The SWC Sun, Fall 2021, Issue 1

AN ACP HALL OF FAME NEWSPAPER

OCTOBER 1, 2021 / VOL 58-A

A NATIONAL PACEMAKER AWARD NEWSPAPER

STUDENTS ‘GLAD’, ‘SCARED’ TO RETURN FACING A NEW ERA — College president Dr. Mark Sanchez welcomes some staff and students back to campus. SC at is 30 percent capacity. Photo by Alexandra Demontano

Southwestern College is dipping a toe in the murky water to see if it is alright for everyone to get back into the pool.

Still kind of chilly.

A year-and-a-half has passed since the late evening announcement on March 9, 2020 that SC would temporarily close to “help flatten the curve.” It has been 18 months of unprecedented chaos and compassion, quitting and pressing on, hiding out and stepping up, improvisation and

SPECIAL PULLOUT SECTION

COLLEGE SURVIVES 18 MONTHS IN CYBERSPACE moments of brilliance.

A special four-page pullout special edition of The Sun is our attempt to analyze what happened so far during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and what is still to come.

Students share their points of view

as we strive to describe a complicated mosaic of what Phillip Graham called “the first draft of history.”

It is an impressionistic piece culled from the collective memories of students, staff and members of the community still fighting

through bewilderment and frustration, but also slowly embracing hope.

It is also unfinished. Our COVID exile trundles along and may not end until August of 2022. Taco shop doyenne Delores “Lolita” Farfan’s mantra “Patience is the essence of fine Mexican food” may be instructive for Southwestern College and all of us who want back on campus.

Patience is essential.

— The Editors

Firearm violence soars in America

A STEP FORWARD

Gun violence prevention group works to reduce South County homicides

BY NICOLETTE MONIQUE LUNA News Editor

Activists at San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention have a lofty long-term goal.

They would like to put themselves out of business.

If 2020 is any indication, however, SD4GVP will have plenty to do for years to come At least 43,563 Americans died from gun violence last year, about 20,000 from murder, 24,000 by suicide.

2021 is on pace for more than 50,000 gun deaths across America. San Diego County has already suffered from at least 115 gun-related murders.

Gun violence is also on the rise in areas served by Southwestern College. Crime data provided by cities and San Diego County officials estimates more than 1,500 violent crimes in the South Bay last year. Most involved guns.

America’s love-hate relationship with firearms goes back to Revolutionary War times and the USA has by far the highest per capita rate of gun ownership in the world. In 2017 the U.S. population was 326.5 million. Americans owned 393.3 million guns, according to the Small Arms Survey. Those are just the guns they could count. There are likely millions more.

L

ong delayed by corruption, construction crises and COVID, the new Southwestern College Performing Arts Center opened to a rousing serenade by SC’s renowned Mariachi Garibaldi. District taxpayers passed bond measures in 2008 and 2016 to fund the $66 million facility. The 2011-12 South Bay Corruption Scandal stalled the project, as did unexpected construction issues, including discovery of an underground spring. Its main auditorium seats 540 and an experimental black box holds 151. Photos by Alexandra Demontano

COLLEGE’S PLEDGE TO DREAMERS — YOU ARE WELCOME AND SAFE HERE

BY YAHIR IBARRA Staff Writer

In this Age of Disinformation college staff has a clear message for undocumented students: You are safe here.

Southwestern College was one of the first institutions of higher education to pass formal policies to protect undocumented students from ICE and the Border Patrol. Angel Salazar, an SC financial aid specialist,

said the rules are still in place.

“We do not share (immigration status) information with any outside agencies, with ICE or anyone else,” he said. “This is confidential information.”

Salazar said another myth involves financial aid.

“A lot of times students don’t think they are eligible for financial aid, especially some of our undocumented

GUNS PG 2

Murillo accepts one-year post at Santa Barbara City College

Former president’s retirement is short

BY NICOLETTE MONIQUE LUNA News Editor

DR. KINDRED MURILLO DREAMERS PG 2

“The Fixer” has a new gig.

Former Southwestern College president Dr. Kindred Murillo, who announced her retirement last August and left in mid-March, has accepted a oneyear interim presidency at Santa Barbara City College. Murillo had served just over four years at SC and stepped aside three-

and-a-half months prior to the expiration of her contract.

Murillo came to SC on the heels of a series of racially-charged controversies that led to the dismissal of her predecessor, Dr. Melinda Nish. Her mission upon arrival, she said, was to change the college’s culture to make it more inclusive.

Murillo said she was successful.

MURILLO PG 2

NEWS CONTINUED FROM PG. 1

CONTINUED FROM PG. 1

MURILLO: Former president takes interim job in Santa Barbara

GUNS: America’s high percentage of firearms ownership makes it the world’s most dangerous nation for gun crimes and suicides

“I felt Santa Barbara could use the experience that I brought from Southwestern College in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion,” she said. “And in particular, anti-racism work.”

Faculty union president S. Rob Shaffer said Murillo had several meaningful accomplishments at SC. “(She nurtured) a culture of listening and tolerance and decency,” he said.

Many college employees and members of the community expressed s u r p r i s e that Murillo took another position after wanting out of her SC contract early.

Community leader Sandra Scheller, who worked SANDRA with Murillo SCHELLER on plans to establish a Holocaust museum at Southwestern, was not among them.

“I wasn’t surprised by the fact that she took on another presidency because she really loves what she did here and that maybe after she retired at Southwestern (she felt) like she’s not done yet. To say, ‘I can do a little bit more of this’ and still have an impact is important.”

Shaffer agreed.

“I could sense that she still wanted to be in the game and make a contribution,” he said.

CSEA president Silvia Nogales said she expected Murillo to retire and not return to academia.

“I was a little surprised because in our conversations leading up to her departure she talked about how much her husband was waiting for her to retire and she was looking forward to spending more time with her spouse and her family,” Nogales said. “So I was quite surprised. I was quite taken back learning that she had taken that assignment.”

Murillo said she enjoys challenges and helping to improve colleges that are struggling.

“I kind of have a reputation in the community college system as sort of being a fixer,” she said. “I kind of come in and fix systems and I kind of come make sure procedures and policies are being implemented well.

I try to build leaders and then turn it over to somebody else.”

Murillo’ signed a oneyear contract on Sept.

7 to serve as interim president of Santa Barbara City College Every college president comes to a moment when they know it is their time to make a graceful exit, Murillo said.

“You have to know when it’s time to leave,” she said. “It was time for me to move on and retire and I just found myself working anyways so when Santa Barbra came up I thought, well I could take another year. I felt my skill set would be helpful here (at SBCC), I really did.”

Murillo said she was pleased with her tenure at SC, but said work remains.

“We need to be the leaders in helping our community with diversity, equity, and inclusion… making sure our young people and our adults in the community have an opportunity for more education,” she said.

Murillo said she wished everyone well at SC. “I miss some of the people that became friends,” she said. “I worked with some amazing faculty.”

2

Lori Van Orden of SD4GVP said she and her colleagues acknowledge gun violence is an enormous problem, but they will not be deterred.

SD4GVP would like nothing better than to become obsolete, she said.

“To put ourselves out of business is (what we want),” she said. “(It is our goal) to end gun violence so we don’t have to have an organization anymore.”

Van Orden said SD4GVP is not an anti-gun organization and tries to stay out of Second Amendment arguments. SD4GVP member Kara Chine agreed.

“We’re not the mob who’s out to get your guns,” she said. “We’re out to (promote) safety.”

SD4GVP is primarily an educational organization, Chine said, that also advocates for gun safety legislation.

A current project is California Assembly Bill 876, the Safe Storage Ordinance, which would require gun manufacturers to add micro stamping technology to firearms.

This technology would make a tiny stamp on each cartridge fired by a gun that would help law enforcement to trace the weapon.

A scary problem facing law enforcement are “ghost guns,” Chine said, particularly in the South Bay. Untraceable and increasingly accessible to criminals, ghost guns are often made from plastic parts.

They can be made cheaply on 3-D printers and because they are not completed firearms when sold, they do not have serial numbers and can dodge background checks. Chine said they are nearly impossible to trace.

SD4GVP supports the Untraceable Firearms Act introduced this summer by California Senator Dianne Feinstein. Nearly 20 percent of all weapons seized in San Diego County so far this year did not have a serial number, according to law enforcement data. The San Diego City Council banned the sale of ghost gun components this month.

Gun deaths often occur when children find weapons in their homes and discharge them. Max Mendoza, a 12-year-old Chula Vista boy died in July when he unintentionally shot himself with a ghost gun a friend had brought to his house, according to Chula Vista Police Lt. Dan Peak.

SD4GVP has prepared a letter school districts can send home to parents informing them of the dangers unlocked guns pose to children and reminding them that California law requires guns to be locked up so that children cannot get to them.

Diversity is very important to SD4GVP, according to executive director Carol Landale. Without membership and advocates that look like the community, she said, there is no common ground. “(We are working) on expanding our membership to include a more diverse group of neighborhoods and ethnicities so we can understand gun violence on a lot of different levels,

Gun deaths per state for every 100,000 people.

The following states have the least gun laws.

Source: Gun Violence Archive 0

5

10

15

New Hampshire South Carolina

20

25

30

San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention is a multi-pronged, non-profit advocacy organization serving the region. Its stated goals are:

10.4 17.7

Georgia Louisiana Maine Texas Montana West Virginia Alabama North Dakota

15.4 21.7 11.7 12.4 22.5 18.6 22.9 13.2

Oklahoma Arkansas Alaska

17.2 20.3 24.5

Kansas

16

South Dakota

11.9

Arizona Kentucky Missouri Idaho Wyoming Mississippi

21.5

Nicolette Monique Luna / Staff

• Address specific issues of gun violence, including domestic violence, suicide, mass shootings and unintentional shootings.

Gun deaths per state for every 100,000 people.

The following states have the most gun laws.

Source: Gun Violence Archive

California Illinois Connecticut New Jersey New York Hawaii Maryland Massachusetts

10

15

20

25

30

7.9 12.1 5.1 5.3 3.7 2.5 12.3 3.7

Nicolette Monique Luna / Staff not just our world view.”

Chine said SD4GVP members are reaching out to children from communities with high violence rates.

“We would like to help prevent violence before it occurs,” she said.

Assembly Bill 1191 is part of that effort, she said. This legislation, if passed, would “hold gun dealers accountable for illegal activity and stop the flow of crime guns,” according to an SD4GVP statement.

Senate Bill 299, another SD4GVPsupported piece of legislation, would give survivors of police violence access to victim compensation.

National data indicates that about 60 percent of gun deaths are suicides.

Research by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta has concluded that ready access to guns allows Americans with suicidal thoughts to kill themselves quickly before they can get help.

SD4GVP coordinates with mental health agencies and suicideprevention activists to draw

• Work legislatively to ensure that guns and ammunition are sold only to responsible citizens.

• Educate the public about the epidemic of gun violence in this country and how it can be prevented.

16.4 18.8 21.5

5

• Balance the need to preserve public safety with the rights of responsible citizens to own and use guns.

• Advocate for responsible gun violence prevention laws.

15.8 16.2

0

HOLSTERING GUN MURDERS AND SUICIDES

attention to this dark and overlooked aspect of American health. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said this month that she intends to restart gun violence research after the Trump Administration defunded the work.

Walensky said she hopes to find common ground with gun owners and will avoid Second Amendment entanglements. Gun murders and suicides are a public health issue of “enormous scale,” she said, and “needs out nation’s attention.”

Summer has been especially violent, according to analysis by the Gun Violence Archive. An average of 200 people have been killed and 472 injured by guns each weekend in the United States (the figures do not include suicides). GVA researchers report that 3.4 people are shot every hour of every weekend.

Van Orden said the data is troubling, but nothing will change without hope and hard work.

SD4GVP will not hold a going out of business party any time soon.

• Support city, state and national leaders and candidates who share our vision of communities free from gun violence.

ALLIES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST RUNAWAY GUN VIOLENCE • Brady United Against Gun Violence • Moms Demand Action • Team Enough • Survivors Empowered • Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic • St. Paul’s Cathedral, San Diego • United Nations Association of San Diego • Tariq Khamisa Foundation • Shaphat Outreach • Claremont Town Council • Community Wraparound • First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego • March for Our Lives, San Diego Compiled by Nicolette Monique Luna

CONTINUED FROM PG. 1

DREAMERS: Southwestern College declares itself a safe zone for all immigrant students

STRAWBERRY FIELDS NOT FOREVER — DREAMER Eunice Gonzalez, the daughter of migrant farmworkers, harvested crops with her parents before earning her way into UCLA, from where she graduated. Many Southwestern College DREAMERs have similar stories of courage and perseverance.

Courtesy @eljorgeflores

OCT. 1, 2021 / VOL 58-A, ISSUE 1

students,” he said. “They (think because) they are undocumented the college cannot provide assistance.

That’s not true.”

Trust is essential, said Serene Vannoy of Admissions and Records. SC does not rat out its students.

Though there is no precise data, many education officials have said it is possible that Southwestern College has more DREAMER students than any other college or university in America.

Each and every one of them is welcome, according to Alejandra Garcia of the SC Dreamer Center during a panel discussion titled “Undocumented Students Can Go to College.”

SC’s Dreamer Center provides

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

financial aid assistance, immigration services, counseling, legal services and other essential support free of charge.

Vannoy said students eligible for AB 540 status may attend SC for $46 per unit even if they are not considered a resident. AB 540 students can benefit from the California Dream Act Application, she said, unlocking the California Promise Grant or the Student Success Completion Grant.

External and internal scholarships are also available, she said.

Salazar said AB 540 students from SC are eligible to attend universities and earn degrees, receiving financial aid along the way.

And ICE will never know.

VIEWPOINTS 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.

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief Camila Gonzalez News Editor Nicolette Monique Luna Sports Editor Sebastian Sanchez Senior Staff Writer Andrew Penalosa Staff Writers Dominic Escobar Lesley Garate Diego Higuera Yahir Ibarra Sebastian Melendrez Adrian Punzal Carson Timmons Staff Artists Baby Bonane Yaritza Cuevas Ji Ho Kim Assistant Adviser Kenneth Pagano Adviser Dr. Max Branscomb

AWARDS/HONORS National College Newspaper Hall of Fame Inducted 2018 Student Press Law Center National College Press Freedom Award 2011, 2018 National Newspaper Association National College Newspaper of the Year 2004-2021 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Awards 2003-06, 2008, 2009, 2011, 20122017, 2019, 2020 General Excellence 2001-20 Best of Show 2003-20 Columbia University Scholastic Press Association Gold Medal for Journalism Excellence 2001-20 College Media Association National College Newspaper of the Year, 2020 California College Media Association Outstanding Community College Newspaper

San Diego County Multicultural Heritage Award California Newspaper Publishers Association California College Newspaper of the Year 2013, 2016, 2020, 2021 Student Newspaper General Excellence 2002-21 Society of Professional Journalists National Mark of Excellence 2001-21 First Amendment Award 2002, 2005

EDITORIALS / OPINIONS / LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Some bumps, but much inspired work by staff to keep college operational “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” – Maya Angelou

W

e are, in real time, walking through history right now. …or running, crawling and stumbling, perhaps with our

eyes closed.

So if you are reading this and still in college, count yourself among the winners.

Southwestern College is populated with stories of courage this season — some in person, some on Zoom, some online. We will attempt to tell as many as possible in the coming year.

It would not be shrill or hyperbole to say that the past 18 months have been epic, unprecedented, terrifying, challenging and exhausting. Yet -- paradoxically perhaps -- also energizing, innovative, empathetic, generous and inspiring. Faculty and students were hammered into submission in March 2020, only to resurrect as stronger, tougher, better people.

That gives us hope.

Last year’s staff of The Sun tried valiantly to keep up and cover our community. It seemed impossible, but the 2020-21 team led remotely by Julia Woock, Xiomara Villarreal-Gerardo and their Editorial Board found a way to turn out some great work and keep Southwestern College visible in the community during a period of prolonged darkness. This year’s new staff salutes them for keeping this publication and El Sol Magazine alive and flourishing against all odds.

So much good happened on this campus, but also some moments of forehead slapping poor judgment. Here is some of the best and worst of the past year-and-ahalf at Southwestern College-in-exile: CHEERS to college governing board members and administrators for implementing a strong vaccination and mask mandate that is in line with other well-run institutions of higher education, corporations and government agencies. It makes us feel that you care about student safety.

JEERS to college president Dr. Mark Sanchez for his inexplicable July 7 message that attempted to make vaccines and masks optional. His decision, had it stood, would have been nothing short of catastrophic, chasing away thousands of students and endangering his staff. Thankfully common sense prevailed and he reverse himself in August.

The Issue: Coronavirus chased everyone off campus, but could not completely shut down Southwestern College.

Our position: Kudos to the many staff members who rose to the challenge with creativity, energy and compassion. We noticed.

CHEERS to the Jaguar debate team for battling for national championships in several categories, which really irritated students from Harvard and other elite universities.

CHEERS to Professor of Music Dr. Jeff Nevin, the “Johnny Appleseed of Mariachi,” for his selection as Grand Marshal of the Bonitafest. Congrats to Trustee Don Dumas, honored by Bonitafest for being named BVHS Teacher of the Year and for coaching the Baron’s boys basketball team to the state championship.

JEERS to our once-beloved library staff for its inexplicable decision to shut down at 1 p.m. every day and kick out students attempting to attend 11:45 a.m. – 1:10 p.m. classes over Zoom on college technology or Wi-Fi. Interventions by faculty and at least one dean were rebuffed, and the library staff has selfishly put its own cozy schedule over the needs of low-income students working hard to stay in college.

Shameful.

CHEERS to new Chief of Public Safety Marco Bareno, a good cop in a time when law enforcement has deservedly come under fire. Chief Bareno seems committed to reforming and modernizing the SCPD, and we wish him all the very best.

JEERS to the Disabled Student Services counselors who issue generic, off-theshelf accommodations for students they should be helping, but have instead betrayed. Professors have shown us stacks of absolutely identical accommodations which would seem to indicate that some DSS staff is lazy, incompetent and does not care about the academic success of its students. DSS has a new director who needs to get the broom and sweep out this barn.

CHEERS to the awesome college staff members who spent exhausting days

last spring and summer working lines of idling cars in the front parking lot to issue technology, food and household essentials to low-income students and students who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. It was one of the finest moments for the college in recent memory and SC took its place as the beating heart at the center of Chula Vista.

JEERS to the not-so-awesome staff members that ghost students who email them with questions or need help.

Answering emails and helping students is your job. Ignoring emails is unacceptable and makes us wonder if some folks are even working.

CHEERS to talented Ernesto Rivera of the SC communications team whose profile of 2021 Honorary Degree recipient Salvador Barajas almost broke the Internet.

Okay, that’s hyperbole, but Rivera’s feature got more than 40,000 hits in the week after it was posted – the most-read item ever on the college website.

JEERS to those local businesses whining that “no one wants to work” when they refuse to pay decent wages, treat young adults poorly and make it difficult for us to attend college when they randomly call us into work during class time. (Thankfully it is a minority.)

CHEERS to Administrator of the Year Dr. Cynthia McGregor, dean of the School of Arts, Communication and Social Science. Dr. McGregor has shown again and again that she cares about students, and is willing to go above and beyond to help us succeed.

CHEERS to 2021 El Sol Magazine Editor-in-Chief Xiomara VillarrealGerardo who was recently crowned Miss Chula Vista and is a finalist for San Diego County Remarkable Teenager. Xio is just 19 and a junior at SDSU where she writes in English and Spanish for the Daily Aztec.

JEERS to student loan holders who continue cruel and predatory practices that saddle us with crushing debt. We are holding out hope that President Biden will lead the charge for student loan forgiveness.

CHEERS to 2020-21 Sun EIC Julia Woock, a model of consistent excellence, who was a 2020 National College Reporter of the Year. Remarkably, she is also a finalist for the 2021 award.

CHEERS to hope, optimism and courage. JEERS to despair, negativity and cowardice. Southwestern College is coming back. We are glad to be part of history.

San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism 1999-2021 Directors Award for Defense of Free Speech 2012 Journalism Association of Community Colleges Pacesetter Award 2001-18 Newspaper General Excellence 2000-2020 American Scholastic Press Association Community College Newspaper of the Year

Yaritza Cuevas / Staff THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

OCT. 1, 2021 / VOL 58-A, ISSUE 1

3

CAMPUS

CAMPUS NEWS / STUDENT NEWS / PROFILES Adobe Stock

COVID ANGEL A courageous young nurse volunteered for action in a deadly COVID-19 ward

I

BY ANA PAOLA OLVERA | Staff Writer

n February, 23-year-old SC nursing student Ariana Delucchi applied to Sharp Memorial Hospital. l In March all Hell broke loose. l Delucchi was informed that the unit she was hired to work in had been frantically converted into a COVID-19 overflow ICU. She was given two options: to join the front lines of the novel coronavirus war or to wait until COVID-19 passed over. l Delucchi immediately joined.

“There are a lot of patients who are just convinced that they’re going to die

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, she said, a great time to start working in medicine. It was also a rare chance for a young medical professional to make an instant impact during an international crisis.

“I was excited for (the opportunity) and to get my foot in the door to start building my foundation so I could become a good nursing assistant and eventually become a really good nurse,” she said.

Her colleagues insist that Delucchi is officially “a really good nursing assistant” with a brilliant future.

Lexie Volquez, a nurse at Sharp Memorial Hospital, said Delucchi has become a battle-worn front-line warrior against the plague of the 21st century at a tender age. She has already assumed many of the responsibilities typical nursing students may not be trusted with for years.

Delucchi said she was introduced to the world of nursing when she was 10. Her aunt had Stage 4 melanoma and she would visit her at the hospital every day after school. She was deeply moved by the devotion of the nurses, she said.

“They were smart, kind, loving, compassionate, empathetic — just all things amazing,” she said. “And I know that the situation was pretty terrible, but they took really really good care of her and took really good care of my family.”

Delucchi said she wanted to be like them.

Volquez said she is.

Chula Vista and the South County have been a COVID-19 hotspot since the spring, but Volquez said the tsunami of patients started slowly. In

Photo Courtesy Valerie Pennington

“Arianna’s got a wisdom about her that doesn’t correlate with her age. I expect great things from her.”

NURSE PG 5

Valerie Pennington

and it’s hard

SC Biology Professor

to hear, you it’s hard to see them struggling.”

Ariana Delucchi

SC nursing major

OCT. 1, 2021 / VOL 58-A, ISSUE 1

“This experience makes me want to be a

know, and

4

Ariana Delucchi, a 23-year-old SC nursing student, ministers to COVID-19 patients at Sharp Memorial Hospital. An SC Student of Distinction Award recipient, Delucchi has seen horror and miracles working with critically-ill patients.

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

SC student battles a pandemic in an overwhelmed COVID ward

nurse even

Ariana Delucchi logged more than 2,000 hours at the Sharp Memorial Hospital COVID ward in Chula Vista.

help people

more, so that I am able to even more than I am now.”

Ariana Delucchi

SC nursing major

CAMPUS

Student paper named one of century’s best 100 publications EDITING BY NICOLETTE MONIQUE LUNA

Julia Woock was very happy when she learned she had been selected as Editor-in-Chief of the Southwestern College Sun in June 2020.

Then a pause.

“So, how are we going to do this?” she asked.

Woock became part of the solution that required creativity, perseverance and patience. Locked out of the journalism lab and all its technology, student leaders had to make profound adjustments, she said. Working over Zoom, email, the phone and several versions of experimental software, she and her team published print newspapers while most colleges and universities settled for online publications.

“Last year we accomplished something that had never been done,” she said. “Our curriculum went completely online and we still managed to inform and serve our community.”

Woock joined 2020 El Sol Magazine EIC Pernisha Gaines as successful journalism cyber warriors.

Gaines and her staff were less than halfway through their ambitious, but embryonic magazine when coronavirus stopped the presses. Her team scattered to at least 12 cities in three countries. Some were never heard from again.

Most, though, kept after it. With the help of one computer taken home from the shuttered journalism lab and the talent of former SC graphic arts instructor Ken Pagano, Gaines and Company cobbled together what many American journalism educators have called a masterpiece.

El Sol Magazine, Volume X, published in July 2020, two months after the end of the semester, is the USA’s reigning National College Magazine of the Year.

The Sun enjoyed similar success under Woock, winning six national championships, as well as the Western Publishing Association’s award as America’s Best Student Publication.

Another of the three finalist for the award was El Sol Magazine.

Southwestern College Sun and El Sol Magazine 2020-21 National Champions Southwestern College Sun • America’s Best Student Publication (Western Publishing Association, Los Angeles) • Pacemaker Award, the collegiate Pulitzer Prize (Associated Collegiate Press, Minneapolis) • Best of Show (Associated Collegiate Press, Minneapolis) • Most Outstanding College Newspaper (American Scholastic Press Association, NY) • Most Outstanding Two-Year College Newspaper (Society of Professional Journalists, IN)

STUDENT PRESS PRESSES AHEAD – Student of Distinction Award recipient Brittany Cruz-Fejeran was Editor-in-Chief of The Sun when Southwestern College closed the campus in March 2020. Against all odds, Cruz-Fejeran held her staff together and finished an award-winning year. Photo by Ernesto Rivera “I thought Pernisha and the El Sol would get it,” said Woock. “It doesn’t matter, really, because it was a lot of the same students who worked on both publications.”

Gaines and Woock both credit an EIC they served under for generating the “Never give up!” spirit that drove their publications. Brittany CruzFejeran, the 2019-20 leader of The Sun, had the proverbial rug pulled out from under her by coronavirus.

Overnight Cruz-Fejeran went from the successful leader of a staff of 45 in a well-equipped college newsroom to a lonely EIC exiled to Paradise Hills with her laptop on the kitchen table. Woock was her News Editor.

“That was rough,” she said. “Poor Brittany did not know what to do at first, but she figured it out. She refused to quit. She inspired the rest of us to push on.”

Cruz-Fejeran, Woock and Gaines are part of a line of Southwestern College student journalists who will be honored this month at the Associated Collegiate Press National

• Best Two-Year Collegiate Newspaper (College Media Association, NY) • Best Community College Newspaper (California College News Media Association, Sacramento) • Best Two-Year College Newspaper (California Newspaper Publishers Association, Sacramento) • Best College Newspaper in San Diego County (San Diego Press Club) • Best Collegiate Publication, San Diego County (San Diego Chapter SPJ)

JULIA WOOCK

PERNISHA GAINES

College Media Convention. The Sun and El Sol are both finalists for the ACP’s Pacemaker Award, the collegiate Pulitzer Prize. Woock is also one of three finalists for 2021 National College Reporter of the Year, an award she won in 2020. Originally scheduled for New Orleans, the convention was moved to a virtual event recently following Hurricane Ida and Louisiana’s COVID-19 situation.

One recognition the three editors know The Sun will receive this weekend is a special Pacemaker Award honoring America’s Best

100 Student Publications of the Century. The Sun is also under consideration as one of the Best 10 Student Publications of the Century.

Southwestern College never earned a Pacemaker Award until 2003, but now has 17.

To be recognized in such a manner while entering a 19th month in exile is surreal, said Woock.

“We aimed to do our best with whatever resources we had and lead with compassion through trying time,” she said. “It was one of the most difficult things I had ever done, but also the most rewarding.”

Southwestern College El Sol Magazine • Most Outstanding Community College Magazine (American Scholastic Press Association, NY) • Best of Show (Associated Collegiate Press, Minneapolis) • Best Community College Magazine (College Media Association, NY) • Best College Magazine (California College News Media Association, Sacramento)

CONTINUED FROM PG. 4

NURSE: SC student volunteers to serve overwhelmed Chula Vista COVID ward March, each nurse had one patient under their care. Then two, then three, then four.

It was surreal, Volquez said, the first time she walked into a COVID-19 patient’s room.

“I was very nervous,” she said. “(It was unnerving) just to think that this virus that originated (across the Pacific) Ocean was right there in front of me.”

Delucchi agreed. COVID-19 is on its way to killing 600,000 Americans.

In February 2020 few saw it coming. It flipped the United States upside down and flung the nursing profession into chaotic exhaustion.

Even student nurses like Delucchi are leaned on heavily by a fraying medical system. In addition to classes and training, she spends three nights a week at the hospital working 7 p.m. - 7:30 a.m.

She starts each evening by putting on her hospital-issued scrubs and Personal Protection Equipment (face shields, masks and gloves). Next she receives her patients’ reports before launching out to visit each patient and ask if they need anything.

Delucchi helps them bathe, shave, eat and walk around their rooms.

She also assists senior nurses with an array of medical procedures.

Nights are long, lonely and often scary for COVID-19 patients. They are isolated in their rooms and no one is allowed to visit. They can only talk to their loved ones via FaceTime or Zoom. Nurses are the sole source of direct human contact for a critically-ill COVID patient.

Biological science goes only so far. The art of conversation is also an essential skill of a great nurse, Delucchi said, and she tries to find topics that help provide a little happiness.

“Having the virus can be pretty miserable,” she said. “It’s nice to see them smile for once by just having a conversation with them.”

One of Delucchi’s patients had been hospitalized for several days and thought he would be going home until he got bad news — his oxygen levels slipped and he needed to stay at least one more night.

Delucchi eased the disappointed by talking to him about dogs.

She told him funny stories about her sister’s boyfriend’s family dog and he told her about how his wife had sent him a bag full of his dog’s hair. They laughed and he thanked her, saying that even though he was disappointed, she had made him feel a little bit better.

Sometimes a nurse needs to calm a patient when stress can add fuel to a bad situation. Lack of oxygen is a primal fear for many COVID-19 patients, Delucchi said. Some run out of breath simply trying to speak.

Nurses have to help desperate patients avert panic and stay calm while their bodies try to fight off the virus.

Delucchi had one shift where they had to transfer three patients to the Progressive Care Unit because they had suddenly stopped responding to their oxygen therapy.

She watched as a patient’s oxygen level suddenly dropped on the

monitor. An adequate level is 93 percent, she said, but even as nurses tried to provide the patient with more oxygen, the number would hover at 88 and 89. Intubation for a ventilator is generally started when the oxygen level slips below 85 percent.

“There are a lot of patients who are just convinced that they’re going to die and it’s hard to hear, you know, and it’s hard to see them struggling,” she said.

An SC Student of Distinction Award recipient and 4.0 student, Delucchi used to be a power study leader for Professor of Biology Valerie Pennington’s Anatomy and Physiology class. Pennington said Delucchi transcends what one would expect from even an extraordinary student. It is her unfailingly generous spirit, Pennington said, and her drive to help others.

“Arianna’s got a wisdom about her that doesn’t correlate with her age,” she said. “I expect great things from her.”

So does Volquez, who nominated her for Sharp Memorial Hospital’s Employee of the Month. She said Delucchi goes above and beyond for the unit, and her inquisitive mind is always ready to absorb new information.

As the COVID-19 cases started to go down in the South County, half of Delucchi’s unit returned to caring for other patients. Many of those patients, however, have been getting sicker than before, she said.

Effects of the novel coronavirus

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

are sometimes dramatic, but often dangerously subtle and not readily detected.

Working at a COVID-19 unit is dangerous. More than 1,000 American doctors and nurses have died from the disease. Data about the number of medical workers sickened by COVID-19 is incomplete, but the Center for Disease Control estimated in August that the 120,000 cases reported to the agency was likely a fraction of the true number. Delucchi said she knows her mission is perilous and takes meticulous precautions not to accidentally spread the virus.

If only the rest of society were so conscientious.

Social media drains her, she said, because it is rife with images of thoughtless Americans behaving recklessly. Scrolling though her feed unleashes a depressing stream of people partying obliviously, not wearing masks or incorrectly wearing masks under their noses.

It is frustrating for exhausted health care workers to watch this cavalcade of carelessness and callous, Delucchi said, when they spend most of their waking hours trying to keep people alive or watching them suffocate to death as the virus fills their lungs with fluids.

Young people are not exempt from COVID-19 despite fallacious social media messages, she said. Teens and twenty-somethings also die horribly from the coronavirus, she warned.

She has seen it.

“I don’t want that for those people and I don’t want people to

pass it on to someone who maybe won’t fare as well,” she said.

Pennington said most of her students are working in COVID-19 units. They tell her it is hard to accept that people have politicized a virus and call COVID-19 a hoax, especially when they are putting their lives on the line.

“Our health care workers are out there risking their own lives and doing incredible things every day, yet there are people (who say) ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s not real. I’m not going to wear a mask,’” said Pennington.

Nights are at their darkest, Delucchi said, when a patient passes away.

Advanced age and pre-existing conditions make patients vulnerable to succumbing to COVID-19. When patients infected with the novel coronavirus arrive at the hospital, she said, everyone on staff roots for them and they do everything in their power to help. It is traumatizing when they die, she said, and it never gets easier.

Delucchi said she strives to be a kind and empathetic nurse — someone who can take care of patients and ease their worries. She got into her dream nursing school at CSU Long Beach this month and plans to start there next semester.

Her time in the COVID-19 ward has already shaped her outlook, she said.

“This experience makes me want to be a nurse even more, so that I am able to help people even more than I am now.”

OCT. 1, 2021 / VOL 58-A, ISSUE 1

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ARTS Adobe Stock

The celebrated Mayan hieroglyphic writing system is a sophisticated combination of pictographs directly representing objects and ideograms (or glyphs) that expressed more abstract concepts such as actions or ideas and even syllabic sounds.

Photo Courtesy Mark Van Stone

WINDOW INTO THE PAST — SC Professor Dr. Mark Van Stone presents one of his two books, Reading the Maya Glyphs. Van Stone and his colleagues have made great progress understanding Mayan culture and language since the 1980s. Photo Nicholas James / Staff

SC Professor is a global expert on hieroglyph language

Messenger of the Gods

BY STEPHANIE ACEVES Staff Writer

S “Being passionate about your subject makes you a better teacher. I talk about what I love and I hope I communicate that.

There are always some students touched by that art and (art history) becomes their new favorite subject.”

Mark Van Stone SC Art Professor

In the world of calligraphy and type design, Van Stone established himself as an expert in paleography and the evolution of written forms.

He lectured widely on the subject for the next 20 years. He eventually focused on the most complex, most beautiful and least understood script, Mayan hieroglyphs.

ome people just can’t read the writing on the wall.

Dr. Mark Van Stone can, even if it is in Mayan hieroglyphics.

A brainy and bubbly professor of art history, Van Stone is the Indiana Jones of Southwestern College, just without the fedora.

Like Dr. Jones, Dr. Van Stone travels the world lecturing and providing expert testimony on the ancient Maya and their mystifying hieroglyphs. He trotted the globe in 2011 debunking the so-called 2012 Mayan Calendar Prophecy, which doomsayers claimed foretold the end of the world.

Van Stone circled the planet assuring humanity the planet would still be here in 2013.

He was right!

The celebrated Mayan hieroglyphic writing system is a sophisticated combination of pictographs directly representing objects and ideograms (or glyphs) that expressed more abstract concepts such as actions or ideas and even syllabic sounds.

Van Stone recently gave an audiovisual lecture at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park that explored the mystery and beauty of Maya hieroglyphs. Only deciphered since about 1980, the ongoing translation of this unique writing system has revealed insight into the Maya, from the victories of kings to names of demons to personalized chocolate drinking vessels.

Fabiana Hernandez, a student in Van Stone’s Art and Cultural of Pre-Hispanic Mexico class, attended.

“I thought the topic is really interesting,” she said.

“I wanted to learn more about Mexican history.”

Alanis Escalera is also in Van Stone’s class.

“I also thought the idea of taking art history to be interesting,” she said. “We learn about the Maya, the Olmec and Teotihuacan, but we also get to see how diverse it is and similar it is within all Mesoamerica, so we have that perspective.”

Van Stone did not set out to be a rock star, he wanted to study stars. He earned a degree in physics in 1973 and worked in a gamma-ray astronomy laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. He was lured away from the ancient skies to the ancient Earth, and became a calligrapher and carver.

“I was an independent self-employed teaching calligraphy,” he said. “Calligraphy literally means beautiful writing and for me the study was how and why people make writing good.”

In the world of calligraphy and type design, Van Stone established himself as an expert in paleography and the evolution of written forms.

He lectured widely on the subject for the next 20

Illustration / Adobe Stock

6

OCT. 1, 2021 / VOL 58-A, ISSUE 1

years. He eventually focused on the most complex, most beautiful and least understood script, Mayan hieroglyphs.

“I got started in the mid-‘80s,” he said. “I studied the writing of other ancient cultures before that. I was really into calligraphy and hieroglyphs.”

A lifelong autodidact, he relentlessly seized opportunities to study in the reading rooms and storerooms of libraries and museums around throughout the world. He also learned by doing, making Mayan-style artwork.

“Being passionate about your subject makes you a better teacher,” he said. “I talk about what I love and I hope I communicate that. There are always some students touched by that art and (art history) becomes their new favorite subject.”

Van Stone’s friend Michael Code was an American archaeologist and anthropologist, epigrapher and author. He is known for his research on preColumbian Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya, and was among the foremost Mayanists of the late 20th century.

He invited Van Stone to illustrate the book “Reading the Maya Glyphs.”

“I didn’t want anybody else other than Van Stone because I wanted the best,” Code said.

In addition to his work as an academic, Van Stone is an avid artist. He designed the Maya glyphs on the SC library, the new wellness complex and most recently the Math and Science building.

“In 2002 I was hired here [and] in 2004 the president of the college asked me if I wanted to design the library extension,” he said. “A design on the left side of the library says ‘house of the god of learning.’ The god of learning is Itzamnaaj. He wears a little mirror in front of his face on a headband like an old-time doctor.”

The hieroglyphs Van Stone designed for the Wellness Center translate as ‘first health place.’

“I like the idea that someone will enjoy these buildings I did,” he said. “I designed 10 hieroglyphics descriptions on the north side of the building. One design looks like a flower and that is the number zero.”

Maya mathematicians invented zero, the absence of value, Van Stone said. This brilliant innovation is celebrated on the new Math and Science building.

“I actually designed five or 10 things that went on that building,” he said.

In 1982 Van Stone went to Japan to study netsuke, the first non-Japanese scholar to do so.

“I really love the carving,” he said. “It’s a very miniature, delicate detail that I really wanted to do.”

His dual background in science and art is essential to his unique understanding of Mayan hieroglyphics, he said, as well as the development of all writing systems. His comprehension of these glyphs gives him a rare ability to interpret the Mayan calendar in an authoritative and trustworthy manner—a great relief to humanity in 2011.

Adobe Stock

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

SPORTS

CAMPUS SPORTS / FEATURES / ALTERNATIVE SPORTS

MUSIC OVER MANTLE — In 1968 the legendary Mickey Mantle played his final season and the New York Yankees were looking for his replacement. They wanted to sign a slender centerfielder from The Bronx, but Joel Levine had another great offer to consider. Photo Courtesy Wikipedia

Teenage Joel Levine had a tough choice — sign with the NY Yankees or accept a prestigious music scholarship

SOUTHWESTERN 1, YANKEES 0

BY ANDREW SANCHEZ Staff Writer

A

capacity crowd at Yankee Stadium fell deathly quiet during Game 2 of the 1951 World Series when transcendent rookie Mickey Mantle writhed in agony on the right field grass after stepping on a sprinkler, his knee shredded. Seconds earlier Mantle had veered out of the way of iconic New York Yankee center fielder Joe DiMaggio to avoid a collision on a fly ball by Willie Mays.

The venerable Yankee Clipper stood over the Kid from Commerce, concerned about his teammate and heir. Mantle left right field on a stretcher, never the same. It remains one of the most notorious injuries in baseball history.

Joel Levine made sure to avoid the sprinkler.

Southwestern College’s dean of Language, Literature and Humanities, Levine stepped over the Mantle sprinkler when he stepped onto the outfield turf at America’s most venerated baseball stadium. He also stepped across hallowed ground during his 1968 tryout with the New York Yankees.

A South Bronx native, Levine grew up near Yankee Stadium during the Golden Age of the “Bronx Bombers,” who appeared in 13 World Series in the 1950s and early ‘60s, winning eight. Like other young New Yorkers, he played baseball and stickball in the streets when not on a grass field playing youth ball. In high school he was a talented pitcher and center fielder.

He was also a very talented musician who even as a child demonstrated precocious virtuosity and flair on the clarinet. Levine dreamed of baseball, but his mother encouraged him to play music.

For years he did both, he said, dreaming of playing center field for the Yankees during the day, and first chair clarinet for the New York Philharmonic at night.

Fate collided as Mantle and DiMaggio almost had.

Manhattan School of Music had an eye on Levine and offered him a full scholarship. MSM was and remains neck-and-neck with The Juilliard School as the New York Yankees of music universities, alltime champions. The Yankees had an eye on Levine, too, and invited him to a tryout the summer after he graduated from high school. He grabbed his glove and spikes and headed to The House That Ruth Built, the Bronx baseball cathedral of Yankee Stadium.

About 300 high school and college baseball standouts were invited to the tryout. Most were sent home after the first day.

Levine stuck.

And he kept on sticking.

For two grueling weeks he kept sticking.

Yankee scouts liked him as a pitcher, but also liked his bat and saw his powerful arm as an asset in the outfield — possibly as a replacement for Mantle himself, who in 1968 was hobbling through the final season of his Hall of Fame career.

Levine took flyballs and fungos in the outfield, stepping around the Mantle sprinkler and gliding in front of “Monument Park” where bronze and stone obelisks stand erect through time honoring Yankee greats Miller Huggins, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, DiMaggio (and a short time later, Mantle.) He gloved fly balls where the mighty Ruth trod in the 1920s, threw from the same places DiMaggio had cut down baserunners in the 1940s and guarded the gaps like home run champion Roger Maris early in the 1960s.

After a fortnight of relentless workouts, the Yankees winnowed the field down to 20 teens who had risen above the rest. Levine was left standing. The New York Yankees wanted to sign him.

Levine said he was ecstatic, but his mother conflicted. She was proud of Joel for being offered a spot in the Yankees organization, but concerned about his spot at Manhattan School of Music and his scholarship. She had never liked the sport and her baseball-obsessed husband did not help, chain smoking in front of the TV, watching every possible Yankees and Mets game.

Young Joel said he still remembers the bright Bronx morning when the phone rang around 9 a.m. At that time of the year sunlight reflected off the fifth floor tenement across the alley into the Levines’ tiny unit.

Mrs. Levine happened to answer the phone the day Yankees scout Arthur Dede called to make Joel a formal contract offer to play late summer rookie baseball in the Yanks’ system.

“I don’t want my son riding in a bus all over the country,” a horrified Levine recalled his mom telling the Yankees’ representative.

“He’s got better things to do with his life!”

He coaxed the phone away from his mother and set up a personal meeting with Dede. Rookie league for high school players started in late August, he was told, about the same time Manhattan School of Music started fall classes.

It was a pivotal moment in his life, Levine recalled.

“Time slowed down,” he said. “Even though I was very young, I knew I was about to make a lifetime decision. I still remember how the light looked reflected off the fifth floor windows. I figured I could play the clarinet long past the time I could play baseball.”

He chose music over Mantle, college over professional baseball. He told the Yankees he did not want to abandon his scholarship.

“It’s okay, son, you are still young,” Levine recalled Dede telling him. “We will watch you play in college and see how you progress there. We can sign you up later.”

Levine said he did not have the heart to tell Dede that Manhattan School of Music was not exactly an intercollegiate baseball powerhouse. In fact, it had no sports programs at all. It enrolled about 450 students at that time — all musicians.

“Not a Babe Ruth or Willie Mays in the bunch,” Levine said.

Levine had hit that moment in time where so many young men with dreams of baseball stardom reluctantly arrive. His baseball career was over.

Other great adventures lay ahead.

As the baseball cleats grew cold in the crisp fall air, Levine’s clarinet was hotter than ever. His scholarship paid for almost everything at MSM except lunch, he recalled, so he took a thermos of soup, a sandwich and an apple to campus each day to fuel his music. One of his classmates was Santo “Sunny” Russo, the alreadylegendary trombonist for “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” who came to school during the day to study music education.

Levine earned a B.A. in music with an emphasis in clarinet performance in 1972. He completed an M.A. in music in 1973, while working in several education classes, also at the Manhattan School of Music.

He completed a teaching credential program in 1975 at Columbia University, where he developed a love for the science of education.

In 1980 he earned a second Master’s and a Doctorate in education administration from Columbia, completing both degrees from the venerable Ivy League University in just two-and-a-half years.

Levine was offered a cushy job in mostly-white, upper middle class Staten Island, but turned it down to teach in low-income, mostlyminority Spanish Harlem.

“Best decision I ever made, it was great,” he said. “That experience taught me so much about inequities in our education system and what we needed to do to elevate disadvantaged communities.”

Teaching in NYC’s barrio communities helped to spawn and nurture what became a decades-long devotion to developing critical thinking skills in underserved students on Native American reservations and borderlands schools. He took that mission with him to Pittsburgh, California in the East Bay north of Berkeley, then to work for the Campo Band of Mission Indians (who now refer to themselves by their ancestral name of Kumeyaay).

In 1989 he ignored discouraging naysayers and staggering odds to write a successful grant application to the Federal Indian Act of 1988.

Levine’s Campo Indian Education Project was awarded $250,000, which he used to establish a preschool on the Campo reservation, hire counselors, employ seven after-school tutors and build two modern classroom structures. In eight years the Native American high school dropout rate nearly flipped, dropping from almost 90 percent to just over 10 percent.

Levine arrived at SC in 2006 as dean of Language, Literature and Humanities. He teamed with Professor of Reading Dr. Sylvia Garcia-Navarrete and instructor Yuki Yamamoto to develop the award-winning curriculum “My Reading Toolbox” that has spawned successful textbooks and requests for workshops and classes around the globe. Levine also serves as a mentor and adviser for doctoral students at San Diego State University where he serves on dissertation committees.

He is, colleagues agree, still a wicked clarinetist who practices every day for 60-90 minutes.

“I actually think I’m better now than ever,” he said. “That makes sense because learning should be continuous. We can all continue to improve at whatever we like to do as we grow older.”

Levine said he enjoys performing with Dr. Cynthia McGregor, Dr. Jeff Nevin, Dr. Jenna Posey and other talented classically-trained musicians on the SC faculty at recitals and concerts. He played in the SC Orchestra performance of the “New World Symphony,” conducted

by Nevin. One of his favorite all-time gigs was playing the world premier of the Joseph Julian Gonzalez chorale “Misa Azteca,” which featured SC’s lauded Concert Choir directed by Dr. Teresa Russell.

His career in education has been richly rewarding, he said, but does he ever wonder “what if?”

“If I could do it all over, I wouldn’t change a thing. My life has exceeded my wildest dreams, even I had been successful with the Yankees. I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. I’ve had a great life and I love being part of Southwestern College."

Photo Courtesy Joel Levine

“If I could do it all over, I wouldn’t change a thing. My life has exceeded my wildest dreams, even I had been successful with the Yankees. I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. I’ve had a great life and I love being part of Southwestern College.”

Dr. Joel Levine

SC dean of Language and Humanities

BASEBALL’S HOLY LAND Yankee Stadium is home to more MLB World Champions and Hall of Famers than any other. NYC native Joel Levine aced a two-week tryout with the Bronx Bombers in 1968 and offered a professional contract. As a youngster he envisioned playing centerfield for the Yankees in the afternoon, then first chair clarinet for the New York Philharmonic in the evening. Turns out he had to choose between the two.

Photo Courtesy Wikipedia

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

OCT. 1, 2021 / VOL 58-A, ISSUE 1

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BACKPAGE

VOICES IN OUR COMMUNITIES

NO MAS MUERTES (NO MORE DEATHS) ­— Human smuggling often occurs in remote areas away from population centers and news media, said Gente Unida founder Enrique Morones, leading to lack of awareness and underreporting.

Human rights activists with Gente Unida create a makeshift memorial at the site of a crash on a rural highway that killed 13 of the 25 farmworkers jammed in the back of a stripped out SUV. Activists suspect the Border Patrol of chasing the vehicle and causing the accident. INS officials deny there was a pursuit. Photos by Julia Woock / Staff

Unto dust you shall return

Gente Unida honors victims of Holtville crash that killed 13 migrant farm workers

BY JULIA WOOCK Staff Writer

I

Julia Woock / Staff

“We need to rise up and say ‘no more deaths!’ Justice is not blind when it comes to people of color and the LGBTQ community. They get treated in a totally different manner. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. We need to raise our voices every single time.”

Enrique Morones Gente Unida

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OCT. 1, 2021 / VOL 58-A, ISSUE 1

Courtesy Enrique Morones

MPERIAL VALLEY OUTSIDE HOLTVILLE, CA—A relentless sun seared the smoldering sand. There are no longer any signs of the blood of 13 migrants killed and 12 injured in a horrific high-speed collision on this normally-silent desert highway.

The desert sand has done what it always has, draining away all evidence of the cycle of life and death in this stark edge of California. Like the nearby paupers cemetery with the remains of nearly 1,000 unidentified migrants, this is a patch of land where dreams come to die.

Plastic flowers, handmade crosses and thrift store veladoras (votive candles) wilt in the withering sun, along with the memories of Holtville’s dead.

Volunteers with the human rights organization Gente Unida held a series of vigils to honor those whose lives were taken and refresh the short memories of the government. Gente Unida founder Enrique Morones said the Imperial Valley is a killing ground for migrants who die from hypothermia, starvation and dehydration. “¡Ni una muerte más!” said Morones, his voice cracking with sadness and anger. “If we had just laws, these people would not have to pile into a makeshift vehicle and risk their lives. When we do things for others, we do it for God. We do it for love and we do it for the souls of our brothers and sisters.”

Immigration activist Gloria Saucedo clutched a heavy cross with the message: “No más muertes. Reforma ya.” (No more deaths.

Reform now).

“This cross is a little larger than the rest, but I believe this is the cross every migrant carries along the way,” she said. “This cross represents struggle and sacrifice, the lives lost and those left behind.”

Saucedo said it was important for the living to be inspired by the migrants and continue to fight for humane immigration reform.

American farms and factories rely on migrant labor, she said, and migrant laborers need work visas, decent treatment and basic human rights.

Arizona human rights activist Luis Vega said he would not stop fighting for his migrant brothers and sisters until there is fair immigration reform. He called for bipartisan support to end migrant tragedies.

“Today will be one of the days I hope members of Congress in Washington D.C. will look at when discussing immigration reform,” he said.

Plastic flowers, handmade crosses and roadside candles are all that is left to see of America’s latest migrant mass tragedy. Vegas said he hopes it’s enough.

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

SPECIAL SECTION FALL 2021 OCT. 1, 2021 / VOL 58-A, ISSUE 1

PARKING LOT HOT SPOT — Southwestern College created a drive-up WiFi zone in parking lot O at the front of campus for students without internet connectivity.

Dozens of cars filled the lot at the outset of the coronavirus crisis and were a steady presence throughout the summer.

Courtesy Ernesto Rivera

College gradually ambling back to life after an 18-month coronavirus shutdown

RETURN FROM THE 'RONA WILDERNESS Students report an array of mixed feelings about return, remote instruction

BY CAMILA GONZALEZ, Editor-in-Chief, NICOLETTE LUNA, News Editor, JULIA WOOCK, Editor-in-Chief, 2020-21, XIOMARA VILLARREAL-GERARDO, Associate Editor-in-Chief, 2020-21

Yeah, it’s weird.

Weird like quiet Disneyland in a heavy rain.

Weird like the empty surf break of Imperial Beach during a sewage spill. Weird like rush hour on the 805 last spring when there were only a few speeding cars on the road.

Southwestern is open, but where are the rest of the people?

Most students back on campus for Southwestern College’s partial reopening reported that they were glad to be here, but a little spooked. Like a microscopic Sword of Damacles, SARS-CoV-2 hung heavily over the heads of even the most cheerful.

SC’s 156-acre main campus was pretty much a shaggy ghost town for a year-and-a-half since Saturday afternoon, March 14, 2020 when a

CENTER OF SOCIAL SERVICES — Andre Harris was one of a legion of SC staff who distributed technology and food to out-of-work students at a drive-up relief station.

Courtesy Ernesto Rivera

C RONA CAMPUS

ANALYSIS brilliant production of “Romeo and Juliet” bade students and staff farewell, parting with such sweet sorrow. Nary a soccer ball flew nor a chem lab brewed following the fateful evening of March 9 when former president Dr. Kindred ANALYSIS PG 2

A VIRUS DISRUPTS THE WORLD AND CLOSES SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE: A TIMELINE

2019

NOVEMBER Nov. 2019: Reports of a mysterious respiratory disease begin to emanate from Wuhan, China.

DECEMBER Dec. 2019: After initial denial, Chinese leaders declare a health emergency in Wuhan. Some doctors in the San Francisco area and San Diego County report a “stronger than usual strain” of the seasonal flu.

Dec. 2019: Earliest possible novel coronavirus infections in Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego County. They remain unconfirmed by the Center for Disease Control.

Wikipedia

2020

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD

JANUARY Jan. 3: Former CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield briefed by Chinese counterpart about “mysterious respiratory illness spreading in Wuhan.” President Trump briefed by medical and intelligence officials.

S1

CONTINUED FROM PG. S1

ANALYSIS: Coronavirus shutdown disrupted classes and the lives of students Murillo called a two-week break to “flatten the curve.”

Two weeks became two months and it will be more than two years before the campus is back to full strength…if then.

No one knows yet when that might be.

This semester SC is at about 30 percent capacity, according to college administrators. Spring may be doubled to 60 percent, according to VP of Academic Affairs Dr. Minou Spradley. It could well be August of 2022 before our University of Second Chances is back to 100 percent.

If then.

Coronavirus refuses to loosen its grip on America. Its super contagious Delta variant found allies in anti-vaxxers and ‘Rona deniers who have spread the plague of the 21st century as they spread misinformation across our landscape. South County has been hammered by terrifying spikes in infections. Chula Vista hospitals have overflowed with suffocating COVID-19 patients from underserved minority communities as well as privileged ex-pat Americans living in Latin America. Doctors and nurses cried as vaccine hesitant patients saw the light too late and begged for the shot as they drowned in their own lung fluid and died.

CENTER OF THE STORM In the bullseye is the institute of higher education planted in the geographic center of Chula Vista. Southwestern College has been a microcosm of America’s ‘Rona melodrama, complete with problems defining the problem, a few questionable decisions, but also heartwarming generosity. The campus became a relief center as relentlessly kind staff distributed laptops, food and financial support to students in socially-distanced lines snaking around the front parking lots. Masked and gloved employees working alongside social workers loaded technology and provisions into open car trunks as engines idled.

Parking Lot O, built for theater

NOT A CORONA IN THE WORLD — STEM students collaborate during a pre-‘Rona class. Classes for the foreseeable future will look much different with masks and social distancing. Photo by Ernesto Rivera

SC has lost more than 100 professors and employees since March 2020. Many veteran faculty said they were exhausted

by Zooming and rewriting face-to-face classes they have taught for 20 years into online classes.

and music audiences, became a drive-in Hot Spot. Students with unreliable wireless at home sat in their cars and stared into their laptops, trying to complete a semester that saw record numbers of drops, withdrawals and incompletes. Southwestern’s

enrollment plunged about 14 percent at the outset of the pandemic and may be down as much as 20 percent this semester.

Community college enrollment nationwide is down at least 10 percent, according to the Chronical of Higher Education.

It is not just students who are bailing. SC has lost more than 100 professors and employees since March 2020. Many veteran faculty said they were exhausted by Zooming and rewriting face-to-face classes they have taught for 20 years into online classes. Profs rubbing burning eyes from Zoom sessions urged students to hang on, but couldn’t go on themselves. Others said they could not bear watching their classes and subject matter “butchered.” Research reported recently that Zoom classes are about 80-85 percent as effective as in-person classes. Online classes are only 40 percent as effective. Even

so, SC is adding online classes to its schedule rather than cede students to National University and other high-price diploma mills.

Students and employees also faced an unprecedented mental health crisis. Terrified teenagers and young adults shared their fears and anxieties with stressed, worn down professors. SC’s already-too-small team of mental health counselors was swamped and unable to serve the tsunami of students who needed attention. A spike in reports of suicidal thinking caused some faculty to shift focus from their students’ academic development to their mental well-being.

Some stubborn instructors held fast to their original plans and made no alterations. Most, though, were empathetic and tried to guide students to a successful conclusion of a chaotic year.

A BRAVE NEW WORLD — Two things SC students likely never expected to see: instructions to survive a global pandemic and free parking. College staff scrambled to realign services and create new ones, including a WiFi hot spot in a visible parking lot.

Images Courtesy SC

Community Health Southwestern College partnered with San Ysidro Health to offer vaccines on the Chula Vista campus during the first two weeks of school.

The clinic was open to all Southwestern College students. San Ysidro Health offered the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

ANALYSIS CONT. NEXT PAGE

A VIRUS DISRUPTS THE WORLD AND CLOSES SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE: A TIMELINE

2020

JANUARY Jan. 17: CDC begins screening passengers arriving from China in U.S. airports in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Jan. 19: Alex M. Azar, former Health and Human Services director briefs Trump, who dismisses him as “an alarmist.”

Jan. 20: Chinese epidemiologists confirm a newly identified coronavirus that spreads through human-tohuman transmission. Dr. Anthony Fauci announces the National Institute of Health is already at work on a vaccine.

FEBRUARY Jan. 22: Trump says he is “not concerned” about novel coronavirus, saying “We have it under control.”

Jan. 23: China locks down Wuhan.

Jan. 27: World Health Organization declares coronavirus risk “high at the global level” foreshadowing an official declaration of a pandemic.

Jan. 29: Southwestern College opens Spring 2020 semester predicting “some big and exciting changes.”

State Dept. employees evacuated from Wuhan.

Airline passengers from China take novel coronavirus to Italy, Great Britain, Spain and New York City, among other global locations.

Feb. 6: First confirmed U.S. COVID-19 death, in San Jose, California.

Feb. 11: Disease caused by novel coronavirus designated as COVID-19

by WHO. Feb. 20-21: COVID-19 outbreak in Northern California.

Jan. 30: First confirmed U.S. coronavirus transmission case in Chicago from a person who had visited China.

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Wikipedia

SPECIAL EDITION FALL 2021

March 4: Calif. Gov. Newsom declares a state of emergency. New York’s Yeshiva University partly shuts down, the first known American college or university to suspend classes due to the virus.

March 6: Coronavirus cases reported throughout the U.S. March 7: Columbia University in NYC announces it is temporarily closing.

Concerned Southwestern College faculty share the information with SC President Dr. Kindred Murillo and recommend a contingency plan.

Tuesday, March 9, 9:30 a.m.: A Southwestern College Sun editor receives an off-the-record tip that SC will close on March 13 for two weeks, but college will not announce the closure until the evening of 3/13. An SC administrator confirms the plan, but will not go on the record.

Jan. 31: First confirmed case in California, though some health officials postulate coronavirus may have been circulating in state as early as November.

Wikipedia / Gage Skidmore

MARCH

GAVIN NEWSOM

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN

March 9, 11:30 a.m.: Sun faculty adviser receives third off-the-record confirmation that the college will close on Friday, 3/13.

March 9, 7:30 p.m.: At a meeting of the Gov. Board, SC administrator tells Sun EIC Brittany Cruz Fejeran on the record that the college will close on March 13 for at least two weeks.

March 9, 8:50 p.m.: After pressure from her staff and board members, Murillo confirms that the college will close Friday.

March 9, 8:55 p.m.: The Sun breaks the story on its website, theswcsun.com.

Murillo’s statement said the shutdown would be for two weeks in an attempt to “flatten the curve.” SC is the first California community college to announce a shutdown.

COMPASSION VS. THE BOTTOM LINE Murillo, always a sensitive and empathetic woman, led an unprecedented shift in mission that emphasized survival and compassion. It clearly took a toll.

Her “Things to Know” messages veered into TMI and caused many employees to worry about their president’s mental health. Murillo was under contract through June 30, 2020, but starting asking out of her contract early in the fall 2020 semester. She left in February, still urging staff to help students in ways beyond instruction.

Her successor took a very different tact.

Dr. Mark Sanchez was dealt a tough hand taking over for the clearly burned out Murillo during a global pandemic. A first-time president, he started out well,

projecting a sense of calm and maturity as he guided the virtual college to a soft land spring semester.

Then came July 3, a day that nearly became Southwestern’s September 11 or January 6. On the day before Independence Day, Sanchez lit his own fireworks when he inexplicably dropped an email bombshell. He unilaterally announced that he intended to reopen the college without requiring vaccines, masks or COVID testing.

It would be an understatement to say his missive was not well received. Social media blew up and as the month dragged on some faculty began to broach a vote of No Confidence and the removal of Sanchez as president. As South County COVID infections soared, employee unions, student leaders

America’s COVID Generation has two stark choices: step aside and hope normal returns or press on through uncertainty. and his own senior administrators implored Sanchez to reconsider.

He eventually did, directing staff to craft a reopening plan more in line with well-managed universities, corporations and government agencies. SC’s management team saved the reopening and may have saved Sanchez his job.

As thousands of students returned to campus in August,

thousands more returned to their computer screens and Zoom sessions. The Sun scattered its brand new staff out into the community for its first assignment: Gauge how students are feeling about their situations and what they see coming in the months ahead.

America’s COVID Generation has two stark choices: step aside and hope normal returns or press on through uncertainty. Southwestern College, despite a few stumbles, has done an admirable job serving its community. Reopening is risky, but can work if students and college staff pay attention, don’t cut corners and look out for each other.

Anti-vaxxers and COVID deniers may be our neighbors, relatives and friends, but they are not welcome here right now. Their poor choices have consequences they will have to

live with. To keep the doors open at Southwestern College, our leaders will have to be brave, smart and vigilant. They will have to stick to their guns and stand up to antiscience bullies who have politicized a virus.

Students who wish to soldier on can continue their educations, even if things are not perfect. Perhaps the old bandit from a famous Western said it best: “It ain’t like it used to be, but it’ll do.”

Weird lives on.

No one can honestly say they know when coronavirus will fade and normal will return. Our old normal may never return. As so many of our professors are telling us, it is the people who can adapt who will flourish…or at least survive. It is our hope that Southwestern College will be here to help us.

WHAT STUDENTS HAVE TO SAY “When I signed up for my first course at Southwestern I was doubtful of whether or not I would take a liking to it. I tried to imagine myself in the Zoom meetings, but the idea seemed so monotone and tedious. To my surprise it was a great experience and it is because of the amazing staff and community at Southwestern that this was possible.

Everyone was incredibly flexible and understanding. Their empathy and compassion truly showed that we were all in it together, that we were all going to make it through this pandemic and be successful.

We built a strong community within our class and the meetings became the highlight of my week. I had never met such an incredible group of people and such a supportive professor before them. That first Zoom course changed my life and helped me get through quarantine.

It helped me learn to adapt to new situations, how to better communicate with others, build a stronger focus, and truly find my passion for journalism.” – Nicolette Luna, 15, Journalism

“I’m very excited to see my teachers.

It gives (college) a different flavor.

I’m really looking forward to meeting more people – actual people.” – Brianna Prago, 22, Chemistry “(I feel) really good being (back on campus) and I enjoy being able to see people again…even with masks on. I have not felt unsafe because everyone is wearing a mask in all my classes. I don’t think we’ve had any issues. I am learning more effectively in person than when I am at home.

Sometimes I don’t even bother getting ready for my online classes.

I get more dressed up and feel more productive when I’m leaving my house and going (to campus).”

– April Ramirez, sophomore “I don’t like remote learning, I hate it! Face to face classes should be brought back at full capacity.”

– Fernando Ibarra, 18, Audio Engineering

“Right now I am taking online classes due to the pandemic and my own personal schedule. It feels great knowing I still have the professors’ support and help. I am looking forward to going back to finish my last classes on campus.”

– Alexandra Gonzalez, 28, Child Development “I’m done with online classes. They suck. Never again. Zoom is better, but not as good as in person classes.

I wish everyone would wise up and get vaccinated. We could all be back on campus full speed if it weren’t for the idiots who won’t get their shots.” – Reynaldo Gonzalez, 20, Undecided “(Being back on campus) is going pretty well. It’s different than other semesters, but pretty good so far.

Most of the students wear face masks so you feel comfortable and safe. People are more spread out in the classrooms.” – Gian Carlo Ornelas, 22, Biology

March 12: Scores of American universities and colleges move to remote instruction. Some begin sending resident students home.

March 17: Gov. Newsom places seven NorCal counties, home to 7 million people, under a Shelter in Place order.

March 18: Newsom extends “Stay at Home” order to entire state of California.

March 30: Murillo announces SC will not reopen during Spring 2020.

All classes and activities to be conducted remotely.

An estimated 20 percent of students drop out rather than complete classes online or over email.

March 13: Last official day of face-to-face instruction at SC. Faculty pack up offices and labs.

March 14: About 40 witness invitation-only dress rehearsal performance of “Romeo and Juliet” on Saturday afternoon, the last event at SC for 14 months.

It is 17 months before the resumption of any classes.

“This semester is kind of annoying since I have one class remote and one class on campus. When I registered I thought they were both remote so I got them back-toback, but I was wrong. My calculus class is remote and first, so I have to find a spot on campus to Zoom my calc class and them head off to my physics class right afterwards.

Another thing that sucks is that although I had to pay full pop for my classes, not all the facilities are open completely. Last week I needed to print something at the library, but it didn’t open until 9 a.m. and I needed an appointment.” – Christina Snyder, 30, Biochemistry “I’m taking only online classes.

If I have a question, I don’t have someone to help me immediately. I have to wait.” – Daishin Tanaka, 20, Business

“I wasn’t going to attend Southwestern College at all when they said during the summer that vaccinations were not going to be required and masks were optional.

That was fucking ridiculous! When they changed their minds and said everyone had to be vaccinated and wear masks, I felt safer and decided to come to campus. It seems to be working out pretty well and people are helpful.” – Diego Ayala, 18, Political Science “I like going (to classes) in person because I feel like my day is more productive and I get to interact more with other people instead of sitting behind a screen half asleep.” – Alan Herrera, sophomore “I am taking my classes online this semester because it is more manageable and doesn’t stress me out as much, but I like inperson classes because they are more involved.” – Nestor Lomeli, sophomore VOICES CONT. NEXT PAGE

MAY March 11: Murillo announces to community that college is closing for two weeks and will resume April 1 after Spring Break with “distributed education.” Cal. Community College system announces all 116 campuses will move to “remote instruction.”

The terms are not defined, instructors encouraged to “be creative and continue serving students.” NBA announces suspension of its season, MLB season delayed.

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May 9: SC holds Student Scholarship Awards and SODA ceremony remotely.

JUNE June 11: First SC classes to successfully use twoyear-old conferencing technology Zoom.

Professors urged to share their best practices and pitfalls with colleagues.

College announces Fall 2020 semester will be conducted remotely.

Faculty given option to use Zoom or online formats.

June 15: College launches expansive effort to help unemployed students with food, rent and technology that generates praise and goodwill in the community.

SC becomes center of South County human services distributions.

JULY College experiences scores of sudden retirements and resignations by faculty and staff. Fall sports cancelled.

Murillo begins to intimate that she might like to resign or retire before completing her contract, which expires June 30, 2021.

July 11: SC journalism students publish a 162page print issue of El Sol Magazine, the college’s first-ever remotely produced student publication. It is later named National College Magazine of the Year.

NOVEMBER Murillo asks board to release her from contract, but it declines to do so.

DECEMBER Another burst of retirements during Winter Break. Course sections cut back in anticipation of declining enrollment.

Dec. 16: College announces hiring of Cuesta College VP Dr. Mark Sanchez as its next president. Murillo says she will stay to train her replacement.

July 17: College holds a delayed virtual commencement.

AUGUST August 24: SC starts firstever full semester of remote learning. Enrollment down about 11.5 percent.

Dec. 29: New SARSCoV-2 variant (Delta) first identified in the United Kingdom discovered in Colorado.

August 26: Murillo announces she will retire sometime in 2021.

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SPECIAL EDITION FALL 2021

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“I enjoy doing remote classes and being able to stay home, but I dislike the fact that there are a lot of assignments crammed throughout the week. I don’t feel I learned much. Yes, I can get the work done with good grades, but I don’t retain the information like I do in oncampus courses. (Math courses are particularly difficult.) I just don’t feel it’s the same.” – David Villaseñor, Criminal Justice

“It is kind of hit-and-miss with online and Zoom. When we got dumped into online classes it was depressing and I was going to quit. Then a friend told me about a cool professor teaching a Zoom over the summer and he was amazing. He inspired me to hang in there and stay in college. My online classes are still pretty tedious, but I’m hanging in there hoping to take in person classes in the spring.” – Juan Sanchez, 20, Communication

“I love (being on campus) because I am in the music program. It is pretty difficult to learn and do music online in ensemble classes because of latency and microphone issues. It sucked bigtime to be in music classes online. I am 100 percent happy to be back in class. I want to give the school (employees) credit for doing the best they can.” – Ricardo Leon, Music

“Being on campus has allowed me to connect with my professors and be more comfortable with the material.

Most of all I’ve felt nostalgic. I am happy to be back on campus.” – Donovan Orozco, 21, Mechanical Engineering/President of SHPE

“In Fall 2020 I began my journalism experience at the Southwestern College Sun newspaper. We ran the newspaper entirely remote, meaning I never set foot in the newsroom. However, I never felt like I wasn’t getting the full experience because our professor made sure to support us and give us the professional journalism lessons and practice we needed. I was fortunate to (serve) as Sports Editor at The Sun, but due to the pandemic there were no college sports so we were forced to think out of the box.

We covered individual sports like paddle boarding, skate boarding, surfing…and different ways people were staying active at home.” – Xiomara Villarreal-Gerardo, 19, Journalism “This semester I chose to stay online because … yes, people are getting vaccinated, but there is still a huge chunk of the population that isn’t.” – Fernando Gomez, 20, Mechanical Engineering

“I feel happy (to be back on campus) and it’s easier to focus than being at home. I’m kind of afraid of the virus, but I’m vaccinated, so it’s less dangerous than if I was unvaccinated.” – Nolan Bushore, 17, Mechanical Engineering

COMMENCEMENT ROLLS ON – About 900 students participated in the 2021 Commencement Car Parade held in lieu of a traditional stadium ceremony. In 2019 about 800 students walked in DeVore Stadium, so students took to the adaptation.

Photo by Ernesto Rivera “I think it’s too early to be back face-to-face. This new variant is more dangerous and (the college) is exposing us because they’re not having enough precautions. It’s just a mask and hand sanitizer.

I know there the vaccine proof requirement, but there’s exemptions like medical conditions and religious staff. People who don’t want to get vaccinated can easily use the religion freedom thing and use that to be in face-to-face classes and that puts us in danger. And the classrooms are full!” – Genesis Montanez

“I think it’s too early to be back face-to-face. This new variant is more dangerous and (the college) is exposing us because they’re not having enough precautions. It’s just a mask and hand sanitizer.”

Genesis Montanez SC Student

“I think taking classes remotely is pretty cool, although my internet connection is not always the best.

Fighting procrastination has been an obstacle and sometimes I feel like I’m teaching myself and not learning anything. A good thing for me, though, is that I don’t have to commute back and forth from Tijuana to Chula Vista.

I no longer have to get up at 4 a.m. to cross the border to make it to class or pay for an apartment that is closer to the college.” – Jose Luis Martinez Urias, 19, Paralegal “I feel really excited to be back in school even if it’s online because I have many goals and ambitions.

Going to school helps me believe that I’m one step closer. Though I wish I had classes on campus, I’m still pretty happy to be able to interact with my professors and classmates.” – Rachel Kate M. Bautista, 19, Psychology

A VIRUS DISRUPTS THE WORLD AND CLOSES SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE: A TIMELINE

2021

FEBRUARY February 1: Spring 2021 semester continues as remote instruction as campus remains closed.

MARCH March 19: In what turns out to be her final “Things to Know” newsletter, Murillo announces her last day three-and-a-half months before the end of her contract.

APRIL April 25: The Sun publishes a Page One article with administration’s Fall 2021 reopening plans. Sanchez says all employees and students who wish to work or study on campus must be vaccinated. UC and CSU systems announce the same requirement.

JUNE

MAY May 17-22, 2021: An invitation-only, sociallydistanced performance of “Super Hero Planet” inaugurates brand new campus outdoor amphitheater and is the first event on campus since March 14, 2020. It would be nearly three months until other students set foot on campus.

May 28: About 900 students and more than 1,200 faculty and family members circled the campus circumference road for a rollicking but dignified 2021 Commencement Car Parade. The photogenic event was covered by several regional TV news outlets in English and Spanish. Students happily embraced the 2021 event after grudgingly cancelling the 2020 stadium commencement.

Southwestern’s car parades were an inspiration for the popular Bonitafest Car Parades of 2020 and ’21 as well as several high school events.

June 15: Voice of San Diego report says SC Presidential Search Committee had not put Sanchez forth as a finalist and had recommended a Black woman candidate instead.

JULY July 7: In an emailed “President’s Message,” Sanchez unilaterally announces he has changed his mind and vaccines “for Southwestern College students, employees and visitors will no longer be required.” Faculty, employees and members of the community express alarm, and pressure Sanchez to reconsider. As July moves forward some faculty inquire about a No Confidence vote on Sanchez, often the first step in the removal of a college president.

AUGUST August 3: Sanchez recants his July “Vaccinations optional” decision and declares that all students and employees must be vaccinated to enter campus. Faculty and classified unions cheer the decision.

SPECIAL EDITION FALL 2021

SEPTEMBER September 10: SC Jaguars football team beats Grossmont, 10-3, in its first game in two years.

September 13: Administrators and unions discuss preliminary plans for a Spring 2022 semester that is 60 percent on campus and 40 percent online. Initial plans eliminate synchronous Zoom-based classes in favor of asynchronous online-only classes which have a higher fill rate, but which research concludes are about 40 percent as effective as f2f and only half as effective as Zoombased classes.

September 16: The Sun staff interviews students and employees to collect anecdotes and data about the past 18 months. They report mixed feelings about 2022 reopening proposal. Some express concern that curriculum and instruction are being watered down in exchange for revenue generation.

Many, though, express preference for online classes that are convenient and easy.

OCTOBER October 7: SC announces a $1.5 million plan to forgive some student debt, including holds on student enrollment for bounced checks and unpaid fees.

More than 4,200 students will benefit from the forbearance, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

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August 23: Fall semester begins with about 30 percent on-campus capacity and another drop in enrollment. Face-toface classes are primarily in the performing arts, STEM and athletics.

THE SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE SUN