renovation, began by elevating the sidewalks by a few inches, but did not improve the service. Schedules are the same and no brick-and-mortar restrooms were built.

The MTS website says the funding is exclusively for renovations to stations on the Orange and Blue lines. Renovating trolley stations seems like an unnecessary project when it does not improve service.

Those who plan in advance must plan loosely, building in generous time for delays. Operators recommend passengers do not plan around their published schedules. Keeping a reliable schedule is crucial for passengers who work and go to school, yet SDMTS makes it nearly impossible.

SDMTS says buses and trolleys “run

Mark Hyde/Staff

every 15 minutes.” In reality a passenger needs add up to 30 minutes per transfer when planning a bus-and-trolley trip.

Service for people with special needs is equally even worse. Because ACCESS mirrors the bus schedules, it will not offer services to those who need it if there is no bus service. When a transportation authority decides to deprive the community from public transportation, this means the passengers need to use an expensive taxi to get to a hospital, school or shopping.

Public transportation is an essential service and should be available to all passengers all the time. It is a public service, not a business, and does not to be profitable. Transit agencies are funded by grants from all level of government to assure they provide services in a nation.

They are also good for business and industry.

SDMTS should be running between SWC’s Otay, San Ysidro, and National City and Chula Vista campuses. Buses should ride on the main campus and stop at the back door near the library so students can get early to the library to prepare for classes. A futuristic trolley should be running looping around the Southwestern Community College District.

District administrators do not to appear interested in the students need public transportation. Instead of encouraging good public transportation, SWC has built acres of empty parking spaces. SWC does not have a dedicated employee to transportation.

San Diego County needs a modern transportation system designed with a priority to serve the community.

MTS needs to rewrite its mission statement to prioritize passenger’s needs.

Until then, all MTS buses should have big signs that read “OUT OF PUBLIC SERVICE.”

Victor Santander/Staff

perspective. Life is a series of choices and each choice begins with a perspective.

Warped perspectives and atrocious decisions cause people to engage in the destruction of tens of millions. Hitler did not personally fill the gas chambers, Pol Pot did not bludgeon millions to death and Leopold II did not personally enslave and mutilate the people of the Congo Free State. People who shared their perspectives did. One person’s perspective when shared with others, can change the perspective of those who hear and in due time agree.

Those who chose to share in these mad men’s

perspectives contributed as much horror to the world as they did.

Thankfully, the men who fought against these evils also had a perspective. It was valiant perspective that gave them the courage to sacrifice for the improvement of the world.

Perspective should bind humanity together by accounting for the various views of all people. From multiple perspectives comes awareness and knowledge. Life experiences exclusive to each person create progress through enlightenment, trials and tribulations. Sharing perspectives increase

wisdom and intelligence and lead to better decisions that result in the improvement of quality of life.

Individual perspectives on sexual assault, gender equality, racial profiling and marriage laws collectively contribute to how society attends to, and account for, these controversial issues. Society is an imperfect existence full of flaws, but the flaws are not the root causes of societal shrivel, people choosing to ignore these flaws are.

A thorn bush or a rose bush. One perspective shunts beauty, the other allows it to grow.

Letters to the Editor

College president questions racial discrimination claims Dear Editor, Wo r k p l a c e h a r a s s m e n t o r discrimination of any kind is not tolerated at Southwestern College.

In reference your article addressing the letter dated Jan. 14, 2015 from five Southwestern College employees to Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, we want to assure our college community that every allegation—three of which are three to six years old—has been fully investigated and appropriate action has been taken.

The letter was copied to three members on campus: Governing Board President Norma Hernandez, Dean Donna Arnold and Professor Stan James. When President Hernandez received the letter in her campus mail on Jan. 28, she immediately referred it to me and I immediately referred it to our Vice President of Employee Services for investigation.

As per Policy and Procedure 3430, every member of this district must immediately report any allegations of harassment or discrimination. I assure you that as a district we have fully complied with this policy an``d procedure.

With regards to the first allegation of a racial slur, those allegations were made in 2009 and 2011 and both were fully investigated at that time. The investigations led to the dismissal of one employee and significant discipline of another employee.

With regards to the second allegation of improper use of custodial radios, a custodian filed an unlawful discrimination claim in 2012 and it was fully investigated at that time. A memo was sent to all custodians from the custodial super visor admonishing against unprofessional use of radios. There have been no additional reports of radio misuse to Human Resources since that time by the complainant or the custodial supervisor.

With regards to the third allegation of lockers being broken into and a poster of President Obama being defaced, there have been no reports to Human Resources on the locker vandalism and the poster incident was investigated in 2011 when the incident occurred. The investigation found that the poster—which was hanging in one of the locked electrical panel rooms that doubles for roof access—was slashed in a random manner and no writing was found on the poster.

The last allegation in the letter w a s n e v e r re p o r t e d t o Hu m a n Resources or to Campus Police, but was immediately investigated when Human Resources received the recent letter. Upon investigation, there was an incident of mistaken identity reported to Campus Police on Jan. 17, which prompted pro-active action by the Director of Facilities & Operations. The investigation determined that race was not a factor

in the mistaken identity report to Campus Police.

I can understand the frustration some employees may have had, but I want to assure you that I, and members of my leadership team, have met with our custodians at least six times over the last three years—most recently last night (March 10). We have and continue to listen to their comments and concerns. As a result, we are conducting two different and substantial trainings with them— both to help promote a culture of cultural sensitivity and embracing diversity.

Understanding that all of us can increase our cultural awareness a n d s e n s i t i v i t y, I b r o u g h t t h e matter of diversity and inclusivity training to the Shared Consultation Council on March 4. SCC members overwhelming support this training, and Staff Development Coordinator Janelle Williams is already developing college-wide diversity training for implementation this semester.

If we hope to be models for our students, it is imperative that all of our voices are heard and respected. I ask that each member of our college community work with me to cultivate a culture of tolerance and support.

Melinda A. Nish, Ed.D. Superintendent/President Southwestern Community College District

Campus police inattentive, lack diversity

After reading Lina Chankar’s article, SWCPS Crime Logs Are Not Accurate, I had to give thanks for her tenacity and for her willingness of heart to publish the story about what I can only call corruption inherit in SWC’s police department.

It certainly is disquieting to know that SWC campus police are slack concerning their obligation to keep men and women on campus as safe as possible, and to discover that Chief Cash would conspire to misreport numerous incidents of crime, especially sexual assaults is truly alarming.

In the culture of rape awareness that exists on American campuses,

simply put, his actions hinder rape prevention. Without accurate statistics SWC sexual assault prevention stagnates because no one is aware of how serious the problem has become.

Diversity within the SWC police department would add a new dimension and a fresh perspective to matters of campus safety. One lone woman dispatcher in a work culture dominated by men is simply not an environment that can be supportive of women. Generally, men in groups are insensitive to the safety requirements of women.

As in the cases of students who have requested police escorts. Escort

requests are not to be taken lightly.

When a woman requests an escort, her request is made because she has genuine concern for her wellbeing. More women in the SWC campus police department would promote women’s safety, provide a more supportive environment, and could prompt students to be more communicative about their concerns.

Personally, I have needed SWC campus police assistance only once, and found Officer T (I don’t know how to spell his name) most willing to help me on that particular occasion, thankfully.

Rise Diamond

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SPORTS

February 14 - March 16, 2015 — Volume 58, Issue 5

Playoff run ends after one victory

By Alberto Calderon Assistant Campus Editor

Southwestern College’s stellar 21-9 season came to an end as a formidable East Los Angeles College squad bested the Jaguars 79-65 in the Southern California playoffs.

The Jags went 8-0 in Pacific Coast Athletic Conference South play on their way to a conference championship and their first playoff win in four years.

Head coach John Cosentino said his team had much to be proud of this season.

“It’s obviously tough right now,” he said.

“We just made too many excuses and got out rebounded tonight. This team accomplished a lot. At the end of the day only one team is going to be happy and this year it’s not us.”

The defeat would be the last time two-time all-conference player Shawn Lathan donned a Jaguar jersey.

“I’m obviously feeling sad right now,” he said. “Not the ending we wanted, but at the end of the day we went undefeated in conference and won our league title which was our main goal.”

SWC clinched the conference title on the last game of the regular season in an all or nothing game against their rival San Diego City College. Having already beat City, the Jags came into the game firing on all cylinders, taking a 21-4 lead through the first eight minutes of the game. The Knights responded with a 21-7 run to cut the deficit to seven at halftime, leaving the once-confident SWC fans jittery. SWC maintained the seven point lead for most of the second half until the final three minutes, when City College, lead by their speedy point guard Christian Jones, got within two. As has been the case all season, Lathan and Kevin Windley supplied the offensive spark when SWC needed it most.

They penetrated the Knights’ defense and repeatedly attacked the rim, combining for 12 points in the closing minutes.

Lathan said he relishes late game situations.

“Everybody got nervous,” he said. “I won CIF three times in high school, so I’ve been

through it all. I know what my team needs.

With five minutes left I could tell I was going to have to close it down.”

SWC was aided by City’s putrid 7 for 16 free throw shooting down the stretch and ultimately prevailed 70-65, granting them the PCAC South Conference Championship.

Windley said he felt comfortable igniting the sputtering offense.

“Big time players make big time plays,” he said. “City is good, but good is not enough against us. We don’t have anything to lose.

We’ve been underdogs since the beginning.”

“We earned it,” Cosentino said. “We earned 20 wins and now we earned the conference championship. They might have had three of the best players in the conference, but we had the best team.”

SWC’s first round game against Cuesta College was a decisive wire-to-wire 77-74 game, led by the omnipresent Sean Butts who collected 14 rebounds and was a consistent defensive presence around the rim.

After the game Butts said he embraces doing all of the little things.

“I take pride in fighting for those fifty-fifty plays,” he said. “It’s all about toughness and going after it.”

In a single elimination playoff format it only takes one poor performance to end a season. Unfortunately for the Jags, who had a 13-2 record in the preceding two months, that poor performance came in the next round against East LA. SWC looked out of sorts as center Yobby Williams got into foul trouble early, contributing in them trailing 38-31 at the end of the first half. The Huskies went on a 17-7 run to start the second half and shut the door on the Jags’ season. No SWC player scored over 12 points in the resounding defeat.

Cosentino said his team has a lot to be proud of this season.

“We were good enough to win league, we were good enough to win a playoff game, but today we were beat by a better team,” he said.

“With what we have, I think we went as far as we could.”

Colin Grylls/Staff

HANG TIME — Sophomore forward Yobby Williams slams home a dunk in a 77-74 playoff victory over Cuesta College.

Lady Jags softball on fire after winning seven of nine

By Rudee Amaral III Assistant Sports Editor

Photos by Colin Grylls

GOING SOLO —Freshman shortstop Jenna Vargas blasts a solo home run to give the Lady Jags a 2-0 lead against rival Grossmont, though they would eventually lose the game, 3-2.

After suffering a last-inning, 3-2 loss at home against rival Grossmont College, the Lady Jaguars’ (16-10) nightmares will be filled with the number 2.

In the top of the seventh inning, SWC pitcher Kylie Brase toed the rubber with two on and two out. Grossmont had just tied the game, 2-2. Grossmont first baseman Amanda Wygant waited after she worked a 2-2 count. Deuces wild.

A metallic ping rang through the air as Wygant poked the ball into center field and knocked in the go-ahead run.

Too bad.

Brase struck out six and allowed just three runs in seven innings. Unfortunately for the Lady Jags, she also walked six and hit two batters.

Brase said Coach Yasmin Mossadeghi’s visits to the mound helped her work her way out of several jams.

“It’s always good when the catcher or the coach come to the mound,” she said. “It gives you a chance to almost reset.”

Mossadeghi had simple advice.

“When she has trouble hitting her spots she tries to aim it,” she said. “I told her to slow it down and use her legs more.”

Shortstop Jenna Vargas said she wished the Jags could have a reset of the fifth inning when they left the bases loaded with a chance to extend their 2-1 lead.

“It gets frustrating after a while when we leave girls on base,” she said.

Vargas finished the game with three hits and two RBI, but the rest of the team could not rally behind her. SWC left eight runners on base.

Down 3-2 in the 7th inning, the chill of SWCs bats could be felt in the stands. Not even Vargas could melt the ice.

She grounded out to end the game with the go-ahead runs on second and third.

Mossadeghi said she wants to hone the focus of the team during those high pressure situations.

“I try to get them just to focus on one thing,” she said.

“When they get into those situations where they can be rattled their minds try to focus on 30 things at once.”

In the 4th Vargas tried to fire up the dugout when she blasted a home run to left field to take a 2-0 lead.

“The pitcher started me off with a 2-0 count,” she said.

“Since I’ve been playing for a while I knew the next pitch would be right down the center and I was prepared to hit it.”

Grossmont knocked the Jags out of playoff contention each of the last two seasons and got the better of them in this match as well. SWC will seek revenge in the next bout between the two teams on March 24.

The Jags have played well at home, but dropped six of their last seven away from their home den.

SISTERS-IN-ARMS — (above) Freshman first baseman Zoraya Nollet hits a single to left field against Palomar College. (below) Vargas guns the ball to Nollet to get the out at first base.

SPORTS

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Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

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Superstar of the Southern Hemisphere Nigerian Aminat Olowora is a champion in cross-country, track, table tennis – and the classroom

I

By Evan Cintron Assistant Sports Editor

t is tempting to call Aminat Olowora the Forrest Gump of Nigeria — only with a better GPA. Southwestern College’s record-shattering cross country and track star is a national champion distance runner and table tennis wizard, a football star (the soccer kind) and an international traveler. She also, sadly, lost her mother way too soon and had to strike out on her own.

There are no shrimp boats in her future, but the Olympics are a real possibility, according to a pair of SWC coaches who were Olympians themselves.

Olowora crashed onto the national sports radar in the fall when she destroyed the California Community College cross-country record and broke the never surpassed 17-minute barrier on the championship grounds in Fresno. She won the state title, of course, but was equally proud to earn a spot on the honor roll. She is training to do it all over again in 2015 with the Jaguar track and field team.

Olowora was almost victimized by her own transcendent talent. She was so fast and won races so easily that some college coaches figured she must some how be illegal.

Before donning the maroon and gold of Southwestern College, Olowora won three track and field gold medals in Nigeria and represented her home country in an international table tennis tournament.

Olowora said growing up in poverty-stricken, politically-roiled Nigeria was tough.

“I lived in a very low-income area,” she said. “It’s very rough living there. You need to know how to survive. please see Olowora pg. A12

Swim and dive team looks to sink school records

By Joshua Liang Staff Writer

Former foster child finds home and success in basketball

By Josh Carter Staff Writer

In the future Shawn Lathan plans to be an obstetrician and deliver babies. Right now, though, he wants to deliver a basketball championship to Southwestern College.

A gifted forward with Division I talent and NBA potential, Lathan is just getting his size 13 feet under himself after years languishing in the foster care system since he lost his family at age seven.

When he turned 15, his grandmother, Yvonne Hunter, gained custody of him and his twin sister Ashley. Hunter has been his number one fan ever since, Lathan said, keeping him out of trouble and always pushing him.

“She motivates me every day,” he said. “She tells me things like, ‘nothing is going to be easy, you have to go out there and get it.’”

Lathan said he makes sure his grandmother knows how much he loves and appreciates her.

“I think about her every day,” he said.

His affection for the sport grew at Hoover High School, where he won three CIF championships as a forward for the Cardinals. After high school, Cardinals coach Walt Felusme helped Lathan choose a community college. Once he set foot on SWC, Lathan said, the search was over.

“After seeing the other schools, I just felt right here,” he said with a smile.

Lathan’s freshmen season saw him earn first team All-Conference honors, but the Jaguars missed the playoffs.

This season he is determined to do what he did at Hoover and lead his team to a championship. Lathan battled through an early season thigh injury but was still able to add a PCAC Player of the Week award to his resume in January. He is piling up wellrounded numbers, including points per game (13), field goal percentage (45.5 percent), rebounds per game (5.6) and is ranked fourth overall in the CCCAA for three point field goal percentage (48.1 percent).

His coaches say Lathan is a leader on the court

and he sets a standard that the younger players on the team can follow, including a “team first” attitude.

Assistant coach Domenic Cosentino said he has watched Lathan evolve into a leader on the court.

“He matured a lot this year, he really stepped up to be a l e a d e r f o r u s ,” Cosentino said.

“I think he has set a great precedent for the freshmen on the team.”

Te a m m a t e and friend Asante Ya r b o r o u g h s a i d L a t h a n is also a beast in the classroom.

“We have an 11 a.m. class and he beats me there every day,” Yarborough said, “If I’m even a minute late, he’s calling and asking me why.”

Lathan said he is not looking forward to leaving his SWC friends and family behind, but said he is leaning towards selecting Nebraska or Oklahoma as his transfer university.

First things first.

“I’m trying to get a ring here,” he said. “Number four. I’m trying to be like (Michael Jordan) here.”

Lathan said he wants to play in the NBA, but is not ruling out playing professionally in Europe or Asia. He would then like to become an obstetrician/ gynecologist, he said, and help young women deliver babies. From gym to GYN, Lathan plans to run the floor.

John Domogma/Staff

Gisel Chavez broke school swimming records last year. This year she is breaking the news to the frosh.

“Half of the team is freshmen,” she said. “If you aren’t prepared you won’t make (the team), but the coaches do give you an opportunity to try out.”

Chavez said she wants to better her Jaguar-best 800-meter time, but more importantly, wants to better the team, which struggled last year with a 2-5 record.

Men’s captain Michael Guiterrez, a sophomore who competes in the 700-meter event, said conditioning is “Their conditioning the priority. is getting to the “We swim about 3,000 same caliber as yards a day,” he said. “We are going to swim 4,000 their competitors yards today and increase our to ultimately yardage every day. We do break school dry lands on the track and bleachers before we start.” records and win Head Coach Matt the conference Ustaszewski said the Jags’ championship. goal is to win in Pacific Coast Athletic Championship- - a lofty goal for a struggling Matt Ustaszewski, program.

“Our athletes are trying to SWC swim coach improve their times,” he said.

“Their conditioning is getting to the same caliber as their competitors to ultimately break school records and win the conference championship.”

Ustazewski said there were major improvements last year from swimmers that were just getting their feet wet.

“From the beginning of the season to the end, it was the biggest transformation I have ever seen,” he said.

Ustaszewski said he still expects his experienced swimmers to lead.

“We rely on scoring from the sophomores,” he said. “They are the ones that have done it before in races and (know how) to condition themselves mentally and physically.”

Some of the freshmen have shown talent, Ustaszewski said.

“Peter Gutierrez, the younger brother of Michael, has shown some potential,” he said. “We expect him to take over Michael’s role when he leaves.”

Nicholas Baltz/Staff

FAMILY FIRST — Sophomore forward Shawn Lathan has always dominated on the hard court, but he finds his motivation in his grandmother Yvonne Hunter. This season, Lathan led the Jaguars basketball team to the PCAC South Conference title and a playoff victory over Cuesta College.

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Feb.14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

Nicholas Baltz, editor

SPORTS

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

Photos by Colin Grylls

BRING HIM IN — Freshmen outfielder Ray Peterson lines a single to over first base to knock in Daniel Goodrich (11) to tie Orange Coast College, 1-1. SWC would go on to defeat the defending national champions 2-1.

BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS Jaguars overcome early conference woes, now second place in PCAC

By Colin Grylls Managing Editor

SWC baseball had a smooth takeoff in 2015 and sits just one game behind Pacific Coast Athletic Conference foe Palomar College. After earning its wings with an 8-2 nonconference record, including a home-and-away sweep against defending national champion Orange Coast College and a road win at ninth-ranked El Camino, the 5-2 (13-4 overall) Jags hit some turbulence in league play. Narrow victories against Palomar, Grossmont and San Diego Mesa helped SWC regain altitude in the PCAC after a pair of setbacks against San Diego City and Imperial Valley.

Head coach Jay Martel said league opponents have a level of familiarity that can make games more difficult than topranked nonconference opponents.

“No matter what sport you’re in, conference is always tougher,” he said. “A lot of the kids know each other playing through the summer and playing high school baseball and a lot of the coaches know each other, what kind of club they have.”

San Diego Mesa College (7-11, 2-5 PCAC) proved Martel right in a gritty 3-1 SWC come-from-behind victory.

Mesa held a slim 1-0 lead when Jaguar catcher Dominik Sawyer stepped up to the plate with right fielder Roberto Lucero on third and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Sawyer worked a 2-1 count after Olympian pitcher Tony Buranzon fired three straight fastballs. Ahead in the count, he sat back on an ill-advised fourth consecutive fastball and launched it past diving Mesa first baseman Alex Emerick to knock in Lucero and tie the game.

Sawyer said he got hot at the right time.

“I’ve been struggling with the bat lately,” he said, “but the last couple games I’ve been finding the right pitch to hit.”

SWC reliever Calvin Faucher came out of the bullpen with two outs in the top of the eighth, Mesa centerfielder Alex Kotheimer on third base and second baseman Esteban Lieras on first.

Olympian shortstop Zachary Taylor worked a full count.

Faucher nodded on the mound, silently agreeing with Sawyer’s call. Taylor’s bat connected with the fastball but he got on top of it. Jaguar shortstop Steven Sherwood

Olowora: Faith, coach, family drive her to cross country success Continued from pg. A11

Most people there are living hard lives and many of them did not go to school.”

Olowora knew she wanted a better life for herself so she turned to sports. Growing up around a lot of boys, she played soccer, rode bicycles and played table tennis.

“On every street you see someone playing ping-pong,” she said. “You just pay money and you can play. That’s how I began playing.”

She eventually went on to represent Nigeria at the Junior International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Championships.

Olowora’s table tennis career did not last long because a track and field coach recruited her after watching her play soccer.

“He saw me interacting with the guys and he was like wow, who is that girl?” she said.

Hesitant to join, Olowora finally decided to attend a track practice one day. After her first competition, she knew running was

fielded the groundball and gunned it to first to end the inning.

SWC outfielder Ray Peterson kicked off the bottom half of the eighth with a hard chopper right at Taylor and flew down the first baseline. Aware of Peterson’s speed – he leads the state with 15 stolen bases – Taylor took his eyes off the ball for a split second and could not react quickly enough when the ball hit the lip of the grass and bounced over his head. Peterson instantly headed to second base and safely slid into the bag on a play that would officially be scored a double.

Jaguar third baseman Anthony York then laid a bunt down halfway between the pitcher’s mound and the third base line. Mesa reliever Joe Daluz pounced on the ball but sailed the throw over the first baseman, allowing Peterson to score the go-ahead run.

Peterson said SWC’s speed could have influenced Mesa’s defensive miscues.

“Knowing that we have a lot of speed guys on our team, maybe they’re trying to get rid of it too fast,” he said. “Or make the wrong step at the wrong time.

It actually helped us out in the end.”

York advanced to third base on the errant throw and was knocked in by an Adrian Orozco blooper to shallow center to score the final run of the game.

Two weeks earlier, Grossmont College also gave the Jags all they could handle in a 3-2 thriller.

Against the Griffins, SWC once again trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh. Lucero led off the inning with a hard single to left field that bounced past Grossmont left fielder Brandon Lewis. Lucero turned on the jets and advanced to third base on the error and scored when the next batter, Codie Simmons, singled.

After the Griffins regained the lead on a passed ball in the top of the eighth, first baseman Roman Garcia ripped a double to the warning track. Albert Mikell was called on to pinch run and was knocked in when centerfielder Daniel Goodrich hit a ground ball through the middle of the infield. Goodrich then stole second base to move into scoring position with Lucero back at the plate.

Lucero lifted the ball into shallow centerfield and raced down the line. Grossmont centerfielder Keith Kruger, however, was just as quick. As Lucero rounded first base and Goodrich headed home, Kruger sprinted to his right and left his feet. He slid

KEVIN THE CLOSER — SWC sophomore pitcher Kevin Ginkel fires a fastball to strike out Grossmont hitter Hunter Reed looking for the final out of a come-from-behind Jaguar victory, 3-2. (left) Shorstop Steven Sherwood rifles the ball to first to cap the 2-1 win against OCC.

on his stomach, rolled and held his glove in the air, showing the umpire that he had control of the ball.

Simultaneously, the Jaguar and Griffin benches let out shouts of disbelief – SWC players impressed by Kruger’s athleticism and Grossmont dismayed that the umpire ruled that the ball hit the ground.

Jaguar closer Kevin Ginkel said the call was correct.

“It was great,” he said. “When I saw it I was sitting at the end of the dugout and it looked like he didn’t catch it. I thought all along that he made a great play and the ball fell just in front of him. Once we scored there, our dugout was just electric. It was a great play by their centerfielder but it just fell in the right spot.”

Ginkel is tied for the top mark in the state with five saves.

Neither he or Faucher have allowed an earned run so far this season and starting pitcher Keith Kozak said having those two in the bullpen reassures him on the mound.

“I know that when I get pulled, when the bullpen comes in, it’s going to be lights out,” he said.

SWC’s pitching staff has been its strength with its

for her.

“The more I saw them happy, the more it “I remember that I didn’t know anybody made me happy. I was so happy that day.” there so I was just running on my own and Olowora plans to host another event in before I knew it I was in second position. I the future and name it after her mother, heard my coach yelling to keep going, but Adijat, who passed away in 2013. five meters before the finish line, I just fell “I lost my mother two days before my down on the floor,” she said birthday,” she said trying to laughing. “I ended up placing keep her composure. “I don’t fourth and ever since then I know what happened to her, kept working hard.”

“Every time they just called me in March Olowora’s work ethic earned told me she was dead. They I’m scared, I and her three gold medals in the told me she woke up in the just think of middle of the night coughing.

2012 Nigeria National Sports Festival in Lagos State. She ran her words. They rushed her to the hospital, off with first place in the 1,500, but before they got there she I really miss was already gone. I didn’t get 5,000 and 10,000-meter races.

As a gold medalist she to see her before she died and her alot.” parlayed her name and expertise I still don’t know what was to create a competition in her wrong with her. I was so sad AMINAT city for the local youth. More about that. She was 43 years than 200 people were there, old. I didn’t believe she would OLOWORA including major companies die so soon.” and the Sports Commissioner Olowora’s family did not of Nigeria. Olowora’s family members were have much, but saved everything it had to there, too, present medals to those who had give her a better opportunity in the United won. Children also received backpacks with States. Olowora credits her mother with school supplies as gifts. encouraging her through hard times.

“There were games like soccer and ping“She sacrificed a lot for me and I wouldn’t pong, all those kids were happy,” she said. be where I am without her,” she said. “Every

2.34 ERA and PCAC-best 132 strikeouts, however, its bats have not been as prolific. Hitting just .277 as a unit, the Jags are fourth-place in batting average (out of seven PCAC squads) and fifth with 87 runs scored, though they are third in the state with 40 steals.

Martel said SWC’s offense has to be more selective.

“Right now, we are using our aggression against us, swinging at bad pitches instead of getting the balls we can hit,” he said. “Especially when the pitcher’s in trouble, he’s gonna give you something to swing at. Right now we are not letting him give us something. We’re swinging at their pitches right now, we’re getting ourselves out.”

Despite the bumpy ride with the bats, Martel said the Jags’ nonconference prowess should help them land safely in the playoffs.

“With our nonconference record, if we finish in third place we should still be in the playoffs,” he said. “That’s the whole goal. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to win league and I would love to host, but my whole thing is to get into the playoffs. Once you do that, anything can happen.”

time I’m scared, I just think of her words. I really miss her a lot.”

Olowora’s first competition for SWC was at the Rio Hondo Open, where she set a course record in 16 minutes 33 seconds.

After that she was on every college’s radar.

Some schools became bitter about her talent and tried to find ways to prevent her from competing. Olowora’s said her season looked doomed.

“I was depressed then,” she said. “I was down. Sometimes I didn’t want to go to practice. I just felt like giving up. I’ve been going through this since I started athletics.

When the issue started in California I was trying to work towards (resolving) it and get the papers I needed to.”

It was difficult considering the nine-hour difference between San Diego and Nigeria.

Olowora had to wait until midnight to get in contact with the proper people.

Track coach Tonie Campbell had a notion that other schools were afraid of Olowara’s success.

“The problem I have with the whole thing about Aminat was that they were complaining that she was too good to be running with everybody else, but that is a ridiculous, ludicrous argument,” he said.

“The best athlete is always better than everybody else, so what are they complaining about? She was the same age as everybody else, she’s got two arms and two legs like everybody else, she’s running the same race, she’s not on a motorcycle and she’s doing the exact same thing. They complain that she’s beating people by so much. Well, you know what? Train your athletes better! She’s raising the level of everybody else.”

Cross-country coach Dr. Duro Agbede said Olowora has the ability to reach great heights.

“The key to athletics is the heart,” he said.

“She has heart and works very, very hard. She is a highly dedicated athlete. She set her goals on the Olympics and she has that potential.

She knows what she has to do to get there. I’m very positive that she will be able to succeed.”

Olowora said her faith keeps her strong.

“Somebody told me in the U.S. that anytime someone interviewed me I don’t need to talk about God because nobody believed that here,” she said. “That may be true, but nobody can take that from me.

For me to be here today is because of God. I don’t believe much in myself as much as I believe in God.”

February 14 - March 16, 2015, Volume 58, Issue 5

The Southwestern College Sun

ARTS

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Poet’s wisdom transcends la frontera

By Andrew Perez Assistant Arts Editor

Photos by April Abarrondo

RUCKER REIGNS — Charles Rucker’s daughter-in-law, Ann, and her son Chris reminisce in front of “New York, New York.” The Ruckers attended the Unsung Heroes and Sheroes celebration at Southwestern College the same night. Julie and Charles Rucker (below) were posthumously honored at the SWC Heroes and Sheroes ceremony and by an exhibition in their honor featuring artwork by Charles.

Pioneering artist, leader still a hero

By Gabriel Sandoval Arts Editor

As early as age three, Charles “Chuck” Rucker suffered from asthma attacks. During one of these battles, his mother, Anna Rucker, stumbled upon a temporary cure.

It became his permanent obsession.

“His mom would sit him down at a table, give him a pencil and a paper,” said Clark Rucker, Charles’ son.

“He would just draw. That’s how he started. Those are the humble beginnings of an artist.”

Charles became a composite artist for the San Diego Police Department in 1954 and later an instructor at Southwestern College in 1971. He also painted, beginning in the early 1950s until his death in 2003.

Influenced by African and Caribbean cultures, Charles’ paintings captured and articulated the happy, mundane moments of everyday life. In shades of all colors, mostly vibrant but sometimes earthy, he painted people walking, talking or commuting to work on canvases with acrylic, oil and watercolor. He also painted baboons, fishes and portraits of himself looking stately and fierce.

His art transcended race, though it often depicted it.

People of color were his central focus. Conversely, in the lives of people he met, he was theirs.

In February, Charles Rucker (1933-2003) and his wife of 47 years, Julie (1932-2014), were posthumously honored at the SWC Unsung Heroes and Sheroes ceremony that celebrated African-American History Month.

During their lives, together and individually, they strived to make positive differences in their community.

Julie worked as a government employee for 34 years, first for the Department of Navy, then for the Social Security Administration. She volunteered with several organizations, including the African American Museum of Fine Art, Salvation Army’s Women’s Auxiliary and Association for the Promotion of Tourism to Africa.

Charles served four years in the U.S. Air Force and 17 years with the San Diego Police Department, working as an officer, an assistant to the Chief of Police for Community Relations and a composite artist. In 1971 he retired from law enforcement and taught Administration of Justice at SWC. He retired from teaching in 1991.

In conjunction with the ceremony, the SWC Art Gallery hosted a two-day memorial exhibition for Charles and Julie Rucker that featured more than 40

pieces of his artwork. Some dated as far back as the 1950s, others as recent as 2003. All were from Clark’s collection.

In one extraordinary collage titled “New York, New York,” brightly colored buildings and streets illuminated an otherwise dark, midnight gloom. Intricately woven together like a mosaic, slum village, the elements played delightfully against the lush backdrop of purples and blacks. This painting was among his finest in the exhibition.

Other paintings depicted people, his signature theme.

People singing, dancing and living modestly made their presence known. There were also photos of Charles and Julie, Charles’ police badge, several painted button pins in a large framed case and a video of Charles helping children make art, which streamed in an isolated corner of the gallery. More than 40 of his friends and family came to visit the exhibition’s opening reception. Many more visitors came during its two-day run.

Bill McCurine, Charles’ nephew by marriage, said as famous as Charles was for his art, he was equally as

famous for his parties.

“Charles was the life of the party,” he said. “Everybody was his friend, nobody was ever a stranger. Whenever we wanted to celebrate, nobody asked where do we go.

It was always to uncle Chuck and aunt Julie’s house. He could pull a party together without hassle.”

McCurine also noted Charles’ fine cooking skills and his ability to concoct “the world’s best gimlets.”

“It had a kick, but you didn’t know that at first,” he said. “Halfway through the second one, you’d realize you’d just been thrown for a loop.”

He added, “When he would laugh, he would throw back his head and he’d just laugh with his whole body.

I think I miss that the most, or him putting his arm around you and saying, ‘You haven’t had a gimlet yet.’”

Jeffery Rucker, Charles’ nephew, said he remembered helping his uncle install exhibitions in Los Angeles.

People from all walks of life would come, he said.

“It might be a bum on the street coming in, just looking at the art, or a congressman coming, walking through, looking at the art,” he said. “He would sit and talk to all of them the exact same way, and make the little man feel just as important as the big man. He didn’t tear anybody down. He always built you up.”

Dr. Donna Arnold, dean of the School of Arts and Communication, a friend and former neighbor to the Ruckers, said Charles shared his belief that everything one achieves in life should be earned, not given. Arnold recalled being interviewed for a position at SWC and Charles, who was on the hiring committee, said he was going to make sure that SWC hired the best person for the job. “‘Go ahead,’” Arnold remembered telling him. “When the interview finished, he came up after they had hired me and said, ‘You know, you were the best person for the job.’”

Arnold said Charles frequently brought his chicken wings to the college.

“That shows that he saw education as more than just being in the classroom – but an expression of love of his students and for his community,” Arnold said.

Clark said his dad thought it was important to create art so people could appreciate him long after he died.

Charles left a legacy not only with his art, but also with his words, Clark said. “(My dad taught me to) never judge. Be open. Be kind and considerate and not be biased. Be fair. Love my family.”

“El primer verso es el más importante.” The first verse is the most important.

To Pe d r o E n r í q u e z , a n acclaimed Spanish poet, this statement is the foundation of his entire career.

Sponsored by the Southwestern College Guest Writers Series and Revista Radio de las Artes, an online radio magazine that highlights Latino poets, Enríquez conducted a two and a half hour poetry reading and workshop in Student Union East.

Francisco Bustos, an English professor and director of the G u e s t Wr i t e r s S e r i e s , s a i d Enríquez was special.

“We were very lucky in that we didn’t have to set out to contact him,” he said. “I knew Diana Rios (poet and creator of Revista Radio de las Artes) and she contacted me a week before the semester started to see if we would be interested in having Enríquez read. There wasn’t a lot of time to prepare and we put it together fast.”

Rios said Enríquez’s reading at SWC was part of a bigger celebration. “ I t i s t h e R e v i s t a’s f i r s t anniversary,” she said. “We are on our way to El Centro Cultural de Tijuana (Cecut) to give a twoday workshop.”

Born in 1956 in Granada, Spain, Enríquez has published 14 books of poetry in his native Spanish. They include his first published work from 1987, “Extremo a extremo del silencio” (“End to end the silence”), which won the Villa de Peligros award, “El eco de los pájaros” (“The echo of the birds”) and “Ciudad en obras” (“City under construction”).

Dressed in white linen pants, a matching shirt, which was unbuttoned, over a black undershirt and all black Chuck Taylors, with his long grey hair done up in a ponytail, Enríquez was cool and composed, a defiant remnant of the hippie era.

For the first hour (after a late start due to parking mishaps and technical difficulties) he read selections of his poems in Spanish. Bustos banged on his drum set to the rhythm of the poetry, adding an air of tribal mystery to the proceedings.

Enríquez read in Spanish and others translated his poems for him, including Bustos and Professor of Spanish Angelina Stuart.

“Busco una amante que me ame,” one of his poems read.

“No todas la amantes te aman / ni todas las que te aman son amantes. / A veces alguien dice te amo / pero tampoco es amante.”

(I’m looking for a lover who loves me / Not all the lovers love you / not all lovers that love you are please see Enríquez pg. B3

Designer makes all the world his stage

By Victoria Leyva Staff Writer

Shakespeare was right, thanks to Michael Buckley all the world is a stage.

Buckley, Southwestern College’s gifted professor of theater, has designed stunning sets and lights for every major theatre company in San Diego County. His sets have been giant mechanical wonders and brilliant splashes of understatement. He has explored the tropics of Mexico, traversed enchanted forests and navigated the urban landscape of New York City.

Buckley’s singular talent often leaves his colleagues in awe. By building sets Buckley has built a prodigious reputation as a leading force in San Diego County theatre.

Buckley has worked on nearly 300 theatre set designs. He was recruited as an instructor at SWC in the spring of

2011 following the unexpected death of Professor Gary Larsen, another regional theatre legend.

SWC theater adjunct Ruff Yeager called Buckley “a gifted and visionary artist.”

“The art of what he does not only elevates a set, his sets are in themselves works of art when combined with his lighting,” said Yeager. “He creates sculptures on stage, he creates shapes, texture and movement.”

Before Buckley emerged as theatre royalty, he spent his childhood immersed in suburban tedium, entertained by his vivid imagination. A school field trip to a local television station sparked his interest in the magic of theatrical deception.

“I remember as a kid, I think I was in junior high, we got to tour a local news TV station and they were showing us around the studio,” he said. “A guy pulled out a book from a bookshelf and showed us how

it was a book cover wrapped around a piece of Styrofoam.”

Buckley said he was delighted knowing that people were fooled into thinking Styrofoam in a dust jacket was a book on a shelf.

“That’s what attracted me to design, the ability to create the artifice of it all,” he said.

“The slight of the hand, it’s almost like a magic trick.”

Buckley said he learned about the different roles of a theatre company at a young age. He started acting in elementary school, but did not do any serious acting until he was a teenager in his church’s youth group.

“We had a drama troupe within the youth group,” he said. “We were writing all of our own scripts and performing them please see Buckley pg. B3

April Abarrondo/Staff

MASTER MIND — Professor Michael Buckley is one of the region’s most respected theatrical designers.

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Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

Gabriel Sandoval, editor

ARTS

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

> REVIEW Gifted guitarist shows the power, beauty of instrument

April Abarrondo/Staff

MASTERFUL — Pablo Gomez shows an enraptured audience just how magical the guitar can be.

Photos by April Abarrondo

SHOWING THE WAY — The Spring 2015 Faculty Art Exhibition (above) was an impressive collection of creative curiosities. (below) “Pages from the Book of Souls” by Lisa Venditelli Karmel is a visceral piece assembled from mixed media and sausage casings, stretched and dried to create something that resembles thick sheets of what could be parchment or dried human skin.

Faculty art exhibit edgy, elegant, educating > REVIEW

By Alan Luna Staff Writer

For students attending Southwestern College, the inner lives of their professors may seem like a hazy, abstract thought, hidden behind a veil of indifference and marker ink. SWC’s art professors, however, had an opportunity to express themselves, their feelings and their experiences at the Spring 2015 Art Faculty Exhibition.

This year’s show was extremely varied and at times even escaped the conventions of material art, exploring and linking the world of distance and scale, between the organic and the synthetic.

“Pages from the Book of Souls” by Lisa Venditelli Karmel is a visceral piece assembled from mixed media and sausage casings, stretched and dried to create something that resembles thick sheets of what could be parchment or dried human skin. Inside the sausage casings are shoe soles made from photos, from printed material, sometimes daubed with paint.

Its theme is to make a testament to the oft forgotten and ignored abuses of the Catholic Church for grievances that will never see the air of day, let alone justice. Trapped in their prison of flesh and memory, Karmel’s piece is hard to look at, but compelling at the same time in its visceral brutality.

A photographic print by Shane Anderson, “Rio #83 (Mast Park) 2015,”

is at first bewildering. A strip of dirt and garbage, in what seems like an abandoned building illuminated by the golden light of day. It seemed to float in the air until viewers realize that what holds it aloft is the serenity of the water surrounding it.

“Little by Little” by John Chwekun, a SWC professor of art, is the exhibit’s most unassuming piece and its most precious. From a distance, it seems like a solitary white shelf projecting from the wall. Closer up, however, a small landscape of tiny structures crafted out of porcelain and glass reveals itself in polygonal shapes and tangled curlicues whose delicate nature incites fear, of somehow damaging them, of blowing them away with the lightest exhalation.

The piece’s strength is its lightness.

“Window,” by Bekka Walker, seems from a distance like a pair of metal blinds set up in a light-box. It becomes apparent, however, that it is a print through which the light shines. There are visible, organic shapes behind the blinds, in skin-like tones that bewilder the viewer, who tries to piece together what lies behind. One steps back to better understand the image, and the illusion of the blinds persists.

“Four Moons of Jupiter” pierces the space of the gallery. A photograph on the wall shows the artist Spence Rabin and friends tinkering with a large rocket in the night, shrouded in incandescent light and smoke, hammers in hand, sunglasses covering their inexpressive faces as they engage their solemn task. In front of the print a telescope is directed towards a monitor on the opposite side

of the gallery space. When one peers into the eyepiece, the image on a monitor is revealed: a tiny image of Jupiter, its moons in parallel. “Four Moons of Jupiter” is playful and cleverly turns the viewer into an active participant in this astronautic farce. They gaze into the telescope, but just as the figures are not truly laboring away on a rocket, the viewer is not truly gazing up at the moons of Jupiter. But just as the real moons of Jupiter are hidden without the telescope, so is the ghostly reproduction at the other end of the gallery.

Dominating a wall is the first part of “Dragons,” a giant painting of a Komodo dragon. The other half of the piece is an installation of two life-sized sculptures, again of Komodo dragons, carved from wood to crawl on the floor, or to gaze at a diamond-shaped lamp whose glow barely lights up the dark room it is in.

These pieces that truly distinguished themselves among the sculptural works

are “Hissenherse” by George Essex and “Mother’s Lap” by Bernadette Mingos.

“Hissenherse” is a two-sculpture set, crafted of ceramic and wood on sand that seems to writhe with a terrible sensuality.

Both sculptures are covered with what appear to be dozens of ceramic pieces, none of them alike. In one, they radiate from a crevice like a depraved sunflower, evoking organic forms and colors that contrast the raw bark that supports this flower of evil. The other thrusts up like a phallus from its pedestal, dripping with glaze and clay in pallid green shades.

“Mother’s Lap” is a throne. Upon it sits allusions to a past only the artist knows. It is a large, regal chair encrusted with shards of blue and white ceramic, making the chair shine as the light hits the different facets ceramic.

Yet hanging off the corner of the chair a brassiere, one which would have been limp and sad were it not also covered in blue and white porcelain, as were a pair of slippers set in front of the chair, implying a personal moment, where the brassiere and slippers have been cast off and crystallized into an undying mosaic.

The piece is aesthetically beautiful and beckons to be sat upon. But like intruding on a personal conversation, the viewer will always be foreign to the cool ceramic touch of this forlorn throne.

Beautiful art sometimes leaves more unsaid than stated, and the art of SWC’s faculty shows the unspoken soul of SWC. An artist is an artist, no matter how they earn a living.

By Andrea Aliseda Staff Writer

Professional, passionate, personable and completely in love with his instrument, Pablo Gomez is a stroke of guitar genius.

Dressed in all black, Gomez sat in the audience tuning his guitar, bearing a mischievous grin. Surrounding a chair placed in the center of the room were exotic percussion instruments, among them a tam-tam, guiro and a gwoka. Students, professors and local fans alike poured into Southwestern’s Music Recital room and waited in silence to watch a modern maestro of guitar.

Gomez took to the stage and promptly unveiled the concept for his performance.

“All songs represent an old universe in music for guitar,” he said, “but they’re only the tip of the iceberg.”

A deeper look into the history of guitar would take years, to faintly touch the highest tip of the iceberg could be done in a single evening, he promised. Gomez tuned his guitar to Baroque, an unfamiliar sound to contemporary listeners. These tunings aim to sound like early five gut stringed guitars with movable frets from the 1600s. Daintily setting his non-slip cloths on his thighs, he closed his eyes and delved completely into his strings.

His first piece, “Overture,” originally composed

by Silvious Leopold Weiss in the 17thcentury, was as classic and rudimentary as guitar gets. The different tuning was enough to take one back centuries. It was a style too foreign for some to fully appreciate. He proved himself a worthy purveyor in his technique and professionalism.

Gomez pulled his strings back to a contemporary tuning and introduced his next song, “Carpiccio,” an Italian piece that showcased a popular style in the 1800s.

His fingers stirred in a flurry, offering more musical and physical expression. Chaos, crescendos and craze filled the room. Finally, more vitality! The audience inched in.

“Tarantelle,” also an Italian piece, probed the beginning of a new style. One that demanded music to move “as fast as possible,” said Gomez. “And later, faster.”

He could not chase his fingers up and down the fret board fast enough. Periodically, he showed off his mastery of the guitar, playing with just one hand. It was pretty impressive. Without being cocky, Gomez continued to take guitar playing one step further. please see Gomez pg. B3

>

No glow in student art show

Art exhibition lacked luster despite obvious student effort Andrea Aliseda // Staff Writer

April Abarrondo/Staff

AFRAID OF THE DARK? — An untitled mushroom landscape is tucked into a speakerbox in the corner of Jackie Barrera’s “Walk into my Wonders” show at the SWC Student Art Gallery.

The Southwestern College Sun

Buckley: Set designer creates wonder and theatrical magic Continued from pg. B1

every week. It was kind of like being in a repertory company. I was kind of self taught before I went away to college.”

Buckley attended UCLA to pursue a degree in acting, but took a course in set design and fell madly in love with the medium. He earned a Bachelor’s in theatre arts and a Master of Fine Arts in theatre scenic design.

Buckley’s love for set and lighting design grew while continuing to pursue his original passion, acting.

“The first big show I was in at (UCLA) was a show called ‘A Cry of Players,’” he said. “They had a role for a 12-year-old boy and they were going to cast a child for the part.”

His boyish looks and mature commitment won him the role, he said.

Sylvia Lugo, SWC performing arts coordinator, said the theatre department is lucky to have Buckley because of his vast experience and talent as a set designer.

A good set is essential for a good production, she said.

“You need to visually see the doors, the colors, the furniture,” she said. “All those elements come together so you can put this image together in your head and become a part of it.”

Buckley said he strives to let the audience inside his imagination to see where the characters live in their realm.

Audiences, however, should let their imaginations do some work.

“The best kinds of sets are not always spoon feeding you the information,” he said. “Designers take a location and tweak it a bit, so you still understand where you are, but the audience has to engage in the imagination process to feel like they are there.”

Keeping it loose is Buckley’s preference, he said.

“If you’re going to do realism, you have to have it right,” he said. “All the details have to be right in order to sell that as realistic rather than if you’re going to do stylized you can make a stair railing out of a big piece of salami.”

Buckley groans and laughs when talking about the Ghosts of Bad Sets Past, but serious when he talks about giving students the best education possible.

“I think it gives a lot more validity to what I’m saying if I can use an example of a show I’m currently working on,” he said.

“I think students appreciate a teacher who is still actively engaged in the professional world and plying their craft.”

Buckley works at professional theatre and takes many of his students with him.

The next generation of set designers, can meet potential future employers.

“I still have a foot in the theatre world, so I still have contacts around town,” he said. “If I have promising students I can connect them with companies.”

Robert Smyth, the artistic director of the Lamb’s Players Theatre, said Buckley possesses great versatility.

“He’s been one of the pillars that this company is built on, it’s because he can take on so many different styles,” Smyth said. “Unlike Mike, some people have to leave an imprint on it so you know it’s their set. He will play in so many fields and do so well, he’s an ambidextrous designer.”

Buckley, a humble chameleon with a tart sense of humor, is also a working singer, actor and playwright. He brought down the house at Lamb’s as the Pharaoh who channels Elvis in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and earned standing ovations for his comedy “The Hit.” He has been the featured singer in public performances around the region. He has also appeared in a number of commercials that ran on regional television.

He prefers, however, to talk about his students and his classes. Backstage, tools in hand, in dim lights with no audience, it is show time.

Enríquez: Spanish poet inspires students in U.S. and Mexico Continued from pg. B1

lovers / sometimes someone tells you they love you / but neither are they lovers.)

For the last hour and a half, Enríquez conducted a writing workshop called “La importancia del primer verso (The importance of the first verse).”

He passed out cards with a red and blue background painted into them, the red blending with the blue towards the middle.

“I want you to create a first verse

ARTS

Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

Horns of plenty

B3

By Kenslow Smith Staff Writer

> REVIEW

W

ith every stroke of his hands the composer projected a motion picture of m u s i c a l imagery.

Using the force of more than 20 French horns and an accompaniment of percussion, “Movie Night With Hornswoggle” premiered with a stellar performance in Mayan Hall.

Credits are due to Hornswoggle, a choir of horn players of all ages, and their conductor, John Longre, who has recorded for TV productions and film.

The night’s theme was music from the movies, with eight of the 10 arrangements from feature films. Longre mentioned that when conducting he strives to bring inspiration to the ensemble to let them know what characters to bring to the music making. His role was appropriately reminiscent

of a movie director. Dr. Cynthia McGregor, Southwestern College performing arts department chair, produced the event and played in the supporting cast of the French horn ensemble.

In an atmosphere imbued with movie magic, McGregor blew kisses to her father, Randy McGregor, in the audience before expressing gratitude with the rhythmical articulation of “Irish Tune from County Derry,” also known as “Danny Boy.” McGregor dedicated the song to her father. “(His presence here tonight) means the world to me, very emotional,” she said. “How often do you get to say thank you?”

The piece was phenomenal, convoking the audience’s attention.

“Back to the Future” was a blast from the past, transporting the audience into Marty McFly’s futuristic DeLorean time machine. The piece was excellent, reminiscent of the award-winning film. Charging forward, the large group of horns jumped to attention at every note.

A rally of bucking, galloping tunes rumbled off the walls of Mayan Hall in the arrangement “MCMXLI (1941).” Marvelously the piece bombarded dramatic tunes into the ears of the audience, a stark contrast to “Days of Wine

& Roses,” an arrangement that embodied the metaphorical highs and lows of the 1962 romantic film’s storyline. A fluent intertwining of contrasting horn play, “Days of Wine and Roses” was superb.

Though shining brass instruments and superstar musicians illuminated the recital, the dark side pierced through momentarily with “May the Cors be with You,” which featured the infamous Darth Vader theme song, originally conducted by John Williams. A great rendition, “May the Cors be with You” captured the impending doom of Williams’ original piece with every note.

Each piece of the night was exceptional, but “Alleluia” stood alone as a masterpiece that completed the puzzle of sheer brilliance displayed before onlookers. Hornswoggle’s climax paid tribute to the classic, “Extraordinary Homosapien,” Su p e r m a n’s t h e m e s o n g . “ E x t r a o rd i n a r y Homosapien” reinvigorated the same hope that ensued on the superhero’s response to world peril.

There was no kryptonite in Mayan Hall as “Movie Night with Hornswoggle” soared from frame to frame, picture to picture. It was not like a bird or plane, but like an artist painting musical imagery with strokes of their hands and fingers.

TOP BRASS — Hornswoggle receives a standing ovation after a memorable performance in Mayan Hall at “Movie Night With Hornswoggle.”

Jocelyn Melody Davalos/Staff

Gomez: Virtuoso guitarist dazzles in a versatile recital Continued from pg. B2

“Astruias,” an early exhibition of what is known as the Spanish guitar, or Flamenco, proved that Gomez could play complicated music, and beautiful music.

His picking mocked sounds of water, allowing one to be lost in the soothing, yet flavorful nature of the piece.

His fifth and arguably most profound piece, “Tellur,” began with a noise.

Using a Flamenco strumming technique called rasgado, where one strums outward of a poem with just these two colors,” he said through a translator.

“What do they mean to you? Feel them. Write without thinking, experience the colors. There is poetry in everything.”

Once 10 minutes of silent creativity passed, Enríquez circled the room giving everyone the opportunity to read their creations with translation help from Bustos.

“The first verse is the most important in poetry,” Enríquez said.

“You can create a whole poem from a first verse or discard it. It’s a starting point, it doesn’t have to be perfect but at least you planted the idea.”

Those who wrote poems for the workshop were invited to read their works at El Centro Cultural de Tijuana alongside Enríquez and

rather than inward, an eerie muted noise slowly creeped into the atmosphere.

Gradually it grew louder and more complex with each strum.

Gomez then slapped his bass strings with fervor, loosening and tightening his strings at once. His guitar, unrecognizable at times, went from bass, to synthesizer, drums and back to guitar.

Gomez reveled in a wonderful display of harmonic dissonance and true mastery of the instrument.

When the last three pieces of his performance called for a percussion counterpart, Professor of Music Todd Caschetta heeded the call. His contribution, vivid and at times abstract, proved to be a wonderful conversation between guitar and percussion. Traveling

submit them for an anthology of poetry he is editing, tentatively called “Memoria.”

Bustos said he got the opportunity to practice with Enríquez at his home studio.

“I got on the drums and played while he read a poem about Frida Khalo,” he said. “We filmed it and put it on YouTube. He’s a really interesting guy.”

Enríquez said he prefers writing poetry over any other type of fiction.

“Writing a poem is much more different than, say, writing a novel,” he said. “A novel requires discipline, many days and nights of work. An entire poem can be written in a bus ride. I like to travel. I like to live.

Writing poetry allows me to live life to the fullest.”

from Indian-inspired pieces to Gypsy-like jams and songs that personified dogs, the duo inadvertently had enough magic to transport one far from room 801.

“Apnea,” was a new wave duet with a compilation of saturated and violent electronic sounds. Slapping the bass then quickly dancing both his fingers high on the fret board, Gomez moved his fingers all over the guitar’s body to compliment the harsh electronic intonations, tap, tap, tapping, on the soundboard like a percussion instrument.

A horror film’s perfect companion, suspense filled this piece in every corner, proof that Gomez could not only emulate the classics, but he could get experimental too.

A complete professional, Gomez

bowed after every song, expanded on every stage of the guitar history’s journey with poise and graciously opened the floor to questions after his performance wrapped. His mastery of guitar and its history was engaging, enticing and at times intimidating.

A simple man to his core, the maestro explained in his native tongue what he cherishes the most from playing guitar.

“El agarre de las cuerdas cuando aprendes la guitarra––the grip.”

Translating to––the grip of the chords when you learn the guitar.

Maestro Gomez’ passion is proof that it can be easy to fall in love.

Close your eyes.

Grip the strings.

Set your fingers free.

Andrew Perez/Staff

SPANISH IS THE LOVING TONGUE — Professor of Spanish Angelina Stuart translates Spanish poet Pedro Enriquez’ work at a poetry reading workshop sponsored by the SWC Guest Writers Series and Revista Radio de las Artes.

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Feb. 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

ARTS

The Southwestern College Sun

Pint-sized Picassos

STEVEN THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS — (clockwise from above) Gilbert Moreno holds up his daughter Sofia Moreno to a painting she made during her time at the SWC Child Development Center.

Rylie and Taylor with their artwork at the Child Development Center Art Show.

Steven Freeman talks about his art and plans for kindergarten.

Photos by April Abarrondo

O

nce criticized for being brats, misbehaving and not eating vegetables, children have been making strides to restore their public image. A recent exhibition in the Southwestern College Student Art Gallery, curated by the Child Development Center, helped enormously.

Story on Backpage, B8

‘The ShyFox’ band of brothers infused with SWC talent

By Andrew Perez Assistant Arts Editor

Naming a band is never easy. For every Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, there is a Toad the Wet Sprocket and a Limp Bizkit. Ask Alexis Robles, drummer for San Diego band The ShyFox. “It’s a pretty funny story,” he said.

“My brother Julio and I have this dog that resembles a fox and she’s very shy.

So we named it after our dog.”

Alexis and Julio Robles, brothers and former SWC students, formed The ShyFox in 2011.

“At first we started a cover band with some church friends,” Julio said.

“After that we decided to see if we could make our own music and from there we formed The ShyFox.” Originally a quartet, the Robles brothers said they chose to go at it together after recording their selftitled debut album. “ The problem wasn’t really us

wanting to be a duo,” Julio said, “it was more of us trying to find the right people that would fit with our musical style and personalities.”

To g e t h e r t h e Ro b l e s b ro t h e r s recorded The ShyFox’s second and third albums, “Southern Skies” and “Beneath the Beech Tree.”

In live performances Alexis plays drums and Julio plays rhythm guitar and sings, yet in the studio they incorporate a variety of instruments including a harmonica, piano and synthesizers.

Their musical influences are as diverse as their instruments. Coldplay, Interpol, John Mayer, Michael Jackson and Radiohead, as well as classical luminaries like Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky add to the ShyFox’s musical soufflé.

In 2014, the Robles brothers said they decided to branch out and find other members to join their band.

“We always felt like we would eventually let others into the group,”

Julio said. “It was just a matter of when.”

SWC student Giancarlo Dongo said he found The ShyFox through Craigslist.

“I had seen their flyers all over campus,” Dongo said, “so when I saw the ad on Craigslist saying that they were looking for a bassist I was already a fan of their music.”

The ShyFox also acquired a new lead guitarist named Francisco Pagola.

He attends San Diego Mesa College.

“I first joined the band in October of 2014 after answering an ad for auditions,” Pagola said, “and now I’m a permanent member.”

Julio said he was impressed with his new bandmates’ talent. “ Fr a n c i s c o h a s t h e s e a m a z i n g guitar shredding skills,” Julio said.

“Giancarlo is a multi-talent with both bass and singing abilities. I can’t tell you how happy we are having them in the band.”

When it comes to writing and

producing songs, Alexis said that it is truly a collaborative effort.

“It’s like a cake,” he said, “we do it layer by layer. Julio will write the acoustic part with his vocals, then I’ll add the drums and write the bass parts and add synthesizers towards the end.”

With new members, Julio said he sees the band’s dynamic evolving.

“Now that we have Giancarlo and Francisco in the mix, our music has shape-shifted to their talents and I can’t wait to see where this new direction will take us.”

While the band has no further performances scheduled in San Diego, they do have upcoming gigs in Los Angeles and Orange County.

T h e b a n d’s t h r e e a l b u m s a r e available for purchase through iTunes and can be streamed on SoundCloud, Spotify and YouTube. Details, concert listings and music can be found on the band’s official website http://www. shyfoxband.com/.

Andrew Perez/Staff

NOT SO SHY— The ShyFox frontman Julio Robles jams with band members in front of the SWC Student Center at a recent performance.

February 14 - March 16, 2015 — Volume 58, Issue 5

CAMPUS

The Southwestern College Sun

B5

By Evan Cintron Assistant Sports Editor l

‘HEROES AND SHEROES’ HONORS LOCAL LEADERS

l

T

here is a saying, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”

At Southwestern College some African-American students have been busy. Busy breaking down barriers, obstacles and challenges. SWC’s fourth Unsung Heroes and Sheroes celebration was a case in point.

In honor of Black History Month, 14 of the colleges’ most brilliant and talented students as well as nine high-achieving community members were honored.

Clark Rucker, son of deceased community honorees Charles and Julia Rucker, had a powerful message for the students.

“As African-Americans we stand on the shoulders of all those who have preceded us in the struggle,” he said. “The list is long and the numbers are many for those who have given their lives so that we may stand here today, without shame, without provocation and without interruption. We hold every soul that has passed before us the honor of our grace and prayers. When we go to sleep at night and we awaken in the morning, we have to thank them.”

Theater arts standout Tanika Baptiste was one of the students who heard Rucker’s message. She has performed in multiple plays, including “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf,” the NAACP award-winning “Down Around Brown Town” and SWC’s production of “Rent.” Her goal, she said, is to one day open her own preforming arts academy.

Assistant Professor of Theater Michael Buckley said Baptiste has a unique characteristic. please see Giants pg.B7

Andrea Aliseda/Staff

Don’t be fooled by size, microbes pack a punch When the microbe was first discovered in 1674 by Dutch microbiologist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the Royal Society in London openly ridiculed the existence of these small organisms. Till that point, microorganisms were relatively unknown.

Three hundred and forty one years later, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta have discovered microbes are reigning on the clouds. For sometime, it has been known that microbes can exist in high altitudes, such as mountainous regions, but no one had ever been able to find out if microbes can exist over the ocean.

Hitching a lift with NASA, the research team attached sample collectors to the outside of a DC-8 platform. The plane sampled air masses through low and high altitudes before, during and after two hurricanes, Earl and Karl.

It turns out bacterial microbes have the capability to exist in the atmosphere and create an ecosystem.

The samples collected displayed an average of 5,100 bacterial cells per cubic meter of air. Sixty percent of the microbes were still alive upon collection. The researchers took a look

Gifted singer has star power

Star of ‘Rent’ shines on stage and overcomes racial discrimination

By Vito Di Stefano Staff Writer

Jose Luis Baylon at the genes of the cells and concluded to have found 314 different families of bacterial microbes, with 17 types of microbes sharing the ability to digest oxalic acid, which is an eco-rich compound in the atmosphere.

The discovery of the microbe in the atmosphere was meant to strengthen a developing hypothesis: it is believed that because microbes are between 0.25-1µm diameters in range, they could act as cloud condensation nuclei, which are precursors to cloud droplets, which if grouped together, form clouds and ultimately leads to raindrops...

This is a biogeographic diversity that is poorly understood but, usually please see Baylon pg.B6

Stars.

Heavenly bodies, superheated until they become the radiant giants of light humanity can watch in awe from a far.

Tanika Baptiste is a star.

The 29 year old’s heritage, talent, and determination come together in opposition to turbulent racial environment to create a performer that is absolutely captivating on the musical stage.

Baptiste was a recipient of the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award in honor of African American Hi s t o r y Mo n t h a t S WC f o r h e r excellence in musical theater. She has participated in productions such as “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf,” “Down Around Brown Town” and the SWC production of “Rent.”

Adjunct theater instructor Ruff Yeager directed “Rent” and Baptiste.

“I direct a lot in town,” he said. “I see a lot of auditions and there is no one in San Diego who can do exactly what Tanika can do. She can walk into

Tanika Baptiste an audition and if that audition needs what she can do, she’s got the role.”

Though success seems to come easy, Baptiste says her race has often made things difficult.

“It’s such a gift and sometimes it’s so hard, as an African-American woman,” she said. “Every time I am going through something I just think of my ancestors because that’s the only way I

can get through.”

Her heritage, though, also fueled her creativity.

Baptiste’s mother is a singer from New Orleans and her father a musician from Trinidad.

Her background gave her experiences in music that were deep and unique, she said.

Her life was changed when at age six she said, when she saw her first play at Balboa Park’s San Diego Junior Theater. It was a production of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When The Rainbow Is Enuf ” she saw when she was 20 that cemented her passion for musical theater.

A f t e r g r a d u a t i n g f ro m Ho ove r High School, Baptiste lived in a Venice Beach hostel and slept on a bench at Penn Station in New York City while auditioning for “The Lion King.”

“When I first got to New York I had a friend who worked at a hostel (where I stayed for free.)” She said. “When the hostel management found out they kicked me out, in the pouring rain, in the middle of the night.”

Her hardships didn’t end there. In Los Angeles she had to fight through insecurity and self-loathing while doing a play. An unwelcoming racial environment often permeates show please see Baptiste pg.B6

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February 14 - March 16, 2015 — Volume 58, Issue 5

Baylon: Atmosphere is a living biosphere of floating microbes Continued from pg. B5

microorganisms have a knack for working mysteriously in plain sight. It is a matter of discovering them. Such is the curious case of autism and its synthesis with intestinal bacteria.

Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, a researcher for Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, realized that gastrointestinal (GI) problems are an underlying issue affecting subjects across all levels of autism. Capitalizing on the common link between all autism spectrum, Krajmalnik-Brown lead her team on a first-of-its-kind study focusing on the distinctive features of intestinal bacteria found inside autistic children compared to typical children.

Gut microflora from fecal matter of 20 autistic children and 20 symptomfree children was analyzed through a technique called pyrosequencing, which identifies sequences of DNA in the microbes and organizes the data into a bioinformatic. The team discovered that autistic children have a significant number of bacterias missing from their GI microflora.

Compared to typical children, three major bacterias were vanished from the GI: Prevotella, Coprococcus and Veillonellaceae. The lack of these carbohydrate-degrading microbes influences the neural signaling the gut microbiome has on the brain. To the researchers surprise, they alternatively discovered that the inefficient diversity in the GI leads to the presence and behaviors of autistic symptoms.

Adding progress to the new discovery, researchers from the University of Colorado switched around the bacteria found inside the stomach of autistic mice and replaced it with a known beneficial bacteria which influenced a complete shift in the bacterial make-up of the GI of autistic mice and showed the capabilities of reversing autism-like behavior.

Club strives to help undocumented SWC students by guiding them out of the shadows of fear and uncertainty

CAMPUS

The Southwestern College Sun

BIG IDEAS

Jose Luis may be reached at plutotoplato@theswcsun.com

Baptiste: Fierce student is a booming voice in the theatre Continued from pg. B5

business, she said. “ T h e y d o n’t w a n t t o acknowledge the differences amongst (members of certain r a c i a l g r o u p s ) ,” s h e s a i d .

“It’s more comfortable and acceptable to just keep on with the stereotypes.”

Baptiste said the entertainment industry is afraid to accept black women, but she is ready to face all challenges.

“You’re not going to be a millionaire just because you can hit a high C,” she said. “You have to work.”

Baptiste enrolled in six classes at City College while working three jobs to support her dramatic training and college expenses “It’s costly,” she said. “You have to make sacrifices.”

Playwriting is a long time interest. She said she hopes to flesh out her own stories.

She is also studying songwriting and said she would love to work with a young upand-coming artist.

Joining the cast in the final performance of “Rent” for a tearful rendition of “Seasons of Love” was a defining moment, she said.

“They taught me so much about what it means to leave your heart on the stage,” she said. “I just understood why we were crying.”

Musical theater has given her freedom to explore characters and express herself.

“I’ve paid some dues and I know I have more to pay,” she said, “but you’ve got to learn to accept yourself, because if you believe everything (negative) that’s out there about who you are because of what you look like, you would give up.”

MANY BRIGHT IDEAS — David Ramos is an AB 540 migrant student who has become an advocate for his classmates.

By Alberto Calderon Assistant Campus Editor

“Illegal alien.” “Border hopper.” “Anchor baby.”

Ouch!

How about “success stor y,” “innovator,” “contributor to society”?

Some students have new IDEAS to deal with old prejudices about undocumented students.

Southwestern College’s IDEAS Club was founded in 2012 with a mission to support the disenfranchised immigrant student population by creating a community of supporters and providing services. Last year there were 10 members in the club. Four transferred to SDSU, more than triple the college’s transfer rate of 12 percent.

Grecia Rivas, 21, a sociology major and IDEAS Club member since its inception, said she has seen the organization help students navigate the murky waters of being an undocumented person in college.

“They have more rights than they realize,” she said. “Undocumented students don’t ask for help because they’re afraid of what will happen, but they have so many programs that can help them like the BOGW waiver and EOPS. We even have scholarships specifically for them.”

Antonio Contreras, 23, a business major, said the club is not all business.

“We have all become so close, we are like one big family,” he said. “Everyone has a different story and learning about them has been really inspirational.”

IDEAS started with five members and has swelled to 24, but Rivas said she is frustrated that participation is still low. Campus officials insist they do not know how many undocumented students are at SWC, though most estimates are in the thousands.

“There are 350 or so registered undocumented students on campus,” Rivas said. “We need to get

Alberto Calderon/Staff

“When I first enrolled at SWC I registered as a U.S. citizen. I couldn’t see any upside to exposing myself as undocumented.”

— David Ramos

the word out. I think a lot of people still don’t know about us or are still afraid to say they’re undocumented” Therein lies the paradox the IDEAS Club faces.

Students who need the most support are the least likely to ask for it.

Club president David Ramos said before he joined IDEAS he made a mistake common to undocumented students without a support system.

“When I first enrolled at SWC I registered as a U.S. citizen,” he said. “I couldn’t see any upside to exposing myself as undocumented.”

Ramos said he continued attending school without giving it much thought, then after a couple years, when it came time to enroll in the nursing program, he received some startling news.

“I didn’t have all the proper information, so I had to come clean,” he said. “An admissions person said they were going to retro charge me as an international student for all of my time at SWC. I needed to pay a lump sum of $17,000 to keep my credits. Luckily, I hired a lawyer who threatened to file a civil lawsuit against the school, then they backed off. If they can get away with charging you, they will. They wanted to charge another club member $24,000.”

Ramos said he does not think the college admissions office is malicious, just misinformed.

He said many SWC employees do not seem to know about Assembly Bill 540, a California law

that allows undocumented students to attend college at in-state rates.

“Ninety percent of admissions (personnel do not) know what AB540 is,” he said. “I don’t think it’s purposeful. I’ve just found that a lot of people are undereducated on immigration stuff, which is weird because we are a border school.”

Ramos said the club intends to create programs so incidents like his do not occur in the future, but they need more assistance from the Associated Student Organization.

“Last year our allocation for the club was $300, which is not enough to get lawyers and provide services for undocumented students,” he said.

“The running club got more money than us. All clubs are important. I’m not saying one is better than another, but if you put it in perspective what do you think will benefit the community more, helping a club buy running shoes so they can perform better or a club that is bringing in lawyers to help educate people on immigration matters?”

Educating undocumented students about their rights is his first priority as club president, Ramos said.

“I thought about just giving up and I don’t want that to happen to others,” he said. “There are a lot of examples of undocumented students that become doctors, lawyers or respected members of the community. But worse is the thought of how many could have and didn’t due to not knowing their opportunities.”

Asjia Daniels, editor

CAMPUS

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

February 14 - March 16, 2015 — Volume 58, Issue 5

B7

New CSEA leaders promise an era of activism

By Jaime Pronoble Senior Staff Writer

Forrest Gump said he and Jenny went together like peas and carrots.

Andre Harris and Silvia Lugo, the CSEA’s new president and vice president, are also a smooth blend.

“We know each other like peanut butter and jelly,” said Harris. “Her strengths are my weaknesses.”

As the leaders of the college’s [number] classified employees, Harris and Lugo represent the non-teaching staff on negotiable issues like workplace conditions, disciplinary matters, health and welfare and compensation.

New to their positions, they hit the ground running. Harris and Lugo were part of the team responsible for the 3.5 percent restoration pay. Classified employees were the first group to negotiate with the district for the refund, which faculty eventually received as well.

“Our unit, CSEA, laid down the groundwork so that the rest of the employees can get that refund,” said Lugo.

Governing Board Member Humberto Peraza said it was thanks to the CSEA and their negotiation team that the refund was possible.

“The fact that the CSEA and the leadership team went out and asked for it in negotiations is really crucial,” he said.

“If it weren’t for them, the campus may not have gotten the 3.5 percent back.”

Harris said he and Lugo had been with the district for about 15 years and developed a bond.

CSEA’s dream team echo off each other often, he said, and seem to have a very clear vision of their goals and the future

Jaime Pronoble/Staff

LIKE ‘PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY’ — Andre Harris and Silvia Lugo are CSEA’s new president and vice president. The veteran classified employees pledge to raise the profile of their bargaining unit.

of the union.

“We want to be one of the driving forces and make a difference and not be in the background anymore,” he said.

Lugo agreed.

“The role of classified professionals has always been a quiet voice,” said Lugo.

“They don’t want to make any waves and just keep things calm. We believe the same thing, too, but in the leadership role that we’re in now, we want to make sure the district and the other unions recognize us as a viable force on the campus.”

Lugo said the former CSEA President Bruce MacNintch did an excellent job as the head of the union before retiring last

summer. “(MacNintch) got us through a really tough economic time when the district was experiencing financial difficulties,” she said. “We were able to maintain the staff.

No layoffs. We did take a pay cut, but I think our people would have preferred to take the pay cut than see one of our own let go.”

Harris agreed that it is time to “kick the CSEA up a notch.”

“We’re taking it to another level,” he said. “Past practice has always been a certain benchmark for CSEA and every president before me and vice president have been in the status quo.

I’m not a status quo kind of guy. I’m very collegial, I’m open and I believe we need to make our name bigger than what it is.”

To do that Harris said he would like to branch out to different areas and to build a bigger, more cohesive CSEA family statewide.

Lugo said Harris has the right idea. “(We plan on) getting involved with our regional rep, our local community colleges in our region and county.” She said. “We never really networked with them, we want to start getting out there.

Start attending more training so that we can get feedback so that we can bring it back to our membership and make them stronger.”

Lugo said having a strong executive team allows for the members to have faith and confidence in the union. She said classified employees do valuable work and should be respected by the district.

“Who’s opening up the doors?” asked Harris. “Who’s brewing the coffee?

Who’s making the requisition orders?

Who’s making sure their classrooms are clean and making sure the desks are ready. Who’s doing all that?”

Lugo’s answer: the classified staff.

“Many of our members have been with the district 25, 35, going on 40 years of service.” She Said. “We have a lot to offer. We are the backbone of this district. The faculty teaches and I tip my hat to them, I give them all the kudos for being in front of students every day, but in order for them to come to work and teach our students, it takes the classified staff.”

Harris said he respects the faculty

and appreciates the amount of work professors do to teach his own children, but he said classified employees would like the same kind of respect for the work keeping a classroom clean.

Harris and Lugo agreed that the union leadership can be a thankless job.They have to use what little free time they have during the day to get things done Harris said Members of the CSEA compel them to continue to work diligently, Lugo said.

“We’re a family.” She Said. “Even though we’re a union and we all work under the district, we’re really a big extended family and we need to look out for each other that’s our role as leaders.”

Harris said even though he may be the president, he cannot be effective “without the wonderful women by his side.”

“I have one hell of a team,” he said.

“Silvia, who’s my vice president, Lori Gorton who is my treasurer, Erica Dishon who’s my C-Pro, Deborah Peckenpaugh who is my secretary and Patricia Hinck who is my chief job steward.”

Harris said the women keep him grounded.

“I hold the title of president, but this is a team effort,” he said. “They’re all the presidents.”

Lugo agreed.

“I don’t even see myself as a leader,” she said. “I’m among my peers. And so I’ve been honored to be given this role and I take it very seriously. I’m humbled people believe in us to take this on.”

CSEA’s new team is still learning, but enthusiasm is high.

“We need CSEA as well,” said Harris.

“That’s what I want all groups to say.”

Giants: College honors

“This is my academic home. I feel like I am responsible for the new buildings. I want them to serve the students the best they can.”

— Dr. John Tolli, professor of biology

BLUEPRINT

FOR SUCCESS College unveils plan for $300 million eco-friendly math, science building to replace current pool area

W

By Veronica Deck Staff Writer

hen Southwestern College rolled out its $45 million renovation of Devore Stadium, a t h l e t i c s department got a lot of love.

Prepare for the revenge of the nerds!

Next up on the Proposition R construction list is a new School of Math, Science and Engineering building to be built on the land that is currently the swimming pool and gym. All MSE classrooms and faculty are scheduled to move to new digs in 2018 – the turtles, too.

A new two-story facility will be about 90,000 square feet. This leaves the movein date around 2018, and the demolition of the existing buildings is expected to begin towards the end of 2015 Planners say the building will be ecofriendly. Professor of Biology Dr. John Tolli and MSE Dean Janet Mazarella said the structure will conserve energy use and

limit waste. Tolli said the roof will host large planters to capture and store rain water and the condensation from heating and cooling units.

“We will be able to use that stored water for maintenance of landscape, also the turtle pond, probably the green house,” he said. “So we will be reusing that water instead of just losing it.”

Mazarella said innovative technology called solatubes will reduce energy waste.

“It is a mirror system that comes through a can in the ceiling,” she said.

“They are adjustable by the instructor so you can get more or less light in there.

When the solatubes are open, you do not need any lights on the second floor.”

Tolli and Mazarella acknowledged that conflicts that may arise during construction such as traffic, sound disruption and dust roaming. Plans include traffic mitigation, dust reduction, and sound baffling so that classes may continue with minimal disruption, said Mazarella.

Mazarella said she hopes the new building will inspire students.

“One thing we did see when they opened the new field house, the students

were very proud of that facility,” she said.

“You would walk down on the field and you can just feel how important it was to them to have these lovely new facilities that were state-of-the-art. It makes students want to come here. It puts a sense of pride in the campus and in the students.”

Tolli said he was excited.

“This is my academic home,” he said.

“I feel like I am responsible for the new buildings. I want them to serve the students the best they can.”

Dr. Lukas Buehler said the new facility will also serve the public.

“There is a plan of having a large lecture room being opened up where there will be a courtyard to increase the capacity of people listening not just for the classes there, but actually as an auditorium for public performances and public talks,” he said. “It includes the community more and designed for students to have an easier one-go stop to all of the sciences.

It should make an architectural statement about the importance the campus has in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education.”

African-American standouts Continued from pg. B5

“There is one thing we can’t teach our students…we can’t teach them IT,” he said. “IT, it’s that thing that separates a wannabe from a star,” he said. “When Tankia walks on stage, your eye goes right to her, cause she’s got IT!” Mallory Johnson was honored by the School of Arts and Communication Forensics Department for her excellence on the debate team.

Professor of Communication Jordan Mills said Johnson was astonishing.

“Not only had Mallory, her first time ever doing it, win the entire tournament, she was named top speaker amongst all the people there,” he said. “She sent Arizona State packing, she sent San Diego State packing and Cal State Sacramento. She got multiple scholarship offers after that.”

Student honoree Caleb Henderson said events like these are important to him and people of color.

“I’m 6’4”, he said. “I could pose as a threat to a police officer. As intelligent as I am and with all the accolades and awards, I’m big, I’m tall and I’m Black. I have all these stereotypes that are targeted against me but I choose to nott let Rucker that distract me,” he said. “So I really appreciate ceremonies like this because it encourages us as minorities.

We get tired of being told we’re not good enough. Events like this give us that extra push and confidence.”

Community honoree Zoniece Jones, along with her husband Paul Jones, established Pazzaz Inc. in 1995. It is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the future life prospects of youth and families through quality customized academic, technological and enrichment programs.

“Our children, African-American, Hispanic children and other children of color have the ability to succeed,” she said. “All they need is an opportunity. If indeed America is a nation of opportunity, then we should make sure that there is a level playing field and make sure our kids have the opportunity to live the American Dream.”

Community honorees were Charles and Julia Rucker, Dr. Reginald Baylock, Mary Castleberry, Cassandra Countryman, Robert Countryman, Althea Dougherty, Zoniece Jones and Dr. Gregory O. Morgan.

Student honorees were Melvin Graham, Asjia Daniels, Andra Caston, Karenina Alvarez, Tanika Baptiste, Charles Goodman, Caleb Henderson, Ben Ruffin, Daeniesha Burrel, Mallory Johnson, Joseph Grant, Dominique Fuqua, Shareef Shabazz and Aisha Metivier.

B8

February 14 - March 16, 2015 — Vol. 58, Issue 5

BACKPAGE

The Southwestern College Sun

Photos by April Abarrondo THE COOL KIDS — Southwestern College’s Child Development Center has a new batch of bright-eyed young artists in full bloom. These children are ready for kindergarten and beyond.

The kids are alright

By Gabriel Sandoval • Arts Editor

O

nce criticized for being brats, misbehaving and not eating vegetables, children have been making strides to restore their public image. A recent exhibition in the Southwestern College Student Art Gallery, curated by the Child Development Center, helped enormously.

“Children’s Art: A Culture of Expression” showcased the endless possibilities of pure imagination with the artwork of children age two to five. Replete with abstract, figurative, self-portrait and collaborative paintings, as well as mixed media pieces that included beads and wire, the exhibition radiated a sense of wonder and innocence too cute to deny.

Some self-portraits had comments below them: “‘This one, I am in Halloween. I am wearing a zombie mask.’ Genaro, age 4.” “‘I made a ballon of me!’ Olivia, age 3.” “‘I got bones on my face.’ Zoey, age 4.”

Patie Bartow, director of the CDC, said she wants children to know that they’re respected and their artwork is valued.

“Art is a way for children to express themselves,” she said. “We try to create an environment in the classroom where the children can be engaged, where their imaginations are just on fire.”

Four-year-old Steven Freeman is one of those children. After hopping around in sporadic bursts, he was cajoled by his parent to sit. Grinning, he said he loves art “because it’s really fun!”

“Coloring art, that’s my favorite,” he said.

“I like to draw Minions.”

Freeman said he is going to kindergarten soon, which is exciting “because it’s really, really, really, really fun there!”

Emma Stein, a poised and petite threeyear-old, attended the exhibition’s opening night reception with her sister, Elizabeth, 4, and parents. She said she loves drawing, mostly pictures of “mommy.”

Emma’s “mommy,” Molly Stein, a child development adjunct instructor, shared Bartow’s view. Children use art as a form of expression, because they do not have as much language as adults, Stein said.

“They’re actually representing their world, what they see in it,” she said.

“Emma’s really into doing faces and

Elizabeth does our family all the time, where I’m the central figure. It’s really representative of her life.”

Dozens of artists attended the reception with friends and family, including Sealyn Azeez, a shy artist who turned five in January. Azeez said she loves learning and painting. Her proud mother, Lynn Domingo, said her daughter also loves flowers, family, her teachers and the CDC. “To see her grow over the past two years here at this Child Development Center at Southwestern College has been amazing,” Domingo said. “It’s definitely helped her a lot because she’s an only child. She’s developed a lot of good friendships, especially some of her best friends here at this school.”

Blanca Villa, a CDC teacher, estimated 70 to 80 artists contributed to the exhibit.

“We like doing this art exhibition to show the value we give to each and every individual child,” she said. “It’s the fifth

year we’ve been doing it. This is first time we’ve done it in January.”

SWC’s Child Development Center was founded in 1998. In 2005, it moved from portable classrooms in the barren corner lot to its current location, a building atop the mesa near the southwest edge of campus, beyond the South Bay Botanical Garden.

Bartow and Mar y Holmes, a child development professor, estimate the CDC has served more than 1,200 children since it opened. Barton said the center currently serves about 100 children who come throughout the day at different times.

CDC’s mission statement says the center “embraces and supports the individuality of each child in an authentic, emerging learning environment.”

Bartow explained the ethos even simpler.

“We want them to be engaged and we want them to be excited,” she said. “Bottom line, we want them to be excited about learning.”