Vol. 63 Issue 4

A N A C P H A L L O F FA M E N E W S PA P E R 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 63, Issue 4

theswcsun.com

TUBERCULOSIS HITS COLLEGE FOR SECOND TIME IN 12 MONTHS

By Manuel Gonzalez Assistant News Editor

Tuberculosis, a scourge of humanity since the time of the ancient Babylonians, resurfaced at Southwestern College this Spring.

The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), Public Health Services (PHS) and Southwestern College are investigating a Tuberculosis exposure on the main campus from September 10, 2019 through February 21, 2020.

HHSA recently finished a separate investigation that found an undisclosed number of students and employees were exposed between Aug. 26 and Dec. 10 of 2019.

Students and staff identified as at risk were given the option to be tested on school grounds by the nursing department or their

March 12, 2020

CORONAVIRUS SCARE CLOSES CAMPUS

By Brittany Cruz-Fejeran and Katy Stegall Senior Staff

Like other American colleges, businesses and public events, Southwestern College is on a coronavirus hiatus. After The Sun published a story on its website Tuesday evening, March 10 that college administrators were

going to announce a shutdown on Friday afternoon March 13, President Dr. Kindred Murillo authorized acting PIO Ernesto Rivera to make an official announcement immediately.

Faculty were told the college would vacate as a precautionary measure and asked them to devise methods to continue instruction online or with “homework packets” that students could

take home. The college is considered closed March 16-29, a two-week stretch that includes spring break. All spring activities, competitions, performances and exhibitions have been cancelled.

Murillo said she would announce on March 23 whether the college would resume onsite or continue online. Numerous faculty and college personnel said they seriously doubted

Administrator terminated for ASO debacle

please see Tuberculosis pg. 3

Brett Robertson refused demotion, blames college president for mishandling raciallycharged May 2019 student body election

Investigation clears SCPD of violence to black student

By Julia Woock News Editor

Former director of student activities Brett Robertson, who refused a demotion by college president Dr. Kindred Murillo, was terminated by the Governing Board tonight on a 3-0 vote. Governing Board President Nora Vargas was not present. Trustee Nader recused himself before the vote.

SC’s administrators association accused Murillo of scapegoating Robertson over her own mishandling of the May 2019 ASO elections debacle.

SC trustees conducted a public hearing in February, but postponed action without comment. No timelines for a decision were announced.

Murillo said Robertson showed poor leadership and blamed him and former Dean of Student Affairs Dr. Malia Flood for an ASO election marred by racist behavior by some of the candidates and their supporters. Robertson said Murillo is to blame for the confluence of events that led to the cancellation of the election and an eight-month investigation that cost more than $100,000.

By Brittany Cruz-Fejeran Editor-in-Chief

A college investigation of a violent encounter between campus police and an African American student cleared the SCPD of wrongdoing. A two-month investigation rejected student David Vereen’s claim of unnecessary force after video of the encounter was posted on social media. Campus police wrestled Vereen to the ground in a parking lot near the gym when he refused to comply with their orders.

Officer Qui-Lan Dang detained Vereen on Oct. 1, 2019 on the charge of misusing a disabled placard that did not belong to him, but some community members expressed concern that the encounter was racially motivated.

African American students and staff told college officials in a public townhall-style meeting in the aftermath of the confrontation that they felt less safe on campus.

Police reports, evidence and body-worn camera footage obtained by The Sun via the California Public Records Act reveal an escalating event that was loud and profane, culminating with two officers throwing Vereen to the ground and cuffing him. One of the reports said Vereen was cited for misuse of a disabled placard a month prior to the October 2019 confrontation.

Dang performed a records check on Vereen’s placard and confirmed it belonged to Lorena Pareja Corley, which prompted Dang to approach Vereen later that day in Parking Lot J. Dang demanded to see Vereen’s license and registration. Vereen told Dang to “get out of my face” then sat down in the driver’s seat and closed the door. Dang opened the car door and again demanded that Vereen comply. Vereen asked why he was being investigated, but the officer did not answer the question.

“If you do not step out (of the car) you will be charged with 148,” Dang said.

Dang did not explain what a 148 is until Vereen asked. Penal Code 148 describes willful resistance, delay and obstruction of a public officer.

Vereen repeatedly refused to comply with Dang’s commands while shouting profanities at the officer.

“Get the fuck out my face, bro,” Vereen said several times during the encounter.

Dang did not reveal he was citing Vereen for the misuse of a disabled placard for more than two minutes after he first approached him.

“It is not yours…” Dang said. “That is why I am here. You need to step out and comply.”

Vereen refused and again told the officer to get out of his face. Dang called for backup and Officer Gabriel Gonzaga responded. After more heated words, Vereen stepped out of his car and Gonzaga grabbed him and held him please see Cleared pg. 3

the college would reopen as normal considering the rapid evolution of the Covid-19 crisis and the fact that most other American colleges and universities have announced they are closed to students for the remainder of this semester.

The Sun will continue to publish updates on our website at theswcsun. com.

Broken Chain of Command

Gamaliel Carreño/Staff

REACHING THE BOILING POINT — Josie Kane, a 37-year SC food service employee, is of retirement age, but has no health benefits and said she is afraid to stop working because she needs diabetes medication to stay alive.

Robertson said Murillo undermined him and micromanaged the ASO by allowing students to bypass him and to go directly to her with their concerns. He said Murillo knew of concerns, but did not inform him what was happening and unnecessarily inserted herself into a student election. Murillo, he said, showed very poor judgement and unprofessional behaviors.

“She did not contact me at any point, which to me is an operational failure on her part,” he said. “I was learning after the fact the things I did not know were happening, but students were going to her directly. Then she, in turn, was not communicating back down to me.”

Robertson said some ASO students informed Murillo of their concerns on the Monday morning April 29 please see Termination pg. 4

Part-time employees fear a barren retirement

IT EMPLOYEES SAY STAFF CAUSED SERVER MELTDOWN

CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES UNION DECRIES unfair treatment of poorly-paid food service workers, calls for a salary reclassification of blue collar staff. / Page 2

Former and current Southwestern College Institutional Technology employees said IT managers were entirely responsible for a catastrophic 2015 server meltdown and that embarrassed administrators fraudulently sued a construction company in an attempt to shift the blame.

Former SC IT manager Paul Norris said negligence by IT staff allowed a chain of events culminating in the July

By Matthew Brooks Senior Staff

please see Meltdown pg. 3

STAY CONNECTED

@THESWCSUN

WE’RE NOT CRAZY Connecting to resources can help students transfer on time.

Campus, 8

CV HOLOCAUST EXHIBITION

Life of Ruth Sax illustrates the importance of citizens remembering past atrocities. Campus, 7

OATHBREAKERS New band off to a red-hot start at the House of Blues.

Arts, 12

QUEEN OF THE COURT Teammates celebrate leadership of super sophomore Malia Talavera.

Sports, 14

2

NEWS

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

news@theswcsun.com

CAMPUS FINANCES

“They got nine months but the college needed them more so they come back in an hourly capacity. We need to hire them full-time.”

“I have diabetes (which requires) insulin, syringes and medicine.

I knew I was covered here and I appreciated that. When I started (on insulin) I was paying a dollar for like three bottles. Now it’s like $10.”

Barry Thele CSEA Union Steward

Josie Kane SC Food Services employee

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

OUR DAILY BREAD — Estela Villegas helps feed students, but struggles to feed her own family. SC’s classified union leaders call that unjust.

“I worked 20 hours at first and so far I’m only at 35 hours.

I’ve been trying everything to try to get those 40 hours and also get a contract of 11 months.

It’s been kind of impossible. For retirement I’m looking at quite a long time, but I like what I do and I wouldn’t go anywhere else.”

Evelia Zepeda SC Food Services employee

“There are classified employees, that if you look at the salary schedule, they make less than $15 an hour, which is absolutely unacceptable.

So we are doing a classification review and I’m hoping that’s going to put the lowest level jobs in a place where they come up to at least what I call a livable wage.”

Dr. Kindred Murillo SC President

CSEA FIGHTS FOR ‘LIVING WAGES’ Julia Woock News Editor

Josie Kane is retirement age, but dares not retire.

Kane has dedicated 37 years to feeding students as part of the Southwestern College Food Services team. She is diabetic and dependent on insulin, which is covered in her health care plan. She would like to hang up her spatula soon, but her current contract does not include health care benefits after she retires. Kane and her co-workers are trapped in the kitchen for life.

“I have diabetes (which requires) insulin, syringes and medicine,” she said. “I knew I was covered here and I appreciated that. When I started (on insulin) I was paying a dollar for like three bottles.

Now it’s like $10.”

CSEA President Silvia Nogales has set out to change these conditions so that classified employees can retire with dignity.

“The contract reads that you have to be a fulltime employee to get the retirement benefits,” she said. “That’s the sad part. They work all these years and when it’s time for them to retire they don’t have that benefit.”

Nogales said the current CSEA contract limits benefits to full-time employees who work 40 hours a week, 12 months a year. Classified employees in food services are considered part time even if they work 40 hours a week because they work only 11 months. That disqualifies them from retiring with benefits.

Nogales said the union looks to revised contracts that will allow part-time and full-time employees to retire with some level of benefits.

“I don’t see a reason why the district should fight us on that,” she said. “It’s only fair.”

Nogales said some student workers make more money than classified staff.

“Many hourly and student workers are working more hours than our contracted employees,” she said. “It’s sad that a student worker can make more money than a contract employee.”

Nogales said contracted employees that work .475 percent of a contract equates to about three hours a day. Student and hourly workers, she said, often work five to six hours a day. Student workers are capped at 20 hours a week, but employees who work three hours a day, five days a week end up working 15 hours. Most of these jobs are held by parents or heads of households, Nogales said, which places them in precarious financial position.

Some hold two or three additional jobs and suffer food, housing and medical insecurity.

“We have about 330 non-teaching employees that make up the other workforce,” she said. “The administrative secretaries, the clerks, the IT, the food services, the custodians, gardeners, mechanics, lab coordinators, lab technicians, student services — everybody that provides a service to our students.”

Evelia Zepeda, one of Kane’s colleagues in food services, has been an hourly employee for five years and a classified employee for nine years. She said her passion is cooking and being around students.

Her contract is 35 hours for nine months, leaving her three months out of the year looking for ways to supplement her income. Retirement, she said, seems impossible.

“Retirement is going to take a long time to go on the steps,” she said. “Especially when I worked 20 hours at first and so far I’m only at 35 hours.

Five hours shy of 40. I’ve been trying everything to try to get those 40 hours and also get a contract of 11 months. It’s been kind of impossible. For retirement I’m looking at quite a long time, but I like what I do and I wouldn’t go anywhere else.”

n CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES

ARE OFTEN LOCKED INTO LOW PAY BY A SYSTEM THAT IS STACKED AGAINST THEM. TO RECEIVE HIGHER PAY, CLASSIFIED WORKERS ARE EXPECTED TO WRITE A SOPHISTICATED RECLASSIFICATION REQUEST. Nogales said there is a case where an employee worked in cashiering for 24 years before her position was converted to full-time in September.

She worked three hours a day, with a .475 contract and no benefits. Supervisors had told the employee there was not enough money in the budget, but yet they continued to hire student and hourly employees to do the work that piled up in her absence, as well as expensive administrators.

Nogales said if there was money to pay those workers, there was money to pay the employee.

She said now this employee earns benefits at the full-time rate, versus the previous .475.

This was not an isolated case, Nogales said, and the college has been abusing some of its most vulnerable workers for decades. Several employees have similar partial contracts, including many in food services workers.

“In food services those are nine, 10- and 11-month positions, so they only work a certain amount of hours during the day, but they employ 42 student workers,” she said.

President Dr. Kindred Murillo said she was unaware of the situation in food services, though one of her priorities since her arrival at SWC is addressing the fact that some classified employee do not make a livable wage.

“There are classified employees, that if you look at the salary schedule, they make less than $15 an hour, which is absolutely unacceptable,” she said.

“So we are doing a classification review and I’m hoping that’s going to put the lowest level jobs in a place where they come up to at least what I call a livable wage.”

Too many classified employees are not treated humanely, Nogales said.

“We are an institution of higher education and we are supposed to be, or should be, providing livable wages,” she said. “That includes health and welfare, that includes compensation, and that includes a safe working environment so they can do the job of servicing our students.”

Classified employees are often locked into low pay by a system that is stacked against them. To receive higher pay, classified workers are expected to write a sophisticated reclassification request.

Nogales said the reclass process would challenge people with advanced degrees and are an unfair barrier for people who are not trained as lawyers or administrators.

Murillo said a systemic classification review was an important component of the new CSEA contract, as is for an additional step on classified salaries beginning July 2020.

Nogales said immediate classification reviews are essential. She said the current process is laborious and can take years when classified employees cannot wait years. Many positions have not been studied or reclassified for 10 years or more, she said.

“It’s gut wrenching work because you are

dealing with people’s lives,” she said. “As a union representative I want to see our employees thriving and happy to come to work and doing the jobs at livable wage so they can go home and provide for their families. That’s it.”

Classified employees are some of the college’s most loyal and faithful, Nogales said. CSEA’s senior employee has worked at the college for 41 years, she said, and the last round of 36 retirees took 2,700 years of combined institutional memory with them.

“They enjoy coming to work every day, they enjoy serving students, they enjoy serving the community,” she said. “By helping to improve the lives of our students, we improve our lives and we improve our community.”

Nogales said there has been significant headway in negotiations with the district, with Vice President of Human Resources Rose Del Gaudio negotiating on behalf of the college. Together they are trying to resolve other issues involving the classified employees, like paying an hourly employee for doing the work of a classified employee.

“When Rose came in she recognized right away that we employ hundreds of hourly employees and she understands that employing hourly personnel to do classified work is a no-no,” said Nogales. “So she is helping us to try to fix that and get that under control.”

Food Services employee Ricardo Godoy said part-time workers are taken advantage of in many ways.

“There are nine-month employees asked to work in an hourly capacity, out of class,” he said.

CSEA union steward Barry Thele concurred.

“They got nine months, but the college needed them for hours so the employees come back in an hourly capacity,” he said. “We need to hire them full-time.”

Enrique Ramirez, a 30-year food services employee, said he and his colleague are tired of hearing the district is “working on it.”

Thele said the instability of SC’s administration has crippled progress and damaged employees. “(Previous VPs were) very supportive, but before we get anything done we get turnover,” he said.

“Next thing you know, that vice president has left and we have to start this process all over again.”

Nogales said the food services department falls under Dr. Kelly Hall, the new VP of Business and Financial Affairs who joined the college less than six months ago. She said she is hopeful a fairer contract will get things done this time around.

Nogales said that is also her goal.

“We are trying to work with this new vice president and I think we will accomplish some things with this vice president that we have not been able to do in the past,” she said.

Murillo said the college is negotiating with all its units and college leadership had made a generous proposal.

“I think we’ve put a very good offer on the table, so I can say I feel pretty comfortable that we’ve agreed to do that,” she said.

Nogales said she is hopeful CSEA and the college have made strides in converting part-time employees to full-time.

“We take it one position at a time, that’s all I ask,” she said. “That we honestly look at some of these and let’s convert them where we can. Let’s revisit in a year, let’s see where the funding is at.”

Nogales said she believes the college will eventually do right by the classified employees.

“It’s what’s fair. It’s what’s just and it’s what’s right.”

“Many hourly and student workers are working more hours than our contracted employees. It’s sad that a student worker can make more money than a contract employee. We are an institution of higher education and we are supposed to be, or should be, providing livable wages. That includes health and welfare, that includes compensation, and that includes a safe working environment so they can do the job of servicing our students.”

Silvia Nogales CSEA President

“There are ninemonth employees asked to work in an hourly capacity, out of class.”

Ricardo Godoy SC Food Services employee

news@theswcsun.com

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

NEWS

3

Administrator mistakenly overpaid nearly six months

By Julia Woock News Editor

When college Human Resources administrators realized they had made a blunder and were overpaying a new employee, Vice President Rose DelGaudio demanded the employee pay back the overage.

Not so fast said trustee Tim Nader.

MESA Director Dr. Mourad Mjahed was directed by DelGuadio to reimburse the college for an error made by the district’s Human Resources department in July. The error was made public during the December governing board meeting when Mjahed said the district was going to reclassify him from range 40 to range 28.

Nader, a California State Attorney, said

that was a contract violation and that DelGaudio did not have the authority to ignore a contract and act unilaterally.

DelGaudio was publicly overruled and Mjahed was not required to pay for her mistake.

DelGaudio said the mistake occurred when the document was presented to the board.

“It was erroneously placed at a range 40 on the board docket and that’s how it went forward,” she said.

DelGaudio said the position was originally classified at a range 28 by Koff, a classification consultant that conducted the study, therefore that should be the official range. Nader said the “official range” is whatever the board approved. He said it may have been a mistake, but it was approved by

the board and DelGaudio could not just change it because she felt like it.

“I understand it was a mistake, but if we make a mistake, that mistake becomes law until it is changed,” he said. “That’s generally how it works. If Congress passes a bill with a typo, and the president signs it, that’s the law until they pass a new bill.”

Fernando Poveda, president of the administrators association, said the error occurred in HR in July and no one caught it until November when he and Mjahed were notified. DelGaudio told Mjahed to repay the difference between range 40 and 28, which Poveda estimates to be almost $2,000 a month.

“They said ‘Hey, we made a mistake and you should have been a range 28, not I think a range 40, so we’re going to put it on the

December board meeting and we’re going to make that adjustment and by the way you’re going to have to pay all that money back,’” he said.

Poveda said that it was unfair for the district to expect Mjahed to repay a significant amount of money due to an error made by HR. He concurred with Nader and said that once something is approved by the governing board, it is a binding contract.

“The rub was that the district made the mistake, didn’t catch it for almost six months, then wanted to penalize the employee and make him pay all that money back based on their mistake, which was not right,” he said. “DelGaudio tried to strong arm it and we said no. Then a governing board member agreed.”

Poveda said the district was more willing to negotiate after the December governing board. He said the agreement was Mjahed would remain at a range 40 until the district looked at the reclassification to determine if range 28 was appropriate and regardless of the outcome he would not have to reimburse the district. He said SCCDAA and Mjahed technically could have challenged the district’s position and fought to keep Mjahed at range 40 for the rest of Mjahed’s contract. Poveda said the union and Mjahed opted for the high ground and would honor the district’s study findings, but not pay for DelGaudio’s mistake.

SC’s MESA Director position was reclassified to range 28 at the February governing board meeting.

Cleared: SC police found not guilty of violent behavior toward black student Continued from pg. A1

OVERHEATED – Server room before cable rewiring (above).

Temperature sensor meant to warn IT staff of unsafe temperatures is plugged into the server. (r) Server room after rewiring. The temperature sensor is no longer connected. When the room housing the servers overheated, IT staff did not know and severe damage was done.

Courtesy photos

Meltdown: SC tech employees allege negligence by director Continued from pg. A1

14, 2015 overheating of the college’s most essential computer and telephone servers.

Norris and two SC IT professionals who asked that their names not be used for fear of retribution came forward to describe how the event unfolded and its aftermath. They had documents and photos, as well as emails between former IT Director Dan Borges and IT staff. They said the college lost years of fiscal data in the meltdown, as well as undetermined student data.

Fiscal services staff spent nearly a year re-inputting data from paper records pulled from storage.

Borges falsely blamed the episode on Paradigm Mechanical Corporation (PMC), a contractor that had installed a temporary air conditioning system in a remodeled building that housed the college’s computer servers, according to Norris. Borges knew that college IT staff was at fault for the failure, Norris said. Two other IT employees corroborated Norris’ version of events.

SC’s insurance provider, Federal Insurance Company, filed a lawsuit against PMC on March 2, 2018, blaming the air conditioning system it installed in July 2015 for what Borges described as “a severe technological disaster.” Borges said at the time the meltdown was the worst he had seen in his 30 years of IT experience.

During the evening of July 14 a temporary AC unit shutdown. College servers superheated to temperatures in excess of 130 degrees, causing essential parts of the sensitive equipment to physically melt. Years of financial records were lost, as were an undetermined amount of student records. Fiscal services clerical staff spent more than a year working evenings, weekends and holidays re-entering invoices, bills and accounts payable information from boxes of originals pulled from storage.

SC’s counseling department also lost

files described by staff as scheduling annotations, possibly others.

Borges blamed Paradigm Mechanical for the meltdown and data loss. The college filed a suit seeking $137,440 for breach of contract and negligence. At least three college employees came forward to assert that the meltdown was the fault of SC IT staff, not Paradigm Mechanical.

Internal IT repor ts stated that Borges was repeatedly reminded of the importance of the AC system.

“The need to support power and cooling was emphasized on numerous occasions during the course of regular meetings held between SWC personnel and the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) contractor,” the report said.

Norris said the AC unit cooling the building with the servers failed due to a loss of the chilled water essential to the cooling process.

“The temporary cooling unit was relying on the chilled water from the central plant,” he said. “The central plant shutdown, as it normally did, at about midnight. So there was no more cold water coming to that air conditioning unit to create the cold air to circulate throughout the room.

Had someone thought ‘Oh, you gotta make sure the chiller’s on for tonight’ the meltdown wouldn’t have occurred.”

SC staff also forgot to reconnect a critical temperature monitor designed to warn senior IT staff of high temperatures in the server room. The device includes a communication device with a thermometer that plugs into the server controlling the college telephone system. If temperatures exceed safe limits, the device automatically dials the cellular phones of staff to alert

n IN RESPONSE TO

THE COLLEGE’S SUIT, PMC FILED A 19-PART DEFENSE ALLEGING THAT SC FILED ITS LAWSUIT IN BAD FAITH AND HAD NEGLECTED TO MITIGATE DAMAGES.

them. Borges ordered, supervised and approved the work done on the server room cabling system.

“We had a system,” Norris said.

“There was some work done in the computer room, and inadvertently the people who were working in there, IT people, didn’t plug it back in.”

Norris provided The Sun with a July 10, 2015 email Borges sent to the entire department as corroboration. It touted the successful reorganization of the fiber optic cables that carry data across the college network and included before-and-after photos of the reorganized cable network.

Norris noticed in Borges’ beforeand-after photos that the temperaturemonitoring device was not reconnected.

It did not appear at all in the after photo.

Borges, in an interview with The Sun shortly after the meltdown, blamed the college for the data loss because it had failed to listen to his advice and had “outdated equipment for so long.”

“In the report IT took responsibility, it’s true we needed resources,” Borges said. “The risks were known. The district accepted those risks.”

Norris and two other IT professionals with access to the information said Borges ordered an IT employee to destroy at least three months of emails on the college server that were potential evidence in the lawsuit. Journalists from The Sun met with Norris and the two professionals, who asked that their names not be used for fear of retribution by college administrators.

In response to the college’s suit, PMC filed a 19-part defense alleging that SC filed its lawsuit in bad faith and had neglected to mitigate damages. PMC and FIC entered into mediation in June 2019 and reached a settlement the following month. Both parties moved to settle the suit with prejudice.

A Superior Court judge dismissed the case on Sept. 31 of last year.

College president Dr. Kindred Murillo said she did not know the details of the case because it was handled by the college’s risk management company, Keenan & Associates. Borges did not respond to requests for comment.

in place. This action aggravated Vereen and the situation quickly escalated. Gonzaga and Dang attempted to put Vereen in handcuffs. According to reports written by both officers, Vereen continued to tense up his arms and clench his fists.

Officers repeatedly warned Vereen that if he did not relax his arms then he would “go to the ground.”

Vereen refused to comply, according to their reports.

Gonzaga and Dang wrestled Vereen to the ground, handcuffed him and put him in the back of the police cruiser.

As a crowd gathered, the incident caused an uproar in the campus community when a video of Vereen being wrestled to the ground posted on Twitter by nursing student Lizette Moran spread across campus shortly after the encounter. That evening Moran’s video played on local television newscasts.

SCPD Sgt. Marco Bareno arrived at the scene after Vereen was detained and filed a report afterwards.

“Vereen told me he could not afford to pay for parking at the college, and that prompted me to ask if that was the reason why he was using his mother’s placard,” Bareno wrote in his report. “He responded with a ‘yes’ confirming the ownership of the placard previously ran by Officer Q. Dang through records.”

During his detainment Vereen said he was using the placard because he was rehabilitating a serious knee injury.

Vereen was cited for resisting Dang and misusing a disabled placard. He was released after he agreed to calm down and promised not to confront the officers any further, according to Bareno’s report.

SC President Dr. Kindred Murillo retained independent investigator Nicole Miller to investigate the matter. Two months later, Miller concluded that campus police officers acted appropriately.

Murillo accepted the report.

Murillo said conversations about the incident are still vital despite the conclusion of the report.

“It is important that the concerns of members of our community are addressed and further questions are answered to the extent we can do so,” she said. “We need to have an honest conversation about what we all can do differently, or better, to ensure our students experience the best learning environment at Southwestern College.”

SC Police Chief Dave Nighswonger said he takes his relationship with the campus community seriously, but trust and respect

Tuberculosis: SC hit with second case in less than a year

SCPD Body Cam Screen Grab

CUFFED AROUND — SC student David Vereen is handcuffed and waiting in the back of a police cruiser after SCPD wrestled him to the ground for being uncooperative during an argument over a disability placard.

must be mutual.

He said he created student club liaisons so SCPD officers could visit with students and have meaningful discussions.

“Some of the things that came clear after that incident was that there is a lot of misunderstanding and that we and certainly me, we could’ve done more to reach out to some of the disadvantaged communities in the college,” he said.

Nighswonger also resurrected the dorment College Police Advisory Board to direct communication to the campus police and encourage dialogue. Only one faculty member went to the meeting last semester, but Nighswonger said the Feb. 20 meeting showed promise.

Attendees developed three proposals to create a better relationship with the police and the campus community. They are: • A Student Justice Panel, to appoint an ASO-affiliated student to represent students in justice-related issues on campus, including parking citation appeals and restorative justice options such as community service instead of cash fines for parking citations.

• A Citizens’ Academy would open police training to students, faculty and staff with the goal of building a understanding of law enforcement functions and responsibilities.

• A Biannual Police Open House and Sporting event would open the police building to students where police officers and students can interact in a friendly environment.

Vereen expressed disappointment with the investigation’s conclusions and said the officers know what they did was wrong.

He did not wish to comment further without consulting legal representation.

He would not say whether he planned to sue the college.

who were not contacted by college health officials for $11.

College PIO Lillian Leopold said SC learned from a TB scare in 2018.

“When we get informed by health services (about a tuberculosis outbreak), Continued from pg. A1 so does the news media and they end up own primary care physicians. reporting it,” she said. “At the time we Tuberculosis is a contagious infection didn’t inform anyone about it and when that usually attacks the lungs. There are two people found out about it over the news categories, latent and active. Tuberculosis they started to panic and because of this, can be fatal if not treated and has killed it became chaotic. That’s why this time millions around the world throughout around (students) got an email on January recorded history, including Babylonian 15 prior to the media reporting on it on kings, Greek philosophers, friends of the 17th because we didn’t want that chaos Shakespeare and the OK Corral gunfighter again.”

Doc Holladay.

Leopold said SC collaborates with Campus nursing staff decided to take County Health Services and can get a precautious approach, implementing a effective treatment for anyone infected. double test rule. Students and faculty were SC is safe, she said, but students are tested twice to rule out any false positives or encouraged to check the college website negatives. The one-week re-test also helped for information about what Tuberculosis, determine if further symptoms developed. how it is activated, spreads and ways to SC also offered tests for students and staff prevent exposure.

4

NEWS

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

Termination: Adviser fired, blamed for tumultuous ASO election of May 2019

posting, that’s a procedural matter I would expect he would perform and make sure the elections coordinator was doing her duties in preparation for that meeting.”

‘A concern and a pattern’

Continued from pg. A1

before the explosive May 2 meeting.

He said the students also went to Student Activities Coordinator Richard Eberheart, who reported to Robertson.

“They didn’t come to me,” he said.

“So I walked into that Monday meeting not knowing anything of what was going with the agenda or any of that. I learned all of that in the moment the meeting started.”

A hastily called meeting of two warring ASO tickets mediated by a consultant Murillo hired devolved into name calling, charges of racism and character assassination. Murillo herself ended the meeting about 90 minutes in and cancelled the election. After a lengthy investigation determined that events did not affect the outcome of the vote, an ASO was seated in January.

Robertson said he could not do his job effectively due to poor communication and dysfunction up and down the chain of command. He said he submitted ideas to former Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Angelica Suarez to move forward from the ASO election debacle in the spring, but was told everything was on hold until the investigation concluded.

“In student activities I think we worked very hard in the fall semester to bridge and heal these wounds,” he said. “To rebuild trust. To rebuild the relationships and I think we were well on our way, and then late in the term when that report finally came out to just kind of rip me out of that position was devastating to me and many of the students.”

Robertson said that the ASO lost stability it had rebuilt when he was uprooted so abruptly. He said it was a disservice ASO officers and club students did not deserve.

Robertson said when the investigation concluded on November 13 he met with Murillo, VP of Human Resources Rose DelGaudio, and administrator association president Fernando Poveda.

He was informed he was to be demoted due to “lack of leadership.” Robertson said he and Flood had back-to-back meetings and received similar news. He said he worked with his new dean to take time off from his new position as Student Services Supervisor in Student Employment.

Murillo said the demotion was to see if he was a better fit in another department.

She said she was not comfortable with a lateral move after what had happened.

“I wanted to give him a chance,” she said. “I like Brett as a person and I wanted to give him a chance to see if he could do another job. That was my intent.”

Union Backs Robertson

Robertson said Poveda called Dec. 4 to inform him the demotion was in violation of his contract. Poveda said to Robertson could be transferred to a lateral position or equivalent, but the district did not have the right to demote him without due process. Poveda asked Robertson what he wanted to do, and Robertson said he told him he wanted his previous position back. Murillo said no.

Murillo said she is not surprised by the position of the administrators association.

“I understand why SCCDAA did what they did,” she said “I’m not going to criticize and say anything different about it, but I’ve always tried to give people an opportunity to show that they can do a good job in another position because maybe this just wasn’t the right position for him.”

Poveda said Robertson and Flood were unfairly singled at because they are easy targets. He said the treatment was disparate and it was wrong to single them out when so many mistakes were made by so many people. “ S C C D A A’s p o s i t i o n i s B r e t t Robertson and Malia Flood have been scapegoated,” he said. “Look at what occurred. Malia Flood did not have any allegations made against her and yet she was demoted. Brett Robertson had no allegations sustained against him and yet he’s losing his job and there were others that were guilty who had serious allegations sustained against them by the investigation report which directly harmed students, yet they didn’t get anything but a slap on the hand.”

Robertson said DelGaudio reached out to Poveda during the negotiation to inquire how the college could punish him in lieu of the demotion — an inquiry that surprised them both. “ They asked Fernando how they could discipline me for demotion,

news@theswcsun.com

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

IDES OF MARCH – Dozens of Southwestern College colleagues and students rallied for Director of Student Activities Brett Robertson at his disciplinary hearing. Attorney Roberto Ochoa (left) defends Robertson (center) and claims a dysfunctional administration led to the student government scandal, which Robertson was being terminated for. Robertson was fired on a 3-0 vote of the governing board.

so sort of after the fact try to then impose discipline to demote me,” said Robertson. “The union obviously did not cooperate with that request. Poveda said he was not going to cooperate with DelGaudio to demote association members without due process.”

Robertson said Poveda informed him on December 18 that the district threatened to terminate him if he did not voluntarily accept the demotion.

“Fernando called me and said the district is giving you an ultimatum now,” Robertson said “Either you accept the demotion voluntarily or we’re going to terminate you. To me, that’s retaliation for exercising my rights under the contract.”

Robertson said he felt bullied and attacked into accepting the demotion.

He said he took winter break to reflect on what he wanted to do.

“I thought about it and I decided this isn’t right,” he said. “As a gay man, I know what it’s like to be bullied. I grew up having to deal with being bullied.

Now that I’m an adult and I’m out and proud, I’m not going to put up with being bullied anymore by anybody, including the president of the college.”

Robertson said he told Poveda on January 3 that he would not accept the demotion. He said he was placed on administrative leave January 13.

“That’s when they put me on leave and verbally communicated they would pursue termination,” he said. “They made good on that threat. On January 24th I got a notice of termination.”

Skelly Hearing ‘Tainted’

Robertson said he had a Skelly Hearing on February 3 conducted by VP of Business and Financial Affairs Dr. Kelly Hall where he was allowed to refute allegations made against him. He said the process was tainted by the fact that Hall is a junior employee recently hired by and obligated to Murillo. “ They chose who they wanted,” he said. “I suppose from the cabinet members of this college she would be the most neutral person because she’s new. She wasn’t directly involved in the election, but they got to choose who that was.”

Hall said the Skelly hearing is an opportunity for a third-party to listen to the employee and impartially make a recommendation on what HR should do. She said the Skelly officer can recommend whether to move forward or not, and modify the proposed action.

She said the meeting with Robertson and his attorney Ricardo Ochoa lasted about an hour. “ I c a n s a y Bre t t w a s e x t re m e l y professional, polite, courteous and we spent an hour together,” she said. “He gave me his recollection of the events, I thanked him.”

Hall said it is not the the responsibility of the Skelly officer to determine culpability, but to determine if there is enough evidence to move forward.

“My finding was that there was sufficient evidence to take the action to the next step and allow the governing board to hear it,” she said. “Brett had an opportunity to share his perspective with the board, the ultimate individuals who are responsible for this school. It is the responsibility of the governing board to make those sorts of decisions because they (sic) are accountable to the citizens

“I think Kindred made a calculation that Dr. Flood and I were easy targets and went after us. I think she probably thought it would be politically difficult to sanction Richard and Trishana.

She decided we were easy targets.”

Brett Robertson former director of SC Student Activities who elected them.”

Robertson said that he had no input in selecting an impartial Skelly officer.

Hall, he said, is vulnerable to pressure from her boss – Murillo – and could not be impartial.

“She is accountable to the president, so that isn’t completely unbiased,” he said.

Murillo said she was not involved in the selection of the Skelly officer and that human resources personnel set up the Skelly hearing. She said the SC Administrators Handbook required a vice presidents to serve as the Skelly officer. All college vice presidents work directly under Murillo.

Robertson said Murillo’s actions are a desperate attempt to cover her own serious lapses in judgement.

“Kindred makes a hasty decision to transfer me,” he said. “Violates our contract. We call her out on it. Oh well, now we’ll try to demote you through a disciplinary process, after the fact. They back off on that. Then they threaten me with either accept it or be terminated.

I don’t accept that. Then they make good on that threat and follow through and put together what I believe is a rather desperate and flimsy case for termination. Because I stood up and I fought back that forced their hand to try to go down this road of termination, which has led to this big mess.”

Robertson said the process has been dysfunctional.

“Everything about this has been unfair and unjust for multiple reasons,” he said. “One is this shifting position of the district and how they’ve handled this. The allegations in the termination.

The unfair and disparate application of discipline across various employees has been unjust. I think this has been very unjust.”

‘Easy Targets’

Robertson said he and Flood should have received nothing more than a verbal reprimand, like what was issued to Student Activities Coordinator Eberheart and Assistant Professor of Biology Trishana Norquist.

“I think Kindred made a calculation that Dr. Flood and I were easy targets and went after us,” he said. “I think she probably thought it would be politically difficult to sanction Richard and Trishana. She decided we were easy targets.”

Robertson said he did not wish

Norquist or Eberheart ill.

“I don’t think Richard or Trishana deserve a harsher discipline,” he said.

“But I think my discipline and Dr. Flood’s were way disproportionate and unjust. I think ours was way out of line.

I think that was a political calculation Murillo made that’s simply unjust.”

Murillo said it was Rober tson’s responsibility to supervise Eberheart and that it was ultimately Robertson’s inaction that led to a racially-charged protest held by students Wednesday of election week and the contentious Thursday meeting that led to the cancellation of the election.

“That’s the part I think gets lost in all of this, is kind of the causal issues that occurred and how people got hurt in this,” she said. “As where if rules had been followed according to the ASO constitution and by-laws, which is Brett’s responsibility and Malia oversees him, then they have a responsibility to the students.”

Ochoa said Eberheart had conducted ASO elections four times previously and knew how to perform all required tasks. Eberheart engaged in “willful m i s c o n d u c t ,” a c c o r d i n g t o t h e investigation, a fact Ochoa presented to the board during the hearing. “(Robertson) is not the frontline person who is responsible for that,” said Ochoa. “There is an employee of this district, Richard Eberheart, whose responsibility it is to work with the ASO and oversee the election.”

Robertson said his duties during an ASO election are to administer the election itself, like putting together the ballot and collaborating with IT to make sure vote tabulation is working properly.

He said he also ensured that documents like the application to run for office are in order and he validated the eligibility of candidates. He said Eberheart’s duties last spring were to train and oversee the election board, supervise the election coordinator and direct contact with the student candidates. He said the first and only red flag was the Monday meeting where students voiced their grievances and informed him the agenda was not properly posted.

“Richard is an experienced employee,” he said. “I had no reason to believe that he would not know his duties and tasks and perform them. There would be no reason for me to micromanage him.

For example, in regards to the agenda

Robertson said Murillo was going back and “looking for old and stale complaints” that were not worthy of disciplinary action. He said the first allegation was a Title IX hotel incident, where two investigations took place and neither found him at fault.

Investigators recommended he update student travel procedures, but did not consider disciplinary action. Robertson said another allegation was an email complaint from a former ASO President and was handled as an interpersonal matter. “ The college alleged that I used racially-insensitive comments to her and I take exception to that because I did not do that and the college provided absolutely no substantiation of that,” he said. “That was also not disciplinary in nature.”

Robertson said the college is trying to mine old incidents and convert them into disciplinary items. This depicts how “desperate and flimsy” its case is, he said.

Oc h o a s a i d t h e d i s t r i c t c a n n o t use allegations of past performance shortcomings because the California Education Code dictates that allegations must be shared with the employee and placed in the employee’s personnel file in a timely manner. Ochoa said the college did not complete any of these steps.

“There is a provision of the Education Code that requires that if you are going to use information against an employee in regards to their employment, that you have to provide it to them ahead of time, around the time you learned of it, and give them an opportunity to gather evidence to rebut those charges,” he said.

Ochoa said the only allegation the college could use against Robertson was the ASO election issue and that the investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Murillo said the previous incidents were included to demonstrate Robertson’s pattern of decision making and a “historical context of not always making the best decisions.”

“It’s a concern and a pattern,” she said. “I think that’s the reason they were mentioned, because we have a pattern of behaviors. The severity of the ASO issue in its own right is pretty profound.”

Murillo said she had to hold college employees accountable and Robertson was not doing his job.

“Brett is a nice guy, really nice guy,” she said. “He wasn’t doing his job the way he needed to be doing per his job description.”

Ochoa said everyone up the chain of command shared responsibility for the ASO debacle.

Murillo agreed, and said she was willing to take responsibility and be held accountable as well.

“I take responsibility and I told the board ‘I’ll give you my resignation right now. This happened on my watch,’” she said. “I am totally ok being held accountable. I expect the managers who work for us to be also held accountable.”

She also said projects had not followed through, like the plan to dedicate a space to the UMOJA learning community.

Good Evaluation

Ochoa said at the termination hearing that Robertson had undergone one evaluation and it was good. Robertson confirmed that he had a very good evaluation and there were no derogatory marks in his personnel file. He said that the issues Murillo brought up during the February termination hearing were not handled as disciplinary.

“For better or worse we’re only evaluated every three years,” he said.

“So I only had one previous evaluation in November of 2016, which incidentally was after the hotel incident. I had a good evaluation.”

Robertson also said his motivation to stay would be getting to work with the wonderful students he had the honor to serve.

“I’m really proud of all those efforts, and all that work that they’ve done and I’ve been able to provide guidance to, along the way,” he said..

After everything that has happened with the district it would be hard to return to his previous position, he said, but he would be happy to serve in an equivalent capacity. He said the college had good people and that he appreciated his colleagues and the people he worked with for five and a half years.

“There’s actually a lot of good people here and I really appreciated my colleagues and the people I worked with here for five and a half years,” he said.

“If there was a way I could have a fresh start, I would continue.”

March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

VIEWPOINTS

The Southwestern College Sun

5

Editorials, Opinions and Letters to the Editor

Journalism at your service

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 Brittany Cruz-Fejeran Executive Editor Katy Stegall Magazine Editor Pernisha Gaines News Editor Julia Woock Assistant News Editor Manuel Gonzalez Campus Editor Gamaliel Carreño Assistant Campus Editor Lisa Pottger Assistant Campus Editor Caleigh Goldman Viewpoints Editor J.C. Dottery Arts Editor Karla Luna Sports Editor Solé Ruiz Assistant Sports Editor John Ceballos-Brodie Online Editor Stephanie Aceves Photo Editor Fernando A. Martinez Assistant Photo Editor Chanel Yoguez Copy Editor Colin Grylls Circulation Manager Andrew Penalosa

S TA F F W R I T E R S Alma Alvarez Alvaro Chagollan Andres Argote Kathleen Blankenship Michael Bravo Jennielyn Cato Anthony Corrales Kamron Davis Anissa Durham Chanel Esparza

Lauren Familiar Bernardo Miranda Kiara Miranda Hanna Noriega Rosa Noriega Paulina Nuñez Ana Paola Olvera Natalia Plaza Tyra Roberts Stephanie Ruelas

PHOTOGRAPHERS Alma Alvarez Andrés Argote Gamaliel Carreño Alvaro Chagollan Brittany Cruz-Fejeran Kamron Davis J.C. Dottery Anissa Durham Chanel Esparza Caleigh Goldman

Manuel Gonzalez Nicholas James Karla Luna Fernando A. Martinez Kiara Miranda Paulina Nuñez Ana Paola Olvera Solé Ruiz Aide Valdez Chanel Yoguez

I L L U S T R AT O R S Victor Santander Ever Parmely-Den Herder Jennifer Valenzuela Sebastian De Orduna

Adviser Dr. Max Branscomb Assistant Adviser Kenneth Pagano

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 2004-18 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Awards 2003-06, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012-2017, 2019 General Excellence 2001-20 Best of Show 2003-20 Columbia University Scholastic Press Association Gold Medal for Journalism Excellence 2001-19 San Diego County Multicultural Heritage Award California College Media Association Outstanding Community College Newspaper

California Newspaper Publishers Association California College Newspaper of the Year 2013, 2016 Student Newspaper General Excellence 2002-19 Society of Professional Journalists National Mark of Excellence 2001-19 First Amendment Award 2002, 2005 San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism 1999-2019 Directors Award for Defense of Free Speech 2012 Journalism Association of Community Colleges Pacesetter Award 2001-18 Newspaper General Excellence 2000-19 American Scholastic Press Association Community College Newspaper of the Year

The Issue: Journalism is under assault in the United States and around the world.

T

he Sun is a damn good newspaper. We have arguably the most diverse college media staff in the country. We are driven to seek out the truth and share it as accurately as possible. Our alumni go on to win prestigious awards and have illustrious careers.

Above all else, we are a tight-knit family.

And none of that makes us special on this campus.

Because the Sun is a reflection of Southwestern College.

Almost every class has Spanish speakers, LGBTQIA folk and students old enough to be their classmates’ parents. Every class is racially diverse. Every class has students who never had to worry about money sitting next to students who have to count pennies to make sure they can eat that night. Private school graduates sit alongside their public school counterparts and students who were homeschooled.

About 1,000 veterans attended Southwestern in each of the last three years, according to the college fact book. Disabled Student Services helps more than 1,800 students every year, most of whom have a disability that cannot be seen.

The Sun has all of that and more. We have staff members who have been homeless. We have staff members with mental illnesses. We even have staff members who spent a few nights in jail.

We do not hold their struggles against them because we all want to become better versions of ourselves. That’s why we enrolled at Southwestern in the first place.

Just like our classmates.

That is why we have a dedicated Arts section.

We love celebrating our classmates’ and professors’ talent, creativity and drive. We relate with the untold hours Southwestern’s actors, singers and dancers put in behind the scenes.

It is no different than the time Jaguars spend improving themselves on the athletic fields, which is why we make an effort to cover every team in our Sports section regardless of whether they’re winning championships or in last place.

We love using the Campus section to highlight programs like the Jag Kitchen, a food pantry created by the Child Development Center, Family Studies Department and ASO in 2016 to feed food-insecure students. They do not even require proof of income. They would rather see a few students take advantage of them than see a single student go hungry because they did not have the right paperwork.

And we admire their generous spirit.

There is also the Transfer Center, the Counseling Center, the Writing Center – this campus has so many resources available to students and they are all tailored to their specific needs. We want to get the word out.

That is also why we fight so hard to expose hidden truths.

We report on how Southwestern spends our community’s tax money because every misused dollar is a dollar that could have funded these wonderful programs. Or it is money that could transform some of our beloved adjuncts into full-time instructors. In 2018, 73 percent of Southwestern’s faculty worked part-time.

We file public records requests and we fight back when administrators do not respond in a timely manner. We fight back if they try to claim immunity from the law.

EDITORIAL POLICY

Opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Sun Staff, the Sun Editorial Board or Southwestern College.

LETTERS POLICY

Our position: The Sun strives to serve this community with strength, courage and optimism.

We report on our campus police department because we want our classmates to be safe, and part of being safe is knowing which officers have histories of violence. And if an investigation clears the police of wrongdoing, we report that, too.

We all have our own reasons for joining The Sun. Some of us grew up dreaming of Pulitzer Prizes. Some of us want to be photojournalists.

Some of us want to become better writers.

Some of us just want to pad our resumes or it is just a credit we need to transfer. Some of us do not yet know what we want to do with our lives. We are just trying to figure it out.

We are led by an idealistic advisor who believes in what journalism is supposed to be.

The first lecture Professor Max gives every semester is about ethics, reporting the facts and reporting the facts responsibly. Because it is also our job to minimize harm. And because ethics apply to our everyday lives.

We will not all become ace reporters.

That does not matter to him, though. We know because he gets just as excited talking about former Sunnies who become artists or musicians as he does when he tells us about former students who get nominated for major professional journalism awards. He also keeps a list of our staff members who have been accepted to four-year universities on the corner of the newsroom’s whiteboard, regardless of major.

He is special to us, and at the same time we recognize he is not that special on campus, either.

Southwestern is full of faculty who go above and beyond for their students. That is why some ASO members showed up to governing board meetings to support the faculty and administrators behind the election debacle.

It is why former athletes stop by games or practice to catch up with their former coaches.

It is why so many of our faculty are former Southwestern students themselves.

Not every student will become an expert in their field. But, like Professor Max, Southwestern’s coaches, professors and advisors will do everything they can to help students become something.

The Sun is not perfect. We are students. We are still learning. We have limited resources and we have to find time outside of class and work to report our stories. We are going to make mistakes, just like the people we write about and the people who read our writing.

So help us.

Tell us which campus groups are underrepresented in the paper. Tell us about students who deserve the spotlight. Tell us about rumors of wrongdoing so we can investigate. Write letters to the editor. Reach out to us on social media. Become a source.

We cannot promise anything. The information we are fed has to hold up to scrutiny. It has to be verified. It has to be newsworthy.

The one thing we can promise is that we will try. We will do everything in our power to celebrate the good that Southwestern does for the community. We will do everything in our power to shine a flashlight into the darkness.

Because we may not be special on this campus, but that is only because we believe this entire campus is special.

Send mailed letters to: Editor, Southwestern College Sun, 900 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA 91910. Send e-mailed letters to viewpoints@theswcsun.com. E-mailed letters must include a phone number. The Sun reserves the right to edit letters for libel and length and will not consider publishing letters that arrive unsigned.

ONLINE COMMENTS POLICY

The Sun reserves the right to republish web comments in the newspaper and will not consider publishing anonymously posted web comments or comments that are inflammatory or libelous. Post web comments at theswcsun.com.

just culture IN THE

J.C. DOTTERY

Difficult to lose my role model Kobe D

ear Kobe, As a black man I am pressured not to show a lot of emotion, because its seen as weakness. But the pain I felt was too much to keep bottled up.

We lost you.

I cried.

I spent the day hoping I was having a bad dream. I hoped the reports were false and that you hadn’t gotten on the helicopter. As reports solidified it became clear I was wide awake. It felt as if my heart was in a vice.

Tears rolled down my cheek, memories rolled through my mind.

I remember being a three-year-old kid in South Central Los Angeles who watched in awe as you soared through the air and hit one jaw-dropping shot after another.

I practiced game-winning shots I saw you make in my backyard. Time after time the countdown to the buzzer rang in my head: “Five… four… three… two… one. Kobe!”

I saw you float the ball into Shaq’s extended hands in the 2000 Western Conference finals, then jump into his arms to ignite a string three straight championships.

You were my favorite player and so much more. You became my hero, an inspiration.

After watching you play, I tried my best to imitate your moves.

I watched you beat the Celtics to win your fifth championship. I saw you chase down the long pass from Lamar Odom to end the series, and jump on the announcer’s table in celebration with the Los Angeles crowd.

You became one with the city You were from Philadelphia.

But you became LA. We experienced great emotions together.

We have been happy, angry, disappointed, frustrated and proud.

There were ups and downs, I don’t think we would have it any other way.

As the confetti showered down your parade, I could not contain my excitement.

I did what you inspired me to do every time I watched you play. I found a court and worked because I wanted to do what you just did.

I wanted to be a champion.

I wanted to be like you.

As the minutes turned to hours, then months to years, it became clear that no matter how hard I tried there was only one Kobe.

And I was okay with that.

But I was going to continue to play because the “Mamba Mentality” wouldn’t let me quit.

It became part of my life, driving my athletic career and educational endeavours.

I refused to listen to excuses in my mind when life got tough. Whenever I heard that inner voice, your voice would drown it. Your voice said: “If you want to be great, you have to put the work in.”

So, I listened and I am thankful that I did.

That mentality has allowed me to excel as an athlete, a student and a journalist.

That is all thanks to you Kobe.

You learned hard lessons in the public eye of the Los Angeles media. Watched and learned. For that I am forever grateful.

You entered the NBA as a 17-year-old kid, I watched you grow up as I grew up. Flamboyant babyface Kobe evolved into the killer Black Mamba, then finally post-retirement philosophical Kobe. Your maturation came as I grew from a child to a man. I watched from afar, but I felt as if we grew together, which is probably why losing you hurt so much more. It feels as if I lost an older cousin or a childhood friend.

We also lost eight others, including your daughter Gianna.

Her light was beginning to shine bright for all to see. She was the torch who would carry on the Bryant name in the basketball world.

She was a young lady with much talent, great work ethic and a true student of the game. She was truly your daughter in so many ways.

Now that you are gone, all we have are memories and the lessons you taught. I will carry them with me and cherish them as long as I shall live.

You were never shy or afraid to take a shot or do what was needed to be successful on the court, and I will take with that mindset from the court in my life.

“Five… four… three... two… one.

Goodbye Kobe.”

6

VIEWPOINTS

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

viewpoints@theswcsun.com

Grammar should not define a person’s intelligence

By Katy Stegall A Perspective

I’m trying to be the next Bob Woodward. He’s one of the two reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal that exposed former president Richard Nixon of federal crimes. Investigative journalism is what I want to do for the rest of my life because it’s my passion and it’s what I’m good at. I’ll never be something like a rocket scientist, a cartographer or a painter, and I’m okay with that.

The world needs a variety of skills, but I am not the person who is capable—or interested—in having them.

But I’m also not looked down upon by society for not having extensive knowledge on these topics in my field.

I’m not expected to know how to paint— or do whatever rocket scientists do— because I write for a living as a reporter and a college English tutor.

Even though I make a living writing, I still dread putting words to paper sometimes—especially if what I create will be judged by others.

Dread and writing are commonly associated feelings, especially for nonnative English speakers. As a tutor here at Southwestern College, I interact with students on a daily basis who tell me they hate writing and avoid it at all costs.

This hatred and dread is rooted in fear.

They tell me they fear being judged.

They tell me they fear being viewed by instructors or professionals as stupid. But what they mostly fear, they say, is that the

language barrier will keep them from the success they’re chasing.

I want to dispel that myth now: The ability to speak English—or the lack thereof—does not measure intelligence.

Albert Einstein put it best when he said we cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. By writing off students as less intelligent because they cannot write or speak perfect English is dehumanizing and strips the person of any other skill they bring to the table.

Writers are essential to a functioning society—but not everyone needs to have collegiate-level writing abilities for a society to function. There are plenty of roles for people to fill that are not dependent on a person’s ability to write 10-page rhetorical essays in perfect English.

Those essays are fun to write—for nerds like me, at least—and the majority of the students I have tutored over the last two years have had a solid understanding of the material they are writing about. Why then, is grammar being pushed so hard by some professors?

I have an answer, and I promise, it’s not because I believe instructors enjoy tormenting those who cannot write or speak perfect English.

Antiquated societal messages are to blame. Cultural diversity has been shamed, diminished and banned for centuries in America.

Historically, there has been a push for non-English speaking people to immediately learn the language of the

“It’s really accessible, unless you fly down a flight of stairs. I’ve done that.”

Tommie Stephenson, 24

English

How accessible is Southwestern College to you?

“Sexual harassment.

People stealing students’ books.”

Richard Young, 55

Crime Scene Investigator

Yenni Rivas, 25 Art

Illustration by Jennifer Valenzuela

In other words, this glorification of self-proclaimed “Grammar Nazis” needs to stop. For those who have not heard the term, a Grammar Nazi is someone who frequently points out incorrect grammar in others. Some in the writing profession wear the title proudly. I used to before I saw how exclusionary proper grammar can be.

It’s exclusionary because the poor cannot always afford the training required to have impeccable grammar. Good schooling is expensive. Private tutors are expensive. Not all students could afford

“It’s pretty accessible to me. I have other friends that are disabled that might say some other different things.

I know that sometimes— especially with all the construction that’s going on right now—I know that they might have blocked off one or two paths that’s a bit hard to get around. I got late to class today because those spots are no longer there because they are renovating. I hope they put some more handicap spots.

That’d be great.”

“I’m happy with the various accommodations that the school offers such as large print and braille, as well as extra time on tests and projects for example. Also, the instructors are very helpful and understanding.

Many instructors will reserve a front row seat for me and will sometimes allow me to record a lecture. And if that’s not the case, students often volunteer to take notes for me.”

Jose Estrada, 24

Arts

Film, Television and Media Arts

“It’s good. I like it a lot. I feel like this school really accommodates us. It’s a good environment for us.”

(Due to a production error in the last issue, there were misidentified photographs in this feature. The correct version appears above)

land or be damned to a life of judgement and isolation. I do believe people should learn the language if they are going to live in a country—especially if Englishspeaking Americans are moving to a foreign country with a different language.

I find more hypocrisy in Americans that are unwilling to learn another country’s language versus migrants who come to America and struggle to learn English, however.

This is because America, in its entirety, is an arrogant country.

We are number one, we are the best country, everyone else is subpar in one way or another.

At least, that’s what is preached to us.

Society has only recently started to accept and encourage languages outside of English to flourish, but we need to push for this in the educational system as well.

An English-speaking and nationalistic society has made non-native English speaking students feel as if they are lesser than for speaking their own language. If they are not able to conform to American standards, society tells them, then they are not worthy of living in the country. This individualistic way of thinking needs to evolve, and Southwestern College can be a catalyst of change.

This shift starts in the classroom.

Professors are required to understand grammar, but they do not have to demand it. Content and true understanding of the material should be prioritized over minor grammatical misunderstandings.

“I think the people at SWC are great. The atmosphere is inclusive.

I love that. It has been challenging finding clean and accessible restrooms at times during breaks.

As a wheelchair user I have encountered barriers because of construction, but have worked arround them.”

Tania Azevedo

Tutor

to focus solely on studying as a child because they had to take part-time jobs to contribute to the family income or help with childcare. There are a myriad of reasons that a student’s grammar may not be great, and academia needs to be mindful of that.

Southwestern College is a Hispanic Serving Institution, and our campus leaders have done a great job at doing just that. ESL, however, does not exclusively include students of the Latino demographic.

I call on instructors to focus on teaching the core curriculum and not to alienate students for their language skills. Instructors can employ constructive tactics by following a grading hierarchy that does not put grammar at the top.

Southwestern College also has a myriad of resources for students and it is important that instructional staff point students toward them.

Tutors like me, for example.

The Writing Center, where I work, is just one of the places students can get help. Each of the tutors is a current or former student who loves to write—and it’s free. There are also free tutoring services online or in the library.

We love writing, as do many of the instructors here on campus. Not everyone shares that adoration and that’s okay.

Students should not be discarded for not being able to speak perfect English.

We can potentially lose all of the future rocket scientists, cartographers or painters of the world if they are.

“I feel like it used to be accessible to wheel chairs, but now they introduced a two-story structure to classrooms, and I feel like due to modern design aesthetics it doesn’t really comply to a person with disabilities. Again, there are multitude of obstacles that I have to go through to get from point A to point B.”

Cindy Sison, 23 Plant Biology

Jordan Arguila, 22

“It’s very accessible, including the parking. The DSS got me a special chair and a table I can work with because some of the classrooms have small chairs. There’s nothing I can use to sit down because I’ve got problems with my legs and my knees, so it’s very uncomfortable to sit in one of those chairs. So, I always ask for these kinds of chairs, so I can sit down and interact with the class.”

Victor Escalante, 62

Languages

“I’d prefer if there were a cart service to help me and other disabled students because we take double or triple the time to get from Point A to Point B. I don’t think there are enough handicap parking spots.

The handicap parking nearest the elevator by the library building is the fastest way for me to pass through campus.

Also, it frustrates me when someone without a disability abuses the use of someone else’s disability placard just to get a “convenient” parking spot on campus.

Zaira Simones, 29

Communication

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March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

The Southwestern College Sun

7

Holocaust survivor lives on in emotional exhibition

By Gamaliel Carreño Arango Campus Editor

An apple.

A child trying to grab an apple from a tree.

That is all it took for young Ruth Goldschmiedova to be locked up for 24 hours in solitary confinement when she was in a Nazi concentration camp. That was nothing, she said. At least she survived. More than 6 million were not as fortunate.

Chula Vista’s Civic Library is hosting a year-

Dr. Malia

FLOOD:

long exhibit with stories of Holocaust survivors who —just like Ruth Goldschmiedova Sax— decided to settle down in the South County.

“RUTH: Remember Us The Holocaust” is a stunning exhibit that honors the legacy of the survivors and shares their stories with subsequent generations.

Sax’s daughter Sandra Scheller is the exhibit’s curator. She chose to focus the exhibit on survivors who migrated to Chula Vista after World War II. Scheller collected artifacts from her mother

before she died in December. She set out to find photos and artifacts from other local Holocaust survivors and their families. Her stated goal was to include as many people as she could find and make their voices heard.

Scheller said hearing survivors’ heart-wrenching memories was difficult. It inspired her, she said, to set up the exhibit in a way that would best depict their entire life stories, not just their Holocaust suffering.

Chula Vista Library Director Joy Whatley said the exhibit includes examples of the propaganda

“There’s a difference between compliance, which is your minimum obligation, and being a campus that values inclusion and universal design, which means going above and beyond and really being thoughtful about how we meet the needs of all students.”

used by Nazis prior to the concentration camps, photographs of the survivors and maps of the camps.

“As you go through the display cases what you will see is what everybody who was a survivor actually did while they were (in Chula Vista),” she said.

Ruth Goldschmiedova was locked away in her first concentration camp when she was 13. She survived a series of brutal camps with her mother, including the infamous Auschwitz death camp in

please see Holocaust pg. 10

Students can receive free tax services on campus

By Brittany Cruz-Fejeran Editor-in-Chief

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

CHECKED OUT FROM THE LIBRARY — Sixteen mobile classrooms now sit in the former parking lots M and N behind the library.

DISABLED PARKING SPACES DISAPPEAR

CONSTRUCTION BURIES 14 POPULAR SPOTS NEAR LIBRARY

By Lisa Pottger Assistant Campus Editor

B

lue disabled parking spaces have disappeared, but so far students are not seeing red.

Disabled parking got a little tighter this semester, with the loss of 14 spots near the library.

Four squat mobile units housing 16 classrooms took over the spaces. The trailers serve as temporary, multi-use classrooms until the new student union complex is completed in 2023.

Behind the library former lots M and N had 38 spaces, including spots for students, faculty and staff, as well as parking spaces required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Lot N was the closest access point for people with disabilities using the library.

Southwestern College has 4,104 parking spots for nearly 20,000 students. There are 128 ADA spaces, more than the 99 spots required by law. SC does not keep records on how many students, faculty or staff have ADA license plates or placards.

Aurora Ayala, acting director of facilities, oversees campus construction and parking.

She said the college will add one more van accessible spot across the perimeter road from the library in Parking Lot J to make up for the lost ADA spots. Ayala said she spends a good part of her days referring to the oversized maps that cover her office walls.

“We look at this as a whole,” she said.

“So, we took out these parking stalls

Monica Samayoa said no one should ever have to pay to get their taxes done.

“We are paying (taxes) to the IRS,” she said. “We should not have to pay to get our taxes done as well.”

Enter the Volunteer Income Tax Assistant (VITA) Program. It is a service provided by the Internal Revenue Service that helps low-income wage earners file their taxes for free as long as their income is less than $16,000. It also allows SC business majors at earn four units.

Samayoa said even non-business majors can learn. “(Students) come to my class not knowing exactly how to prepare tax returns,” she said. “By the end of the class and VITA season, not only do they learn how to prepare tax returns, but the confidence they build is amazing.”

VITA has 20 sites in San Diego County including SC. The campus has 30 volunteers and have already filed more than 250 tax returns for their clients.

An appointment takes up to one hour and no appointment is necessary, said Samayoa.

To help expedite the process, Samayoa recommends the following: • Determine whether or not your parents will be claiming you in their tax return. If you file as an independent while you are being claimed by your parents, the IRS will issue an amendment to parties involved.

• Add up school expenses, including registration fees, books, supplies and others. Many are tax deductible.

• Bring DMV registration paperwork fees are deductible.

WHAT TO BRING Proof of identification (photo ID) Social Security cards for you, your spouse and dependents l An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) assignment letter may be substituted for you, your spouse and your dependents if you do not have a Social Security number l Proof of foreign status, if applying for an ITIN l Birth dates for you, your spouse and dependents on the tax return l Wage and earning statements (Form W-2, W-2G, 1099-R,1099-Misc) from all employers l Interest and dividend statements from banks (Forms 1099) l Health Insurance Exemption Certificate, if received l A copy of last year’s federal and state returns, if available l Proof of bank account routing and account numbers for direct deposit such as a blank check l To file taxes electronically on a married-filing-joint tax return, both spouses must be present to sign the required forms l Total paid for daycare provider and the daycare provider’s tax identifying number such as their Social Security number or business Employer Identification Number l Forms 1095-A, B and C, Health Coverage Statements l Copies of income transcripts from IRS and state, if applicable. l l

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

BLUE MOVES — Acting facilities director Aurora Ayala said construction is forcing the college to reconfigure its parking lots.

entirely, so it wasn’t just ADA spots, it was staff parking, student parking. The entire lots had to be taken out to make way for the learning hubs that were coming in. There’s no room for building more parking.”

Dr. Malia Flood, director of Disability Support Services, said she has had just one complaint from a disabled student about the missing ADA parking behind the library. She said the college is always looking to exceed the needs of the disabled

on campus.

“There’s a difference between compliance, which is your minimum obligation, and being a campus that values inclusion and universal design, which means going above and beyond and really being thoughtful about how we meet the needs for all students,” she said.

Flood said she wants to hear from disabled students having trouble with any please see Parking pg. 10

CAMPUS

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

campus@theswcsun.com

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Students receive priority enrollment during thei r first four semesters. FYE recipients are required to volunteer to increase their chances of connecting to prof essionals in their fields. They can expect special events and fun activities throughout the year.

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A great place to start doing research is the Southwestern College website. Students can take a look at the helpful resources on campus. A clear vision of what the school offers will make the meeting more productive. Informed students can ask more specific questions that will lead to successful outcomes.

Adriana Siordia, 20, a chemistry major, said going into an appointment without prior research can lead to taking the wrong classes.

“You should do your research first and then show up and confirm it,” she said.

SC’s catalog lists all classes offered at the five campuses. Having specific classes in mind will help students focus the counselor’s advice.

Counseling

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Make a list

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It is common to have Collect questions in a notebook. get them on appointment many questions in mind, then for p students walk out of the day. A list of questions will hel appointment feeling satisfied. major, advise classmates Nicole Slade, 19, a biochemistry if they do not have an to write down questions even imminent appointment. e up throughout your “Write all the questions that com e to review those questions semester,” she said. “Make sur in advance.”

campus@theswcsun.com

CAMPUS

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

Resources s Veteran

ns and nity for vetera u m m co d n a itation lace of rehabil western College.

J.D. The VRC is a p end South t for all,” said tt en a m o n h w ro s vi ie en il their fam d welcoming warm, safe an a e inator. d vi ro p e ate “W Center Coord e rc u o help rehabilit es R to e s n iv a tr er s et rs V o s White, RC advi rate into tudy center, V rn to reconnect and integ toa More than a s le dents nge and peera tu ch S . ex s n k o ra o b te utilities, military ve services like sistance with d. Along with s rl a o e w iv n a ce li re vi n es ci s ca the sist with cloth s dent veteran a tu y s a , m g n rs ri o s to peer tu . VRC advi tudents, ansportation provided for s ng-term rt o p p u s d n housing and tr a ing repped for lo . Job counsel tudents are p S . and toiletries ls a rr fe re olarship along with sch success. stability and

College Library SC’s $17 million library is staffed with research experts eager to help st udents find out nearly anything. Librarians kn ow how to track down ha rdto-find data and referen ces, and can also access current research that requires subscriptions.

SC’s librarians are cheerful, generous and standing by at the moment’s notice.

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Students can transfer to a UC, CSU or private university with the help of the Transfer Center staff.

Students are encourag ed to attend an applica tion workshop for help apply ing to the university of their choice. Application mist akes and appeals hand led by Transfer Center and st aff decrease frustratio n and empower students to th ink boldly. Transfer Cent er representatives can giv e powerful advice, prov ide introductions and sche dule university tours.

Resources

Student Employm ent Services Student Employment Services offers more than 400 campus and off-campus emplo yment opportunities.

Students can attend job fairs in the fall or spring semesters and connect with em ployers. Assistance with internships is also availab le.

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Dulce Gonzalez, 21 ling appointment is se un co a re fo be r you get your professo e said. “Whenever sh ,” rs so es of pr s you “Talk to your u know what classe Yo . ed ar ep pr e ar u appointment, yo need to take.”

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“We create a community with our students,” said Omar Orihuela, director of EOPS A product of the Civil Rights Movement, EOP S is all about providing opportunities for underserved students. EOP S has a proven record of success for the socioeconomically disadvantage d full-time students and those with disabilities. Its most popular service is a book stipend of up to $350, along with a book lending opti on. Program counselors help develop invaluable Student Education Plan s (SEP). Students may borrow up to $150 with no interest or service fees for short term emergencies. EOPS has its own academic coun selors. The program hosts more than 40 workshops on money, stre ss management, university applications, and other life skill work shops.

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9

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CAMPUS

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

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Prof named Senate District Woman of the Year Dr. Sylvia Garcia-Navarrete overcame demeaning youth to become a national force

working to replace its buried disability spaces Continued from pg. 7

By Ana Paola Olvera Staff Writer

Dr. Sylvia Garcia-Navarrete woke up on February 19 feeling special.

It was her 55th birthday—a milestone that made her reflect on her life.

Once labeled in elementary school as “mentally retarded,” she fought for her own sense of worth and intelligence in a world that was expecting her to fail.

Now she is a rare Latina with a doctorate and an English professor at SC. Her birthday became more special when her dean, Dr. Joel Levine, asked her to stop by his office. At precisely 1:30 p.m. Levine’s phone rang. California Senator Ben Hueso was on the line.

He praised Garcia-Navarrete’s enormous contributions to the community and announced that she is the 40th Senate District Woman of the Year.

“We were just floored, impressed with everything that you’ve done and where you come from,” Hueso said. “You are really a part of what’s making California a better place every single day.”

Her title comes with a paid trip to Sacramento where she will meet the Women of the Year from other California Senate districts, all of whom will be honored on the floor of the Senate.

“It’s an honor to have been nominated first of all,” she said. “I’m humbled to be able to represent our college and our community.”

Growing up in Encanto, Garcia-Navarrete faced titanic challenges. She was deemed mentally disabled in kindergarten because she spoke only street Spanish. She was placed in Special Education classes and belittled all the way in to high school.

In the 7th grade the children of color faced a lot of discrimination, she said. K-12 counselors too frequently warehoused Latino students in Special Ed classes, deeming them “mentally incapable,” she said. It was a traumatic experience, she said, but it changed her outlook as an educator.

“You look back,” she said. “You connect the dots to where you are today and that’s a reminder of ‘If I can do it, anyone else can do it.’”

Fortunately, at a critical moment in her life, a trusted adult told her she was not stupid and should try college.

Garcia-Navarrete enrolled at SC and

Parking: College is

Courtesy Ernesto Rivera

WONDER WOMAN — Dr. Sylvia Garcia-Navarrete receives the word from California State Senator Benjamin Hueso that she is the Woman of the Year.

got a job in the cafeteria.

A job in the school cafeteria felt about right, she said. She told herself at the time that was all she knew how to do. Her upbringing had even groomed her for it—learning how to sew and cook in Home Economics classes instead of courses that would prepare her for college.

The expected path was set in front of her, but her schedule did not align with the job. She was connected to the Reading Center instead.

“It was life changing for me,” she said.

Reading Center staff told Garcia-Navarrete that she was much brighter than she gave herself credit for. She slowly started to believe them.

It took her six years to finish her BA, but she launched straight into a Master’s at SDSU. She had to drop to raise her daughter alone, but never let go of her dream of an advanced degree.

“I was a single mother and I was homeless for about a month,” she said.

“Life happens.”

She returned to SC as a teaching assistant and found more support she

needed to believe in herself. She said it was inspirational for her to have those “cheerleaders” in her life who would say “You’ve got this!”

A full decade after dropping out of her Master’s program she returned to SDSU. This time there was no stopping her. She whipped through her Master’s and was accepted into the extremely competitive SDSU Doctorate in Education Program.

Garcia-Navarrete earned a doctorate in educational leadership with an emphasis on community colleges and became a full-time professor at SC in 2012. The girl who was told she would not amount to anything in life is now teaching doctoral level students at SDSU. Journalism Professor Dr. Max Branscomb was her classmate in the doctorate program. He said Garcia-Navarrete is a friend and a hero.

“There are people that teach and mentor and inspire people, but she does it just by existing,” he said, “by what she has achieved.”

During SC breaks, Garcia-Navarrete teaches in the South Pacific at

Palau Community College and other disadvantaged islands in Micronesia, inspiring a new generation of teachers to be educational leaders. She teaches critical thinking and leadership skills to indigenous teachers at the vanguard of an educational Renaissance south of the equator. Garcia-Navarrete said she particularly enjoys encouraging women to enroll in doctorate programs.

Back home, she is an SC Advancing Equity mentor, reconsidering the way SC professors approach diversity and socio-economic impacts on education.

Levine recommends students take Garcia-Navarrete’s classes. Her classroom is another world, he said, because it is an environment that makes students feel respected, confident and inspired. Students who enter her English class become artists of the written word.

Opening the door to learning is the easy part, Garcia-Navarrete said. Opening your heart is harder and requires trust.

“Opening my heart to do what I do and loving what I do moves me forward and moves other people forward.”

campus facilities.

“I don’t want them to suffer in silence,” she said. “We can’t do anything unless students come forward. So, it’s always nice if students take time to come and let us know if they’re struggling with something.”

Ayala said she is working with a team of students to create an interactive map of the paths of travel around the campus.

“It’s really just making sure that our entire campus is an ADAfriendly campus,” she said. “We want it to be above and beyond. I just want to be sure we’re covering all our bases, to make sure that everybody has the same experience.

So, we’re looking at ADA counts, van-accessible stalls, making sure we have push bars on our restrooms, entrance pathways, so we don’t have anything blocking it during construction.”

Humberto Gurmilan, an adjunct journalism instructor, uses a wheelchair. He said he used to park behind the library when he could because it gave him easy access to his classes. He said he does not have any problems finding accessible parking here, but he struggles at San Diego City College.

“I think in terms of ADA parking Southwestern is pretty good,” he said. “I teach at other colleges and it’s a little bit challenging. I think Southwestern does a really good job of having those (accessible) spots available. I think the more you can get, then obviously it’s great, but then you impact the regular spots. It just depends on your point of view.”

Police Chief Dave Nighswonger points to the college website for parking guidance for times when there is no ADA parking available. It says disabled drivers can park nearly anywhere on campus where there is a designated parking stall.

“If you have a disabled placard, it doesn’t matter if you’re a student, faculty, staff visitor, whomever, you can park anywhere,” he said.

Restricted areas include spaces reserved for specific people, orangelined spots at the fitness center and areas marked “No Parking” or “Tow Away Zone.” Designated loading zones are also off-limits.

Holocaust: Chula Vista Library fetes its South County Nazi victims

Continued from pg. 7

Poland. She reunited with her father after she was free. Survivors struggled to start a new life after they were released because they had nothing, Scheller said.

Her grandmother, grandfather and mother were the only members of the extended Goldschmied family who survived. Nazi soldiers rounded up 11,000 Polish Jews from the Goldschmied’s community. Only 200 people made their way back home.

One of the exhibit’s glass cases displays love letters exchanged between young Ruth and Kurt Sax. Scheller said her parents knew each other since they were young because they were distant relatives. When Nazis began threatening Jews in Eastern Europe, Kurt Sax emigrated to the United States and worked in New York. When Ruth was freed from Auschwitz she wrote to Sax, who eventually sent for her. They later moved to Chula Vista and immediately started participating in the community.

Ruth created a support organization for Jewish Holocaust survivors. The Sax family owned a grocery store. Kurt Sax promised Ruth she would never experience starvation again, according to Scheller.

Scheller said her mother was an advocate for Holocaust survivors and spoke to the media whenever possible. It was a woman Scheller did not see when she was younger. Only when she was older did Scheller realize her mother was a human rights warrior.

“I saw a news clipping of my mom from 1996,” she said. “I saw this intellectual woman that I never realized.”

Scheller wrote a book about her mother’s experiences and said people were eager to meet Sax during the promotional tour. Students kept her mother motivated when she received hugs, flowers and candies from them, Scheller said. “(Ruth got energy) from the stu-

Karla Luna/Staff

Karla Luna/Staff

Karla Luna/Staff

NEVER FORGET — (clockwise from above) Sandra Scheller kisses a cutout of her mother Ruth at the “RUTH: Remember Us The Holocaust” exhibit at the Chula Vista library. A pair of shoes worn by Ruth Goldschmiedova while attending her cousin’s wedding at the age of four are one of the items she had left in her possession after the Nazis invaded her home on March 14, 1939. The first letter Kurt Sax (her future husband) wrote to Ruth Goldschmiedova during the holiday season.

dents,” she said. “I made a point to photograph every single school we ever spoke at. We would go over the pictures and she was so proud of that.”

Ruth Sax said she regretted not being able to attend college during her Holocaust years and was thrilled to receive an honorary degree from Southwestern College in 2018 for her humanitarian work. A swarm of bees interrupted the ceremony the moment Ruth received her degree. Scheller said she believes it was her father visiting her mom and celebrating her accomplishment. For the rest of her life her friends called her Dr. Ruth.

Sax was able to see the exhibit two weeks before she died and made a few

last-minute adjustments, Scheller said.

Exhibit visitor Deborah Kent said it is amazing Scheller was able to bring her mother’s dream to life. She said the exhibit brought her to tears.

“Her mom wanted an exhibit like that,” she said. “She wanted the memories to live on.”

Scheller said she likes having the exhibit in the Chula Vista Public Library because its staff takes good care of the artifacts while letting people feel free to navigate through it. She said she sees people crying as they explore the glass cases of World War II images and examples of Nazi anti-Semitism.

“I see them remembering stories they have heard from their families,” she

said.

Kent said the exhibit is important because many young Americans do not know much about the Holocaust.

Harry Orgovan, president of the South Bay Historical Society, agreed.

“The Holocaust is not something we can just ignore,” he said. “It has to be brought up and remembered so that we do not make the kind of mistakes that we allowed to be made in the past.”

The grand opening of the exhibit was an event to raise money for buses so that students from the Chula Vista elementary schools would be able to visit the exhibit, Whatley said.

“My goal is to make sure that with this exhibit every student in Chula Vis-

ta knows the word Holocaust,” Scheller said.

Whatley said different activities will be showcased each month, including guest speakers, panels and films.

Scheller said she wants to find a permanent home for the exhibit in the South Bay. “If I could pick a new home, I would want it to be Southwestern College,” she said.

SC President Dr. Kindred Murillo has expressed interest in the idea, Scheller said.

She said the exhibition is a representation as to who her mom was.

“This is my mom,” she said. “I come here and I see my mom.”

ARTS

March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

STORY BY KARLA LUNA

W

hen guitar god Eric Clapton was asked a few years ago what it was like to be the world’s greatest guitar player, Slowhand scratched his forehead and sighed.

“I don’t know,” he said. “You’ll have to ask Prince.”

Prince, when asked the same question, said Clapton.

Both superstars agreed, however, that the greatest acoustic guitars were made by Taylor, the legendary El Cajon company whose dolcet instruments are also favored by Taylor Swift, Dave Matthews, Zac Brown, Jason Mraz, Jewel, Tori Kelly, George Strait and other luminaries.

Taylor Guitars are the voice of legions of the world’s most talented recording artists and performers, but the conscientious company is now an advocate for global sustainability and indigenous people.

Taylor’s Ebony Project is an innovative social and environmental initiative that works to protect the trees that produce ebony wood.

In 2011Taylor Guitar acquired partial ownership of Crelicam, an ebony wood sawmill in Cameroon. This rare wood is used in many of the company’s signature guitar models for its natural beauty and rich sound.

Bob Taylor, the company’s namesake founder, said he is deeply committed to environmental sustainability and safeguarding the Earth’s unique ecosystems.

“When purchasing a Taylor Guitar we want our customers to feel assured that they are supporting a highly-ethical and eco-conscience business,” he said.

Taylor said his early experience with the Crelicam sawmill led to a shocking discovery. Much of the wood from precious ebony trees was left to waste on the warm dirt of the forest floors of Cameroon. Pure-black ebony wood is considered the beauty standard and is highly desired by

instrument manufacturers. Different colored variegation wood was left to decay.

Taylor Guitars began using variegation ebony and encourages other instrument manufacturers to follow suit.

Taylor’s Responsible Timber Purchasing Policy are company rules that ensure wood is managed efficiently with minimum waste. It provides moral guidelines for all purchases throughout the supply chain. Taylor said this has help him to develop a network of trusting long-term partners and suppliers.

In 2014 Taylor and Vidal de Teresa Paredes, co-owners of the Crelicam sawmill, were presented the Award for Corporate Excellent by the U.S. State Department. Secretary of State John Kerry presented the award for their work promoting sustainable development, respecting human labor rights, advocating for environmental protection and responsible forestry management.

“Taylor Guitars has become an effective advocate for improvement of legal and policy reforms,” Kerry said.

“They have fundamentally changed the entire ebony trade.”

Josh Van Dermark, a 10-year employee and musician, leads tours of the Cameroon project. He said he appreciates the ethics and benevolent intentions of Taylor Guitars.

“There’s so many guitar companies, but not enough of them are focused on reforestation efforts to support the impact they created on the world,” he said.

Back in 1974 a young Bob Taylor built his first guitar in his high school woodshop class, then went to work in a guitar shop called American Dream owned by Sam Radding.

Two years later, Radding sold his business to Taylor who changed the name first to Westland Music Company, then Taylor Guitars. His focus on design, quality and playability made Taylor Guitars legendary around the world, attracting some of the planet’s greatest guitarists to their products.

Taylor sees beyond

The Southwestern College Sun

11

TAYLOR

MADE FOR EXCELLENCE

Clapton, Jade Bird, Tony Iommia and other superstars. He wants to put guitars into the hands of underserved children.

In 1990 he teamed with the San Diego Music Foundation to create the Taylor Guitar for Schools program. Taylor provides sponsorships for high school music programs and woodshop classes to push back on budget cuts to arts programs in public schools.

Van Dermark’s high school woodshop class was supported by Taylor Guitar and he built his own guitar, which he later took into his interview at Taylor. He was hired on the spot.

“It was a full circle that gave me the opportunity to build the guitar and take the very same one to get a job with the company,” he said.

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes people from around the world to make a quality guitar, he said.

In Cameroon Taylor employees replant ebony trees and take care of the forests.

In El Cajon talented luthiers use the dark wood to make their sublime instruments.

Only then do the rock stars, country legends and gifted up-and-comers enter the spotlight to make wondrous music.

“It was a full circle that gave me the opportunity to build the guitar and take the very same one to get a job with the company.”

Josh Van Dermark employee & musician

JOHN BALDESSARI 1932 - 2020

Renowned artist Baldessari dead at 88

By Caleigh Goldman Assistant Campus Editor

J

ohn Baldessari could summon creation even from destruction.

One of America’s greatest artists—and definitely Southwestern College’s most famous professor —Baldessari rounded up 14 years of his paintings, took them to a mortuary and had them cremated. He put the ashes in an urn and —voila!— a new masterpiece, “The Cremation Project.”

It mattered not to the radical and undefinable conceptual artist that the paintings were worth tens of millions of dollars, they were old and it was time to change directions.

Baldessari died in January at 88, creating right up to the end. Painter, sculptor, filmmaker, photographer, graphic artist and more, the 6-foot 7-inch iconoclast towered over the art world like a shaggy NBA power forward. He produced more than 4,000 works of art, had 1,500 group exhibitions, 377 solo exhibitions, has his name on two buildings and starred in one episode of “The Simpsons.” He won scores of prestigious awards and was presented the National Medal of Arts by President Obama.

None of it went to his head, said Damon Hitchcock, a Baldessari student at SC in 1966 who now teaches here.

Hitchcock was barely out of high school when he sat on the curb outside a gallery in

La Jolla and discussed art with Baldessari.

SC was in its second year and “The Cremation Project” had not yet caught fire.

There were no nearby houses or sidewalks, but an art department was exploding to life like a new star. Hitchcock was one of less than a dozen students in Baldessari’s class.

Hitchcock said Baldessari was patient and nurturing, and spent considerable time with his students. He sat patiently with Hitchcock and developed a vision for a piece that was intensive and unconventional. It involved travel and placing letters from a travel atlas.

“It really expanded my awareness of what art could be,” Hitchcock said.

A National City native, Baldessari was lured from SC to teach at prestigious universities such as California Institute of the Arts, UCLA and UCSD. SC instructor Dr. Eun Park attended UCLA while Baldessari taught there. She said he was “incredibly generous” to his studio art students and had “no ego.”

Baldessari was a restless spirit who would reinvent a medium, then move on. He created legendary art through paintings, photography, video and books. He often said the thought put into art is more valuable than the finished product. A video titled “I am Making Art” is one of many unconventional pieces he made. Baldessari stood and stretched in the video while he repeated the line “I am making art.”

He also made art from black and white photographs collected throughout the years.

He placed colored dots on all the faces of the figures in the photographs. The dots, he explained, were a way for the audience to see everything else in the photograph.

“I just got so tired of looking at these faces,” he said. “Why do I leave it? Because I think you really sort of dig beneath the surface and you can see what that photograph is really about, what’s going on.”

Baldessari said his time at SC allowed for experimentation. He gifted the college with an early abstract painting in 1962. It was a rare piece that survived “The Cremation Project.”

Hitchcock got to experience Baldessari before he was BALDESSARI, but also during his years of fame. During a visit to the Hirshorn Museum in Washington D.C., Hitchcock and his wife stood in awe in front of a Baldessari piece, unaware that others wanted to see it, too.

“He was a South Bay resident who wanted to share his visions,” Hitchcock said.

“They were bold and ambitious, and he was eager to continue.”

Two of Baldessari’s most famous murals are San Diego County classics that anyone can visit for free. His UCSD mural “READ/ WRITE/THINK/DREAM” is on display at the Theodore Geisel Library. “Brain/Cloud (with Seascape and Palm Tree), a 2011 work, is on view at 1250 Prospect St. in La Jolla.

Photo Courtesy John Baldessari Estate

A HEAD OF HIS TIME— Brilliant conceptual artist John Baldessari was a global phenomenon who was born in National City and launched an epic career from Southwestern College where he taught in the 1960s.

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ARTS

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

arts@theswcsun.com

Courtesy Jahaziel Va

WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY SHREDS — (clockwise from top) Oathbreakers guitarist Saul Ramos rips through a solo as drummer Jakob McCullock rocks on. Guitarist Brandon Gonza lez and bassist Jahaziel Valencia jam on an original song.

lencia

ia

Courtesy Jahaziel Valenc

e House of Blues in downtown San Diego rabl vene the at ut deb ul essf succ a ers deliv ers rock ent Band fueled by Southwestern College stud

Oathbreakers show promise

J

By Karla Luna, Arts Editor

ahaziel Valencia went to a performance by popular thrash-metal band The Oathbreakers to take pictures.

Less than two weeks later he was their bassist.

His first show at the House of Blues was both terrifying and wondrous.

He found himself performing in a venue where Tyler the Creator, Veil of Maya, and Attila have gone before.

“That feeling of being on the same stage as a legend was something I’d never experienced,” he said.

Singer/Guitarist Brandon Gonzalez and drummer Jakob McCullock were banded together by a band t-shirt, Slayer or Led Zeppelin (Gonzalez confessed he could not recall which it was).

Gonzalez stormed over to McCullock, “Hey man, you like metal music?”

He did.

“We’ve been friends ever since,” McCullock said.

“I think it was inevitable that we would eventually begin a band.”

The Oathbreakers found lead guitarist Saul Ramos in a similar fashion. He yelled into the void of Instagram in hopes of finding a band to join after watching “The Dirt,” a 2019 biopic about hair-metal band Mötley Crüe.

Gonzalez responded. From the first rehearsal the vibe felt right, he said.

Ramos agreed.

“We met up and jammed to a few of their songs,” he said.

McCullock said he felt the same.

“From there it immediately clicked for us,” he said.

Nerves were jangling the day of their big show at House of Blues. McCullock was tapping the band’s songs on his legs backstage as anxiety built. A quick

backstage warm up got them focused and the quartet commanded the old wooden floor boards of the stage before a delirious crowd.

Headbanging audience expressed approval in rowdy mosh pits while the drums thundered and the guitars throbbed.

McCullock said the enthusiasm was contagious.

“We all get this energy on stage when the adrenaline kicks in, especially when we can tell the crowd is enjoying our music,” he said. “It all comes out naturally.”

Proto-rock stars at the House of Blues by night, Ramos and Valencia are students at Southwestern College by day. Ramos said he applies the knowledge he has picked up as a business administration and music production major to further the band’s career.

Valencia is working toward a journalism degree, he said, and intends to bring journalism’s ethical practices to the video game industr y.

Each member’s style and technique bleeds into the songs they create together. Influences include Metallica, Slayer, Trivium, Post Malone, Deftones, Joji and Juice WRLD, Gonzales said.

It is non-metal influences to make their sound stand out, he said.

One stated goal of the band members is to help people understand metal and not shy away from it. A hint of melodic pop seeps in, inviting listeners to connect with The Oathbreakers’ music and vibe with the band.

Humor is another ingredient. At the heart of The Oathbreakers lives an amplified comedy troupe. Its current single, “Cilantro,” was inspired by the 2019 Storm Area 51 meme, a Facebook joke gone wrong that sent

hen the adrenaline w e ag st on gy er en is “We all get th ng our music.” yi jo en is d ow cr e th n kicks in, whe rs Jakob McCullock, Oathbreake

thousands to the Nevada desert in search of space aliens.

Members’ sense of humor crackled during an interview with The Sun. When reporters spoke with three of the four band members—Valencia unable to tag along the first time—the trio pretended he was in the room part of the conversation.

Gonzalez said he wants to explore beyond songs like “Cilantro” and write deeper music. Each can play the others instruments, which makes them able to teach one another new parts and collaborate musically. Words are another matter, Gonzales said.

“Typically I enjoy more serious lyrics,” he said. “It feels more real and true to itself.”

Introspective and self-observing themes come from their own thoughts and insecurities, Gonzales said. Anxiety, isolation and other issues of today’s society sprinkle their prose.

“Metal isn’t evil,” Gonzalez said. “Don’t be afraid of it because it’s heavier. That’s what makes it fun.”

Courtes

y Jahaz

iel Valen

cia

arts@theswcsun.com

ARTS

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

SC students on the go for Pokémon GO

13

GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALL — Pokémon GO players Francisco “Pancho” Medina, David Cueva and Matthew Vollner prepare for a raid battle near the Cesar Chavez Center, a game mode where each person brings a team of six pokémon against an extremely powerful enemy.

Photo Illustration by Nicholas James and Jennifer Valenzuela

By Nicholas James Staff Writer

or nearly three years Southwestern College has been teaming with little monsters, epic fighting and dazed students wandering the campus, wondering what could possibly come next.

This time, though, it is all in good fun. Pokémania has gripped Southwestern College.

Chula Vista’s center of higher learning is also the center of the South County’s Pokémon GO craze.

Thousands of students and visitors crane their necks, hunched over their phones hunting for the next exotic cyber fighters.

Pokémon GO allows users to relive a childhood dream of catching ’em all.

With 807 Pokémon, the augmented reality game encourages players to walk to new locations to catch regionspecific Pokémon on their phones.

Hand-held technology can hold hundreds of Pokémons, some cute, some powerful, many still evolving.

Users battle at virtual gyms for territory and hunt for valuable items by visiting Pokéstops, where they uncover

talisman to heal their battle-scarred Pokémon or make them stronger.

Legions of students make friends through the game, meeting up at events called raids where they fight for legendary or powerful Pokémon.

Raids vary in level, from one star to five stars, which is impossible to beat alone, requiring strategy and cooperation.

Jonathan Galvan, a sophomore history major, said he did not know anyone on campus when he started playing in 2017. Pokémon GO led to him meeting a new friend, sophomore electrical engineering major Francisco Medina, during the fall 2018 semester.

“We used to see each other mostly at raids,” Galvan said. “It wasn’t until later on that we started hanging out and eventually we became friends.”

Medina said many students on campus become friends thanks to the game.

“Even if they’re not part of the main group, we see people from other raids,” he said. “We still know them, we count them as friends because after the raids we see people from other raids that stay and we talk.”

Senior biology student David Cuevas met Medina and Galvan through the app. Cuevas said he started playing

Pokémon GO when it was first released in 2016.

“I met a group of friends through the game and they’ve become some of my best friends,” he said. “We all have different majors and some interests, so without the game the probability of this group forming would be slim.”

Pokémon GO can be played solo, but is easier to play with friends. In fact, the game measures players “friendship level” based on how many gifts they send each other. The four levels for the friendship meters start at “good friends” (one heart) and ends at “best friends” (four hearts), which nets the best rewards.

Without the game, Cuevas said, it is harder to make friends on campus since everyone has their own agendas.

“Most students like to focus on their academics and they don’t tend to spend a lot of time on anything else,” he said.

Cuevas said the game also offers a variety of ways to make friends through Pokémon GO outside of raids. “(Raids) make it easier for people to establish connections with people to obtain a strong Pokémon as a reward for beating it,” he said. “A few ways the game encourages player interaction is trading, PvP (player versus player),

and friendship in the game, which have bonuses for defeating the raids.”

Playing with friends increases the damage buff players and friends receive in raids, and grants bonus experience points. It also makes it easier to trade Pokémon, as it costs less game currency to trade them between friends.

Galvan said there are probably three or four main groups playing Pokémon GO on campus.

The unofficial Facebook page “Pokémon GO SWC” posts details on events going on in the game as well as locations and times for raids on campus. SC has four raid locations: two by the bus stops, one by the library, and the other towards the photo department building.

While the Facebook group has 111 members, Medina said he sees other students who play for social reasons.

“Often times, students are playing the game and they do not know a thing about Pokémon,” he said. “They play Pokémon GO because it helps breaks the ice in a way and helps students make friends.”

Pokémon GO offers players the choice of joining one of three teams: Valor, Mystic or Instinct. There are no initial awards for selecting a team. The

benefits are most relevant during the raid events. Everyone can participate, but the team with the most players has a better chance to catch the Pokémon.

This usually gives the upper hand to teams that coordinate which raids to meet up at to put themselves in an advantageous position.

Players also train at friendly gyms, stationing Pokémon to defend them and gaining Pokécoins, allowing players to buy talisman unobtainable from Pokéstops. Players challenge gyms of opposing teams to lower the defending Pokémon’s power and eventually take them over.

SC players share a friendly competition with one another over which team is better. Pokémon GO community members often joke about the other teams, creating memes that good naturedly poke fun at each other.

Galvan said SC leaders could use Pokémon GO as a way to help more students connect with others.

“It’s a really great idea, because a bunch of people from our group actually don’t know anybody else besides us,” he said.

“That was the only way for them to getting into the group and they just got to know each other like that. I think it’s a good idea.”

Mobile center brings the arts to impoverished children in Tijuana

By Ana Paola Olvera Staff Writer

When la casa mágica drifts into sight, everything changes.

At least for a short, happy while.

A small wooden house on wheels rolls into the downtrodden colonias of Tijuana, bringing the arts to children in need of some color and hope. Inés and Eddy are back.

NTIVO is a portable art center created three years ago by Eddy Lizarraga and Inés Solano. Their mission is to help kids living in some of the rougher neighborhoods of Tijuana. El centro is two meters wide and three meters long, a mighty might for the underserved and overlooked.

Lizarraga said it is important for kids to learn visual art, dance, music and theatre.

Art has transcendent power to inspire, inform and reach young people’s hearts, he said.

“It is a way to heal,” he said. “It heals you and it heals the person beside you.”

NTIVO is a place where kids can explore their creativity and dream big, Lizarraga said. Kids in poverty-stricken colonias lack opportunities, he said, something el centro works to change.

Solano and Lizarraga both said they learned empathy at a very young age.

Lizarraga said his father could turn strangers into friends by putting into practice the famous motto ayuda al prójimo

(help others).

Solano recalled a time her father came home with a truck full of green Christmas cookies and how they drove to a colonia to give them away. She said she would never forget her father’s smile and the unbridled joy in the recipients’ faces.

“Kindness lives inside everyone, but sometimes we forget it,” she said.

La casita was born in the fertile imaginations of Solano and Lizarraga, but neither had experience building such a thing. Fueled by their desire to push NTIVO forward, Solano said they started to build in her parents’ neighborhood.

Curious neighbors loved the idea, she said, and offered to help.

Solano said respeto is paramount when visiting a new colony. It is not unusual to find a person in charge who takes care of the people residing there. They are generally weary of visitors. Asking for approval is the first step in a three-day stay, she said.

Kids can approach on their own, Solano said. They draw near with curious eyes and soon la casita becomes a creative playground, filled to capacity with los niños y esperanza.

Workshops feature popular Mexican artforms like woodcut. Guest artists drop in to teach the kids their specialties. A wall on the house latches off and hangs from the installation to form a humble stage for theatre artists.

Courtesy Eddy Lizarraga

MOBILE MÁGICA— Eddy Lizarraga takes center stage on the portable arts center he and Inés Solano use to take the arts to Tijuana colonias.

Paloma Hinojoza brought her three-yearold son to the art center. He was amazed by all the activities he could do inside the small house, she said, as children drew, painted and sang. Completely immersed, they were brought closer together.

“It was very beautiful,” she said. “Eddy introduced music to my son.”

Bright and hopeful smiles of the children are the best part of NTIVO, Lizarraga said. Just speaking about them brought a big smile to his face and happy tears to

Solano’s eyes. Lizarraga said the work is hard, but the children’s excitement makes it worthwhile.

Poverty is hard to witness, Lizarraga said.

Most of the colonias are haunted by hunger, drug addiction and crime. Solano said it is sad to see kids lacking in so much—even love.

Reporting mistreatment to the police in Tijuana is pointless, Solano said. She can provide the kids with emergency numbers and tell them that what they go through

is not right, but a hard truth she had to swallow was that some things are beyond her ability to change.

“It took me a long time to realize that I’m not Superman,” she said.

Solano said she would have loved something similar to NTIVO when she was a kid. Getting involved in arts education as an adult altered her outlook.

“If I had access to this as a little girl, my perspective on a lot of things would have changed,” she said, “including things that we do and how we interact with each other.”

La casita has deteriorated over time. A tire burst and the wood on the walls creaks and wobbles.

Lizarraga said the portable center has remained stationed for a couple of months and it needs to be reinforced.

They started a GoFundMe page called “Ntivo: Bringing Therapy to Endangered Youth” with hopes to repair damage and get closer to their dream of a permanent art center. Solano said they hope to remodel the house, perhaps even building a better one.

Lizarraga said he does not hold claim over the project, but encourages its global expansion.

“I need to eat and I need to live,” he said, “but to me it is more important for the children’s outlook in life to change. They are the ones who will have this world when we are gone.”

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SPORTS

The Southwestern College Sun

March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

MEN’S BASKETBALL ENJOYS A SEASON FOR THE AGES, AN EARLY PLAYOFF EXIT

SWEET 16, SOUR FINALE n MARQUAVIAN STEPHENS NAMED PCAC PLAYER OF THE YEAR, COSENTINO COACH OF THE YEAR

By J.C. Dottery Viewpoints Editor

A re m a rk a b l e s e a s o n c a m e t o a dulsatory end when undefeated, 7th seed Southwestern College was upset in the first round of the regional playoffs by Allan Hancock College, 67-61.

With a new head coach and only two returning starters from last year, a tough basketball season loomed.

For other teams.

Southwestern (24-4, 16-0 PCAC) locked up back-to-back Pacific Coast Athletic Conference championships for the first time since 2011 and emerged as a state powerhouse.

Ranked fifth in the state and led by first-year head coach and PCAC Coach of the Year Anthony Cosentino, the Jaguars exceeded expectations.

Cosentino insisted that even though his name is on the coaching award, it is a shared achievement.

“There have been a lot of ups-and-downs throughout the season, but you only win Coach of the Year if you win games,” he said. “I owe it all to my players and my assistant coaches. They were the reason we got this award and I’m definetely proud of this group and everything we overcame this year.”

Cosentino said he was not surprised by the quality of the team.

“We would be lying if we said we didn’t expect this because we have a really talented and experienced group,” he said.

“It’s a good feeling, but we still have to finish.”

The leader of the pack is sophomore guard and back-to-back PCAC Player of the Year Marquavian Stephens. Stephens said the award validates his efforts in his SC journey.

“It’s a huge honor to win not once, but twice and it really does mean a lot to me,” he said. “Just shows me hard work pays off and someone coming from a tough place and not having much of anything can dream big.”

SC ran roughshod over the PCAC, finishing the season undefeated in conference play with a 21.125 margin of victory.

The Jags were also one of the best defensive community college teams in the country. As of early February, they ranked eighth in half-court defense in America and first in adjusted field goal percentage,

which takes into account points scored through field goal attempts.

Sophomore forward D.J. Jackson said their success on defense came as little surprise.

“Defense wins games and that’s what we really focused on in practice,” he said. “Our coach pushes defense on us more than offense, because our offense will come along, but our defense is what will win us games.”

Stephens said the Jags’ press lent itself to the up-tempo style the team wanted to play.

“A lot of teams press mainly to get steals,” Stephens said. “We may not get the steal every time, but the press

“It’s a huge honor to win not once, but twice and it really does mean a lot to me. Just shows me hard work pays off and someone coming from a tough place and not having much of anything can dream big.”

Marquavian Stephens PCAC Player of the Year

Nicholas James/Staff

GRAND SLAM — Dejon Jackson splits two Allan Hancock College defenders for a big finish. Southwestern dropped the opening round playoff game, 67-61.

makes teams play fast, which we want to do. Plus it makes them have to make split-second decisions that play into our favor because we are such a good defensive team.”

The Jags defense smothered teams all season. It allowed the second lowest three-point percentage (28.6 percent) in the state, as well as the second-lowest field goal percentage (36.8 percent). SC ranked in the top-15 in points per game allowed (66.2 PPG).

Defense was anchored by freshman forward Diego Edwards and sophomore forwards Israel Seales and D.J. Jackson, who placed in the top four in the PCAC in blocked shots per game.

Jackson and Edwards were the top two rebounders.

Jackson was as an enforcer in the paint and a player with contagious energy.

Stephens said the Jags call Jackson “Big Trez” after L.A. Clippers center Montrezl Harrell.

“We haven’t had a game where any big man can actually say they kept him off the glass and off the rim,” Stephens said. “When he gets going, we already know it’s time to turn up. Big Trez on.

Their energy (Jackson and Edwards) is as important as me, Nate (Pearson) or anybody else hitting shots.”

While Jackson provides the heart, Edwards emerged as the heartbeat.

Edwards was second in the conference in rebounds (8.4 per game) and field goal percentage (56.8 percent). He was third in steals (2.4 per game).

Stephens said Edwards’ energy fueled the team’s success.

“When it comes to Diego you may not hear him because he doesn’t talk much, but you will feel him,” Stephens said with a slight grin. “He does a bit of everything. He may not give you a lot of points, but he’ll give you a million rebounds, million deflections and a million steals. That energy he will bring every game and it rubs off on everyone else.”

Edward’s impact on the game has not gone unseen by opposing coaches, as he was named first team all-conference alongside Stephens.

Sophomore forward D.J. Jackson and freshman guard Zachary Reiter were named second team all-conference.

Sensational sophomore celebrated for her leadership on the court, in the community

By Solé Ruiz Sports Editor

Jaguars captain Malia Talavera shed tears before playing her last college basketball game on sophomore night.

SC’s lone sophomore took to center court where she was embraced by family, coaches and teammates. Her supporters took turns presenting gifts.

It barely mattered that SC was dusted by the Palomar Comets, 99-50.

Talavera’s last game at Southwestern could not damper fond memories.

“Being part of this family has been nothing but pure happiness,” she said, “I’ve gained new sisters. We’ve shared a

lot of sweat, tears and arguments, but most importantly we shared love and laughter.

Talevera said she has played basketball since she was eight. In 2018, she led Olympian High School to a Division II CIF championship.

Head coach Janet Eleazar praised Talavera’s leadership.

“She took a lot on her shoulders because she knew the system,” Eleazar said. “She was like a coach on the court.”

Eleazar has coached Talavera since 2009 and said she has seen her mature as an athlete and person.

“She’s someone that I really care about

and a team player overall,” Eleazar said.

The Jags started the game energized, using their disciplined dribbling to maneuver around the Comets’ man-toman defense.

Palomar, however, quickly wore down Southwestern with a withering fullcourt press. This resulted in constant substitutions and erratic play.

Sophomore Nikki Mayoral led the Comets with 33 points. She scored 21 from beyond the three-point line.

Talavera led SC with 15 points.

Assistant coach Louie Lingaza expressed optimism about the future with so many returning freshman, who learned so much from Talavera.

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

QUEEN OF THE COURT — Jaguars captain Malia Talavera is honored by her all-freshman teammates on Sophomore Night.

campus@theswcsun.com

BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY— Tony Altobelli (r) gives a speech in memory of his brother, Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, one of nine victims of a Jan. 26 helicopter crash that also killed Kobe Bryant. (below) Both teams embrace during a pregame tribute. (bottom) An impromptu shrine to Altobelli on the Orange Coast College campus.

The Southwestern College Sun • March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

SPORTS

Jaguars join tribute for beloved Orange Coast coach

Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff

By Colin Grylls Copy Editor

T

wo lines of solemn young men, one wearing Southwestern maroon and the other wearing orange t-shirts emblazoned with the number 14, struggled to hold back tears before Tuesday’s baseball game at Orange Coast College. Not that anyone in the stands would have blamed anyone for letting the tears escape. Their eyes were fixed on the podium behind home plate, where Orange Coast acting head coach Nate Johnson choked up while delivering a raw, heartfelt speech during a pregame memorial honoring John Altobelli, who died two days earlier in the same helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant.

Opening day, Johnson said, was the former Orange Coast head coach’s favorite.

“On Opening Day he was always here super early, but today I beat him to the field,” Johnson said. “And it’s gonna be the only time that I ever do.”

Altobelli, his wife Keri and youngest daughter Alyssa all died Sunday in the accident that killed Bryant, his daughter and four others.

More than 2,000 people showed up to Wendell Pickens Field, affectionately known as “The House that Alto Built,” to support the players who chose to play in a game they could have cancelled. Sophomore Pirates pitcher Brenden Argomaniz said playing “was a nobrainer.”

“He wouldn’t have wanted us to back down,” Argomaniz said. “He would’ve wanted us to play hard and that’s what we did. I really think we honored his legacy today and I think we’re going to do that throughout the season.”

Former Southwestern head coach Jerry Bartow also made the trip to Costa Mesa to pay his respects. Bartow is one of the few community college baseball coaches with a resumé rivaling Altobelli’s – he won more than 900 games in 39 years at Southwestern, though he never won a state championship. Altobelli won 705 games in 27 years at Orange Coast, and four state titles.

In fact, it was Altobelli’s Pirates who knocked the Jaguars out of the playoffs in 2014, Bartow’s final season.

The two schools started playing in 1978, Bartow said, and when Altobelli took over at

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

OCC the nearly annual matchup continued.

Bartow said the two coaches developed a great relationship over the years.

“I knew his wife, too,” Bartow said. “I met her when she was here one time, when she used to give him money for the scoreboard. I always used to kid him about it and then he ended up marrying her. So yeah, John was a good friend of mine and we played some great games up here.”

Bartow kept to himself during the game, sitting on the end of the Jaguars’ bench to avoid the crowd. And even though there was an extra

person on the bench on a somber day, after a couple of innings the Southwestern dugout started sounding just like it always does – an excited buzz filled with laughter and shouts of encouragement in both English and Spanish.

A normal game is what Tony Altobelli, John Altobelli’s brother and Orange Coast’s sports information director, asked for during his pregame speech. After addressing the crowd and the Pirates dugout, he turned towards Jaguars head coach Jay Martel and the line of maroon jerseys.

“It’s a weird and awkward day for you guys,” Tony Altobelli said. “I wouldn’t envy this position – you guys are in a tough spot. But we appreciate the patience today. We appreciate the love and support you’ve sent us. Play like my brother would’ve told you to play. Play like Martel does tell you to play. Play hard. Play your best. Do the best you can.”

The Jaguars jumped ahead early, scoring four runs in the top of the third with an RBI single from sophomore right fielder Ryan Major, a two-RBI double from freshman first baseman Iran Fuentes and an RBI triple by sophomore designated hitter Jake Borst.

Orange Coast got one back in the bottom half when freshman second baseman Jordan Ku hit an RBI sacrifice fly, but the Jaguars scored three more runs in the top of the sixth to make it 7-1.

Freshman right-handed pitcher Riley O’Sullivan started on the mound for Southwestern and said the Jaguars’ early success resulted from their focus.

“It’s very emotional to start off with the whole ceremony and everything happened, but when you get on the mound you gotta kind of just forget everything and remember it’s baseball,” O’Sullivan said. “You just gotta pitch.”

In the bottom of the sixth, the Orange Coast bats finally woke up.

Sophomore third baseman David Morgan stepped up to the plate with one out and the bases loaded and hit a soft line drive towards Jaguars second baseman Jesse Chacon, who lost the ball in the low afternoon sun. One run scored on what could have been a double play, though it was ruled a hit as Chacon never touched the ball. O’Sullivan threw a wild pitch in the next at-bat, allowing another run to score, then Pirates freshman catcher Oscar

Favela knocked in two more runs with a single to center field to cut Southwestern’s lead to 7-5.

Argomaniz said the Pirates just took longer to focus than the Jaguars, and it took a reminder from Johnson to get their heads back into the game.

“The first half of the game we were just all shaken up,” he said. “We weren’t playing like we know that we can. I think that’s just because our hearts and our minds were on Alto in that situation. But about the fifth or the sixth inning, Coach Nate, he pulled us together and he reminded us of what Alto would’ve wanted us to do and how he would’ve wanted us to play in that situation.”

Orange Coast added another run in the bottom of the seventh when sophomore third baseman Ryan O’Halloran scored from second on a two-out dropped third strike to make it 7-6.

Before the Pirates had a chance to complete the comeback – or even before the Jaguars could shut it down – darkness halted the game in the top of the ninth with no outs and runners on second and third for Southwestern. The game resumed Feb. 18 at Southwestern, with the results holding. O’Sullivan was the winning pitcher with five earned runs allowed, three strikeouts and a walk in 5.1 innings pitched.

Attention turned back to Altobelli after the game. Martel, who was an assistant under Bartow for years, has continued the tradition of scheduling Orange Coast since he took over as Southwestern’s head coach in 2015 and said Altobelli built a model program.

“It was tough for me early in the game, and during the game I kind of forgot,” Martel said.

“But now that the game is over, I really miss having John Altobelli on the other side and competing against him. We’ve been competing against Orange Coast for the last 25 years and they’ve shown what excellence is.”

With the umpires’ decision to suspend the game, there were no losers at first. Maybe that was a fitting outcome given Southwestern assistant coach David Dinerman’s pregame speech honoring Altobelli.

“We hope the measure of today’s contest will be how it helps all of you begin the process of turning your grief into gratitude,” he said. “We wear our school colors today, but we are, today, all Pirates.”

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CLEAN FUN IN THE DIRT — (above) A biker enjoys his place in the sun while performing a “no foot can.” (below) Shane Linder, 16, carves on the wooden berm. (r) A rider goes out for some air.

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Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

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Underneath the hot sunshine with a fresh breeze blowing, bike tires crunch through dirt and small rocks at the Sweetwater Bike Park.

Located in Bonita, the park offers ramps, trails and tracks made of compacted dirt.

Kevin Sexty, an 11-year-old BMX rider, said all comers are welcome.

“It’s a place where everybody can come together, have some fun (and) maybe even make friends,” he said.

BMX and mountain bikes are the most suitable types of bikes for the park.

Riders of all skill levels can enjoy the park thanks to its multiple tracks, said Anthony Martinez, a 21-year-old cognitive science major at UCSD. “They have the small (line), like for beginners, the intermediate line and then the expert line,” he said. “It’s awesome for progressing ‘cause you see little kids start off on the small line and then slowly they get to the big line.”

The three jump lines, flow trails, pump tracks and a kids zone are distributed through the park.

Some riders said they have enhanced more than their bike skills.

Ethan Shohara, 17, who was riding on the hardest jump line, said being with other people has helped him develop social skills.

“You just learn to talk with people,” he said.

Erik Brill, 48, who rode with his children, said the dynamic between riders is “friendly and supportive.”

Entry is free and visitors of all ages can enjoy the park every day from 9:30 a.m. to sunset. The park remains closed after rain.

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

The Southwestern College Sun

STORY BY FERNANDO A. MARTINEZ

HAPPY TRAILS

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BACKPAGE March 12, 2020 – Volume 63, Issue 4