Vol. 63 Issue 2 by Southwestern College Sun Newspaper

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 2

theswcsun.com

Nov. 21, 2019

NEWSPAPER FILES SUIT FOR SCPD INVESTIGATIONS By Brittany Cruz-Fejeran Editor-in-Chief

The Sun has initiated legal action against Southwestern College for its refusal to release a 2013 investigator’s report of former police chief Michael Cash after he fired his gun on campus. Journalism students have retained San Diego First Amendment attorney Felix Tinkov to take the college to court over its refusal to release any information related to alleged misconduct by Cash and former SC President Melinda Nish. Current president Dr. Kindred Murillo has told editors of The Sun that the California Police Officers Bill of please see Lawsuit pg. 4

ASO INVESTIGATION

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

RIO DE PUEBLO — Residents of Mexico approach the Tijuana side of the border checkpoint at San Ysidro to cross into the U.S. Bureau of Transportation statistics say 9.4 million pedestrians entered the U.S. from Tijuana in 2018, including legions of students.

Two countries, six hours— one long commute to school By Fernando A. Martinez, Assistant Photo Editor

catastrophic delay is six. Juan Carlos gets about four hours sleep a night, he said, rubbing his eyes. His mamá wakes up an hour earlier at 3:30 a.m., to make him a portable breakfast shake and prepare him a lunch. This is often all he eats all day, he said. Lack of sleep and hunger take their toll, he said. El espíritu está dispuesto, pero la carne es débil. “There are some days I’m in class and I cannot pay attention, I’m falling asleep. I’m thinking ‘After this I’m going to this place to buy something to eat,’” he said. “It’s distracting and as whole it doesn’t allow me to continue with my usual activites because I don’t have the same energy level than a regular person does.” Ariana holds a precious SENTRI card from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol given to “pre-approved, low-risk travelers” to cross faster. Wait time at the Port of Entry is greatly reduced, but the commute is still typically an hour—much longer if she is required to endure an entirely random secondary inspection. Ariana said she buys burritos from street vendors at the border for breakfast and lunch. Like Juan Carlos, sometimes

please see Crossing pg. 2

DR. KINDRED MURILLO

Investigators who examined accusations of racism and unfair treatment in the spring Associated Student Organization election concluded that administrators supervising the ASO were at fault for the chaos and racial tension that followed when members of an all-African-American ticket accused a mostly-Latino ticket of racism and character assassination. Students were mostly cleared of wrongdoing and the results of the election were upheld. Dr. Malia Flood, who served as dean of Student Affairs during the election, has been reassigned to the position of director of Disabled Student Services, Murillo said. Brett Robertson, who was director of Student Development, will also be reassigned, but Murillo would not say where. Murillo said that Student Activity Coordinator Richard Eberheart would remain in that position. Christian Sanchez of the mostly-Latino Team Green slate won the ASO presidency. Bamba Chibweth was elected executive vice president. Juliette Garcia was named VP of Finance and Juan Carlos Sandoval-Rodriguez VP of Club Affairs. Dimitrius Loa, a central figure in the controversy, was seated as VP of Public Relations. Dae’avion Randle is the Executive Secretary. Eddie Alexander Barbarin is the Social VP and Valdivia the VP of Outreach. Students elected as senators are Samantha Valdivia, Isaiah Adkins, Terry Conklin Jr, Mckenzie Dawkins, Jenai Funk and Albert Robinson. please see ASO pg. 5

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

SLOW GOING — SC students waiting to cross into the United States join the line as early as 4 a.m. By 6 a.m. the line can stretch for miles. People wait as long as two hours while immigration officers verify documentation. Once in the United States, students commuting to Southwestern College will spend another two hours on the trolley and bus before arriving for classes.

SLEEPLESS IN SAN DIEGO Growing number of homeless students sleep in their car — or worse. CAMPUS, 12

English professor turns her dissertation into a rallying cry for adjuncts By Manuel Gonzalez Assistant News Editor

@THESWCSUN

I'M WITH THE BAND Dean Dr. Cynthia McGregor performs with The Who. ARTS, 15

AYONA HUDSON

By Brittany Cruz-Fejeran Editor-in-Chief

STAY CONNECTED

ACCESS DENIED Students with mobility impairments face dangerous pathways. CAMPUS, 11

CHRISTIAN SANCHEZ

218-page report details chaotic cancellation of racially-tinged student government election

JUAN CARLOS WAKES UP every morning in a “foreign” country. • He rolls out of bed at 4:30 a.m. in the Lomas Virreyes neighborhood of Tijuana, and gazes towards el norte. His Southwestern College class begins promptly at 8:30. • He has an international border to cross. Thousands of SC students make the arduous crossing several days a week, rising before los gallos and returning under the beaming moon and twinkling stars. College officials estimate that 30-40 percent of SC’s students live in Tijuana, Puerto Nuevo or Rosarito. Some come as far away as Ensenada. Most are Mexicans or Mexican-Americans who live south of la frontera, but hundreds —probably thousands— are white, African-American or Asian-Americans who live in Tijuana for its low rents, cheap gasoline and overall affordability. Wait times at the world’s busiest international border are completely unpredictable and typically arduous. Delays can be caused by weather, law enforcement activity, holidays, border patrol shift changes, and even visits by the U.S. President or cabinet officials. Political jousting between the U.S. and Mexico spurs retaliatory shutdowns, slowdowns and showdowns. Even la Virgen de Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint, air brushed on vehicles and tattooed on muchos brazos, has a hard time guaranteeing an easy cross. A good commute for Juan Carlos is two hours, a typical is three and a bad is four. An awful delay is five hours and a

INQUIRY FINDS ASO ADVISERS AT FAULT IN CASE

WAITING FOR LEFTY Dramatists shine in edgy show about fair wages and equity. ARTS, 16

Rachel Nead really likes teaching. A lot. For years before she was finally hired as a tenure-track assistant professor of communications, Nead was an adjunct—the hard working, low paid, far ranging, barely noticed, often abused, seldom hired part-timers who teach 75 percent of the classes at Southwestern College. Nead was the queen of “Freeway Flyers.” There were semesters the Long Beach resident taught nine classes at five colleges in four counties. Even though she travelled 1,300 miles a week bouncing between Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Diego counties, she made less than a full-time professor. Much less. Higher education’s abuse of adjuncts is the theme of Dr. Jessica Posey’s dissertation “The Plight of Adjuncts: May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor.” What she found was alarming, she said. Most adjuncts reported they lacked job security, health benefits, a livable please see Faculty pg. 5

NEWS

The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

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Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

Crossing: Thousands

of students transit la frontera daily

Continued from pg. 1

that is all she eats until she crosses back to Mexico later that night and has dinner at la casa. “There are days I do not have a meal,” she said. “I do not have a meal until night, at dinner, because at school food is too expensive.” Estephania said she only has shakes for breakfast. Sometimes she finds short snatches of time for a snack between her consecutive classes beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eating hours before dawn means her body wants lunch while many of her classmates are at home having a leisurely breakfast. Despite their transportation and transborder trials, all three students agree that the sleep deprivation, hunger and grueling commutes in smoggy lines of testy border crossers is all worth it for an American education. “Nobody (in Mexico) has these opportunities,” Estephania said. “(We) take advantage of them.” At the swarming San Ysidro Port of Entry, more than 70,000 cars and 20,000 pedestrians cross the border every day, according to Border Patrol data. As many as 10 million people cross la linea at either San Ysidro or Otay Mesa annually. It is humanity’s busiest border in recorded history, but a routine trip to school for many Jaguars. Juan Carlos said he only sees his brother when they cross and his mom when she drives them to and from the border. Ariana and Estephania concurred— the commute is tough on relationships and family. They spend most of their waking hours in the sunlight of Chula Vista. Shouldering heavy backpacks is another struggle. All three students carry everything they might need throughout the day. Estephania carries her books and extra supplies in case of a border closure. Students who live in Mexico are never entirely sure if they will be able to return home that day. Transborder students do not always have a plan B in case of a border closure. Some might be able to stay with a friend or a family member, but others go homeless, sleeping in their cars as they do not have anywhere else to go. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the East Coast, the border was closed tight for 10 days.

please see Closures pg. 3

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

MOONLIGHTING AT LA LINEA – Tens of thousands of students and workers stream north toward the international border in the predawn. (clockwise from top) A river of humanity flows toward el norte. Customs splits the pedestrians into three lines, with SENTRI card holders getting priority. Vendors sell a variety of portable breakfast burritos and other food to travelers too rushed to prepare meals. Entrepreneurial vendors adapt to the busy border and provide a service to commuters. College and high school students line up at Customs hoping for a short wait. It can take minutes or hours to pass through inspections.

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

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NEWS

The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

SPIRALING TO THE STATES — Residents of Mexico who cross on foot walk through entry ports called PedWest and PedEast. Many walk to the nearby trolley station to catch the Blue Line to H Street Station or downtown San Diego. Many head over to Plaza America for work or shopping. Average wait time for these lines varies, lasting up to an hour.

Closures: Political

turmoil contributes to student anxiety

Continued from pg. 2

Students living in Mexico formed a camp in the parking lot of a Chula Vista Walmart. Many SC professors brought them food, water, blankets and bedding. Others allowed students to stay at their homes. Political turmoil caused by unexpected outbursts by U.S. President Donald Trump also cause border closures and lengthy delays. These events hang over students like a veritable Sword of Damocles, causing stress and anxiety. A 2016 report by UCSD researchers found that students who study in the U.S. and live in Mexico are at greater risk for depression and health maladies. Some suffer from refugee-level stress and anxiety. “I have back problems because of stress,” said Ariana. “This is something new that had never happened to me when I was studying in high and middle school in Mexico.” Anxiety attacks plague Ariana, she said, caused by the stress of crossing

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

BUMPER TO BUMPER — Vehicles driving northbound to the border wait in traffic during the early morning rush. Despite multiple lanes and Border Patrol agents, the wait can be an excruciating, smoggy ordeal.

the border. Even though she wakes up three hours before her class starts, she never knows for sure if she will make it on time. Constant fear of a border shutdown and worry about mistreatment by Border Patrol agents contribute to her high stress levels, she said. No Border Patrol agent, endless snaking line at Customs or barrier that may appear like the Gates of Hell can keep Juan Carlos, Ariana or Estephania from attending Southwestern College. An American college degree is too valuable, they all said in their own way in two languages. Juan Carlos is blunt. “If anybody has a degree from a United States college, it doesn’t matter what school it is from, it’s going to be way better than anything you can get (in Mexico),” he said. “From an educational point of view, it is really important that I do this.” La Frontera is like Mictlan, the Aztec underworld, at dawn and dusk for Southwestern College students who dare to challenge fate in the darkness twice a day. Like the Aztec spirits who braved the dangers during the days of creation, 21st century spirits accept the risks and hopes of someday reveling in the light.

OH, THE PLACES YOU COULD HAVE GONE…

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

DESAYUNOS SABROSOS — Tamale vendors, among others, set up near the lines to provide a variety of early morning breakfast items.

In the same time it takes Southwestern College students to transit the border and travel less than 20 miles round trip, a motorist leaving Chula Vista early in the morning could reach many American cities and National Parks throughout the Southwest. Based on estimated drive times from the Auto Club of Southern California, a resident of the Southwestern College district could reach San Francisco, St. George, Utah or Tucson, Arizona in about the same time as a typical rush hour round trip across the international border.

SAN FRANCISCO 7 hours 30 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY 10 hours 30 minutes

SAN JOSE 7 hours YOSEMITE 6 hours 39 minutes

ST. GEORGE 6 hours 30 minutes LAS VEGAS 5 hours 5 minutes

FRESNO 5 hours 28 minutes

TUCSON 5 hours 45 minutes PHOENIX 5 hours 25 minutes

Chula Vista Tijuana Round trip takes 6 hours.

PRESCOTT 6 hours 20 minutes

UNITED STATES MEXICO

Sun Staff

NEWS

The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

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Lawsuit: Six years

and nine requests for gunfire investigations

Continued from pg. 1

Rights prohibits the college from releasing the investigations. Tinkov and The Sun’s Editorial Board reject the claim. On Aug. 23, 2013, Cash entered SCPD offices and removed his district-issued service weapon from its holster for reasons unknown and the weapon discharged, police sources told The Sun that year. A single shot penetrated the wall, narrowly missing three employees in the adjacent room. After a police investigation concluded that Cash was negligent and fired his Glock handgun on purpose, Nish tucked the report away and ordered another, this time by an acquaintance from Orange County. The second investigation cleared Cash of wrongdoing and he was permitted to return to work after five weeks on paid administrative leave. Last summer, after six years and at least nine attempts to procure the investigation’s findings, Tinkov initiated the process of obtaining a myriad of other records that have been withheld by the college. Tinkov’s assistance followed an avalanche of media attention that descended on the college after administrators attempted to force The Sun to surrender the work product of student journalists. An article from Voice of San Diego written by former Sun Editorin-Chief Katy Stegall reported on sexual misconduct by former biology professor John Tolli resulted from a portion of the records Tinkov requested. It took two years for Stegall to obtain information about Tolli’s resignation from SC. More records pertaining to Tolli are expected to be released without litigation, but the Cash inquiry has not yet been settled. Nish’s decision to reinstate Cash was enormously controversial, according to former members of The Sun staff, faculty and community members. SC Professor of Anthropology Dr. Mark Van Stone was among those who said it did not make sense to reinstate Cash. “The story demands details, I want more details,” he said. “Why are the details a secret?” All avenues of obtaining Cash’s gunfire investigation have been exhausted and there is no other choice but to go to court, according to the complaint filed by The Sun. “The Sun has attempted numerous times to report on this story, but has been stymied at every turn by the District’s refusal to disclose information relating to this dangerous incident, as well as the circumstances of Chief Cash’s 2017 resignation under a cloud of allegations and substantive misdeeds,” the complaint reads. Trevin Sims, an attorney representing the college, argued that Cash’s gunfire does not fall into the four categories of California Senate Bill 1421, 2018 legislation that requires disclosure of records pertaining to police misconduct. While one of the four categories involves discharging a firearm, Sims argued Cash is exempt from the records disclosure because he did not intend to shoot someone. Murillo said she is in full support of bringing the issue to court for direction. “Southwestern College does not oppose disclosure of the records requested in a court petition filed by The Southwestern College Sun concerning (the incident),” she said. “We, however, believe the College is prohibited by law from disclosing these records without a court order determining that these records are in fact disclosable.” Cash had a controversial five-year career at the college. He was accused of covering up sexual assaults, misuse of public funds, inaccurate crime log reporting, and illegally hiring and arming friends to serve as campus police. He was placed on paid leave in 2013 pending the gunfire investigation and reinstated after five weeks. He was suspended a second time for nearly a year in 2017. A pair of investigations were launched to examine the 2013 incident. SCPD Sgt. Robert Sanchez conducted the first investigation, which concluded that Cash was negligent and the discharge of his district-issued Glock handgun was intentional. A subsequent investigation conducted by Betty P. Kelepecz, a retired San Diego Harbor Police chief, called the gunshot an accident and recommended that Cash be reinstated. So Nish did just that. “We are pleased to have Chief Cash returning to work today,” she said in a campus email. “The district fully supports the return of Chief Cash as the head of the police department.” Cash later resigned as campus police chief in early 2017 during a closed session of a special board meeting. He remained on paid administrative leave until Dec. 31, 2017 when his resignation took effect. Tinkov and Sims continue to negotiate The Sun Editorial Board’s California Public Records Act request for the Cash investigations.

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

BILINGUAL IS BETTER — Molly McHargue (l), Jessica Island and English Professor Michael Wickert at the first DEBER program meeting at Southwestern College. DEBER is funded by a $3.5 million federal grant whose aim is to train more bilingual educators for regional secondary schools.

Grant supports bilingual ed Department of Education funds aim to create more bilingual educators, SDSU partnership welcomes SC students By Gamaliel Carreno Arango Campus Editor

Spanish may be the loving tongue, but woe be unto bilingual children “talkin’ Mexican” in the wrong place. English professor Michael Wickert recalled a traumatic fourth grade experience in Yuma when his teacher punished students who were caught speaking “Mexican” in his class. Students were not allowed to go to lunch, the restroom or water fountain until the “misbehaving kid” was punished, he remembered. Fast forward to 2019 where, at least in the borderlands, “bilingual is better.” Southwestern College received a $3.5 million Department of Education grant to create proficient bilingual educators. A partnership between SDSU’s School of Education and SC provides students the opportunity to transfer to SDSU and earn teaching credentials as bilingual instructors. Developing Effective Bilingual Educators with Resources (DEBER), under the direction of Wickert, strives to aid aspiring educators to become culturally responsive teachers. “Our goal is to assist students interested in becoming bilingual teachers and who want to transfer to SDSU,” he said. “It is designed to develop bilingual educators, but through this we are going to have stipends for students that are going to help them with general expenses for school.” DEBER will help SC scholars become familiar with the SDSU campus and create connections at the university. Wickert said SDSU faculty will visit SC to meet DEBER scholars and develop relationships. “We want to create an environment where when students eventually do transfer they already know a number of the faculty at SDSU,” he said. “They are going to know these people by their name, they are going to have some familiarity with the campus.” SC student Julia King, 19, a liberal studies major,

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

LINGUISTIC TALENT NEEDED — SC student Camilo Marizcal tutors math at San Ysidro High School. He said it is imperative that SDSU train more bilingual K-12 teachers.

DEBER GRANT The National Science Foundation awarded Southwestern College and San Diego State University a $5 million S-STEM grant. $3.2 million goes to Southwestern College. l

l Up

to $10,000 in scholarships for 30 chemistry and biochemistry students per year for two years.

l Transfer, career

and graduate school application workshops.

said she feels supported by the DEBER program. “It’s hard to go through by yourself, so to know that I can go ask questions and have that extra support is awesome,” she said. SC student Camilo Marizcal, 18, a computer science major, said he wants to become a math teacher. DEBER has helped him to understand the process of pursuing a K-12 teaching career. Wickert said DEBER will create educators who can understand underrepresented students. “Teachers who have that kind of background can create a greater sense of inclusivity in our classrooms,” he said. Marizcal said it is crucial to have bilingual teachers in the borderlands. He currently works at San Ysidro High School as a tutor in a bilingual math class. He said the difference between English classes and bilingual classes is noticeable. Students are more willing to participate, ask questions and to interact, he said, if they have someone who speaks their language. He said he has seen students turn in blank papers because they do not understand. “It is not that they are not smart, it is just that they do not have the same opportunity of speaking the language, of understanding,” he said. “They have the potential, but without the help they cannot succeed.” King said the DEBER program has created focus on the community’s shortage of bilingual teachers. “I think it is exposing a need we have in (the Sweetwater Union High School District),” she said. “We need more bilingual teachers here and by giving extra support (I am hopeful) it will pull in more students who want to pursue bilingual education.” King said many Latino students need to improve their Spanish and non-Latinos need more exposure to proper Spanish. Wickert said the program is in the early stage of development and he is searching out students who may be candidates. “We need really good students that are going to provide good input,” he said. “(Then) we can really improve.” He said DEBER will be up and running in spring 2020.

Nurses will no longer respond to classroom emergencies By Fernando A. Martinez Assistant Photo Editor

College nurses may be done making house calls. Administrators changed the college’s first responders policy last spring, but did not inform employees until September. In the meantime, the unannounced change in policy led to confusion and concern during the summer. Psychology instructor Shannon Pagano was teaching her human sexuality course in June when student Aranda Rosario noticed a classmate in distress. “Then all the sudden the girl behind me started having a seizure,” she said. Pagano said one of her students ran to the nurse’s office. Rosario said the police arrived without any medical assistance.

“Then the police showed up, but without the paramedics,” she said. “They were like ‘We’re here’ but it was like ‘Okay, so you didn’t bring the paramedics, so what’s the point?’” SC’s PIO Officer Lillian Leopold said changes in the protocol occurred early in the spring semester. Health Services Director Brett Robertson said the changes were not announced until September. “We just decided to notify the college early this (fall) semester, when everybody would come back and it was a new year, rather than right at the end of the school year when people are heading for the exits,” he said. Robertson said the college used to send nurses to classrooms, but it was not a good practice because they are not trained to respond to emergencies. Chief of Police Davis Nighswonger said

he supported the move. “Paramedics are first responders and police officers are first responders,” he said. “We are going to make an initial assessment and ask ‘Is this a life-threatening situation?’ If it is, then we need to take emergency life-saving medical measures, like CPR. If that is not the case, we make an assessment. For the most part, we are going to rely on the paramedics to come out.” Pagano said she did not know about the changes made to medical emergency protocols. “There was no global announcement that the nurses no longer come to classrooms,” she said. “I (was not) told until I was in the middle of a crisis.” Rosario concurred. “I was shocked because I had never experienced (an emergency like this),” she said. “I didn’t know that the nurse could not

come into the room and it was something that was really, really eye opening.” Pagano said the misunderstanding made her feel at the time that the college was not taking the seizing student’s situation seriously. Leopold said SC was the only community college to send nurses to classrooms. She said when nurses assess medical emergencies and determine that paramedics are needed, it causes a delay in care. Robertson concurred. “If someone’s in a real emergency, every minute counts,” he said. “All of these factors come together into a decision that we needed to make about what was best for safety and responding quickly in emergencies.” Robertson said students and employees should call extension 6691 or 911 in an emergency.

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NEWS

The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

ASO: Investigation

faults college advisers, clears most students

Continued from pg. 1

Ayona Hudson, the presidential candidate on the all-black Team Elite ticket, was named to a newly-created position called VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She is currently writing a constitutional amendment proposal for the 2020 ballot that would create a permanent position. Hudson was not elected to any ASO office. College President Dr. Kindred Murillo abruptly cancelled the election May 2 during a contentious meeting of the candidates and employee supporters. Team Elite charged Team Green with racist behavior, including a vicious Instagram post. Murillo ordered an investigation by Kelly Minnehan of Erickson Law Firm. She was subsequently accused of bias by some subjects of the investigation. District spokesperson Lillian Leopold said the college Human Resources office conducted an investigation of Minnehan. HR staff determined that Minnehan had not demonstrated bias. Minnehan was later joined by Nicole Denow of Currier and Hudson. Minnehan wrote the 218-page investigation, Denow wrote a 19-page summary. The 218-page report was heavily redacted of virtually every name, though many were accidentally left exposed. Individual subjects and witnesses were identified only by number. College administrators pulled the report later on the same day it was issued. Video and audio recorded by The Sun, along with earlier reporting, allowed staff to corroborate some of the redacted names. “Individual 10,” Dimitrius Loa, was exonerated of the allegations that he made discriminatory comments about Team Elite being an all-black slate. Team Green was accused of a false flag attack on Team Elite from an Instagram account called “swccharterinsomaliland” disguised as a Team Elite post that urged SC students to “chop the heads off of the eurocentrist white supremacist Mexicans of the campus.” Team Elite presidential candidate Hudson was featured in the post, though she had nothing to do with its creation. “Individual Five,” Assistant Professor of Biology Trishana Norquist, publicly accused four individuals for creating the fake post while raising her voice and speaking sternly, according to the investigation report. In an audio recorded by The Sun, Norquist can be heard encouraging Monte Clarke, “Individual 19” and President of Black Student Union, to read out the names. “Hector, Jorge, Marcos [and] Eddie,” Clarke said. Investigators cleared the four named students of wrongdoing. The investigation concluded that neither slate was responsible for the post. It concluded that a non-candidate student was responsible, but his name was redacted from the report. The four candidates named by Clarke were at the protest, but investigators concluded that the student who recorded the video shot it from behind them. College security cameras confirmed this, the report said. Sandoval-Rodriguez, newly seated VP of Club Affairs, said at the forum he was relieved neither team was involved in the

Adjuncts: Study shows abusive conditions for part-time instructors

Continued from pg. 1

wage and respect. Posey said adjuncts are treated as second-class citizens, even though they have Master’s degrees, a requirement in higher education that places them in the top 13 percent of adult Americans. Nead’s horror story is repeated daily across America, Posey said. Her dissertation was an attempt to examine the adjunct experience with a specific focus on how part-time instructors are made to think, feel and act as a result of their employment status, she said. Adjuncts live in fear of many things, including speaking out. “As an adjunct you are constantly worried about what you say and how you are perceived because you can get backlash,” she said. “If you are speaking out about injustice or being marginalized, you can be perceived as a troublemaker.” Nead agreed. She said adjuncts’ health can suffer, as well. “My ultimate goal was to be a full-timer, so I gave up my health and my social life,” she said. “I ate a lot of fast food on a daily basis because I wasn’t able to make meals for a 14-hour day.” Darius (a pseudonym), a subject in Posey’s dissertation, said he felt like he is chasing a dream that may have already slipped through the cracks. “I think trying to reach that full-time position is comparable to going to the moon,” he said. “Actually, someone wanting to go to the moon will have a better shot than I do at reaching a full-time gig at a

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

Karla De Alba/Staff

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

community college.” Nead admits she was lucky to be hired on a tenure track, but she also worked hard to create her opportunity. Averaging about 250 miles a day, she would spend more time on the road than at her job, she said. “I would be gone 14 hours most days and I would easily do 20 hours or more driving in a week,” she said. “Sometimes I would teach 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and had to go three hours early to my next campus due to the commute. I would start teaching at 4 p.m. all the way to 9:30 p.m. and sometimes students wanted to talk to me, so I wouldn’t leave campus until 10 p.m., which meant I wouldn’t get home until midnight.” Prior to becoming a full-time professor Posey had to depend on MediCal and Food Stamps, she said, because she was not making enough money to get by as a graduate with a Master’s degree working out of five different campuses. Lack of health insurance is another perpetual anxiety for adjuncts, according to Posey’s research. Professor of English Laura Brooks served as an adjunct instructor for six years with no health benefits. She was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, which ironically later barred her from health coverage. “Once you get cancer, you aren’t eligible to get life insurance anymore,” she said. “For the last couple years I’ve been getting really worried about my kids, their future and making sure they were taken care of. I was kind of burdened with this idea of debt that I would be leaving behind if I died. This week I signed all the Southwestern College benefit paperwork and I was offered life insurance. It was such a relief as a full-timer to get offered all this.”

THE RESULTS STAND – A six-month, $120,000 investigation of alleged racism and favoritism during the spring ASO campaign concluded that college ASO advisers did not do enough to lead students through disagreements and allowed events to escalate. College President Kindred Murillo announced that the original election results will stand. (clockwise from top) 2019-20 ASO leaders (l-r) Ex. Secretary Dae van Randal, Senator Jenai Funk, Interim VP of EDI Ayona Hudson, ASO President Christian Sanchez and Ex. VP Bamba Chibweth. Club Affairs VP Juan Carlos SandovalRodriguez, ASO adviser Richard Eberheart, Counselor Veronica Guaracha (with microphone).

post, but he also said he is concerned that the student responsible may not be punished. “What are the consequences brought onto this person because it was a really serious thing?” he said. “(The allegation) was calling for my head.” Murillo said she knows who it is, but will not disclose the name. “Individual 15,” Rudolph Villegas, the former SC Student Trustee, said the emergency meeting on May 2 was unconstitutional because an agenda was not posted 24 hours in advance. The investigation concluded there was probable cause that Villegas was not neutral as he was required to be in his position as Student Trustee during the spring 2019 ASO election. Allegations that the Electoral Board erred by failing to reach a conclusion on April 29 or May 1 was dismissed by the investigation. “Individual 11,” Dr. Guadalupe Corona, director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, was cleared of allegations that she did not adequately perform her job by coaching and advising Team Green, but not Team Elite. Corona’s supervisor, however, said she should have handled the situation better, according to the report. “It was expected that [Corona] would respond to student’s letter of May 10, 2019 with a tone that acknowledged the student’s concerns, apologized for the student’s experience and noted the administrator’s lack of intent to cause the type of result that occurred,” the summary reads. “Individual Three,” ASO Adviser Richard Eberheart, was found to be biased by the investigator. Eberheart allowed ASO Election Board meetings to proceed without 24-hour notice in violation of the ASO Constitution, according to the report. Team Green was cleared of bias by investigators for delaying the meeting on Team Elite’s grievance. Spring’s controversy boiled into the summer when new SC Vice President of Human Resources Rose DelGaudio ordered former Title IX Director Gloria Chavez to use the California Public Records Act in an effort to force The Sun to surrender video it filmed during the May 2 meeting. Student leaders and the acting faculty advisor refused, citing the illegality of the demand. DelGaudio and Chavez then sent a threatening letter to the home of Dr. Max Branscomb, The Sun’s faculty advisor who was out on medical leave following four surgeries for stage-4 cancer. Branscomb also refused to surrender the video, he said, based on principle. During the summer Team Green presidential candidate Sanchez approached Hudson with a proposal to set aside their differences and form a “coalition government.” Murillo said she supported the idea, though there is no mechanism in the ASO Constitution to do so. Hudson and Sanchez asked SCEA faculty union president S. Rob Shaffer to mediate a series of meetings between members of the two slates. Sanchez and Hudson announced the coalition government from the mainstage of the college’s employee opening day event in August. Many faculty in attendance stood and applauded the act of conciliation, though some questioned the legality of appointing a government that was not elected by the student body.

“Maybe I can’t end adjuncts’ suffering, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to accept it. I’m going to be damned if I don’t try to do something about it.” Geoff Johnson, adjunct rep for the SC faculty union

Nicholas James/Staff

FULL-TIME WARRIOR FOR PARTTIME STAFF — Dr. Jessica Posey, who was once struggling as an adjunct, is now a full-time professor. Her dissertation examined the plight of adjuncts.

Stress levels for adjuncts are among the highest in the U.S., Posey said. Nead agreed. “As a part-timer it was really stressful going term to term,” she said. “You didn’t know if you were going to get the class or not. Oftentimes when you get offered a

class you don’t want to turn it down even though you wanted to turn it down. One term I ended up teaching nine face-to-face classes because I didn’t want to say no. I was afraid I would not get a class again or not asked to come back.” Geoff Johnson, the adjunct rep for the SC faculty union, said he fights hard to bring equity to his fellow part-timers. He has his own horror stories, including being the father of a sick child with no health insurance. He joined homeless and indigent people at a health and social service hospital. “I’m standing on El Cajon Blvd, got my son in my arms, he’s screaming and I was asking myself if is this what I went to (graduate) school for,” he said. “I went to school and got a job where I couldn’t get insurance and couldn’t take care of my own family.” Johnson said the experience 15 years ago still fuels his activism. “Maybe I can’t end adjuncts’ suffering, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to accept it,” he said. “I’m going to be damned if I don’t try to do something about it.” SC President Dr. Kindred Murillo said she is sympathetic.

“The area of deep concern is trying to help create the salary parity,” she said. “So we are moving money into that and recognizing we need to make strong progress in that area. We are trying to schedule adjuncts better. We are trying not to schedule classes and then cancel them, it’s an injustice to the students and an injustice to the adjuncts.” Murillo said she would like to see SC hire more of its adjuncts. “We will work on really solidifying the hiring process for adjuncts and onboarding (hiring from within),” she said. “SC has not done a really great job onboarding parttime, full-time, anybody for that matter, so we are looking to fix that.” Despite monumental struggles and suffering, Posey said adjuncts love to teach. “If there’s one thing I learned from adjuncts, it was that even though they are treated harshly and even though they don’t have benefits and the ideal salary or the sense of security, they are the type of people that could not see themselves doing anything else but teach others,” she said. “That’s where they feel they can make the most difference in people’s lives.”

Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

VIEWPOINTS

The Southwestern College Sun

Editorials, Opinions and Letters to the Editor

The mission of the Southwestern College Sun is to serve its campuses and their communities by providing information, insights and stimulating discussions of news, activities and topics relevant to our readers. The staff strives to produce a newspaper that is timely, accurate, fair, interesting, visual and accessible to readers. Though The Sun is a student publication, staff members ascribe to the ethical and moral guidelines of professional journalists.

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief Brittany Cruz-Fejeran News Editor Julia Woock Assistant News Editor Pernisha Gaines Assistant News Editor Manuel Gonzalez Campus Editor Gamaliel Carreno Assistant Campus Editor Lisa Pottger Assistant Campus Editor Caleigh Goldman Viewpoints Editor Brittany Hernandez Assistant Viewpoints Editor Kathleen Blankenship Arts Editor Karla De Alba Sports Editor Justin Dottery Assistant Sports Editor John Ceballos-Brodie Assistant Sports Editor Solé Ruiz Production Manager Marty Loftin Multimedia Editor Jahaziel Valencia Assistant Multimedia Editor Stephanie Aceves Photo Editor Nicholas James Assistant Photo Editor Fernando A. Martinez Copy Editor Matthew Brooks Assistant Copy Editor Colin Grylls Circulation Manager Andrew Penalosa

Senior Staff Writer JoseLuis Baylon

S TA F F W R I T E R S Ryan Calderon Kamron Davis Isaac Garcia Kiara Miranda

Hanna Noriega Rosa Noriega Ana Paola Olvera Faith Perez

Victor Santander/Staff

IT IS PAST TIME FOR COLLEGE TO END DESTRUCTIVE CULTURE OF SECRECY THE ISSUE: For more than a decade SC has been entrenched in a toxic culture of hiding things from the public.

PHOTOGRAPHERS Aide Valdez

Marissa Romero

I L L U S T R AT O R S Yaritza Cuevas Claudia Duran Edward Herrera Gabriel Nuño

Jaime Ramirez Victor Santander Ever Parmely-Den Herder

Advisor Dr. Max Branscomb Assistant Advisor Kenneth Pagano

AWARDS/HONORS 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 2001-19 Best of Show 2003-19 Columbia University Scholastic Press Association Gold Medal for Journalism Excellence 2001-19 California Newspaper Publishers Association California College Newspaper of the Year 2013, 2016 Student Newspaper General Excellence 2002-18

San Diego County Multicultural Heritage Award 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 San Diego County Fair Media Competition Best of Show 20012003, 2005-2017

he Sun is done playing nice. Generations of staff and editors-inchief have come and gone from building 640 seeking records that Southwestern College repeatedly and illegally refuses to share. We asked nicely at first. We have exhausted every avenue for obtaining records related to Michael Cash’s time as SC’s police chief and other issues. So now we are going to court. Thanks to Katy Stegall’s internship with Voice of San Diego in the spring and our administration’s boneheaded attack on The Sun and its adviser this summer, we have connected with Felix Tinkov, a First Amendment lawyer willing to help journalists defend their Constitutional rights. For too long SC administrators have mistreated student journalists, often to cover up illegal activity or poor decisions that the public has the right to know about. What they have not been able to comprehend is the fact that the only difference between a professional journalist and a student journalist is a paycheck. We have the same rights and responsibilities, but the college feels safe breaking the law when it comes to ignoring CPRA requests from The Sun. For years administrators have bullied us with lawyers. Now we have one and we are going to use him. Starting with Editor-in-Chief David McVicker in 2013 and subsequent EICs Anna Pryor, Bianca Quilantan, Mirella Lopez, Alyssa Pajarillo, Katy Stegall and Brittany Cruz-Fejeran, our newspaper leadership has sought a copy of the Melinda Nishauthorized investigation that exonerated Cash for firing his gun on campus — nearly hitting three employees. McVicker and his staff of 50 were asked hundreds of times by hundreds of campus employees and community members — how on earth was Cash allowed to return to work? We still do not know. People are still asking.

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.

OUR POSITION: The Sun is preparing to take the college to court for the release of coveredup investigations and documents.

Each Editor-in-Chief made his or her successor pledge not to surrender the quest for the Betty P. Kelepecz investigation of Cash. Cruz-Fejeran is the latest in the line of Templar Knights who continues to fight this battle against obstruction and opacity. The Sun has asked at least nine times for the Kelepecz report over a period of six-plus years and got a different mendacious excuse each time. During his five years at SC Cash was put on leave twice, including the notorious incident where he fired his gun. He was put on paid leave a second time for nearly a year for illegally hiring and arming some of his buddies without going through any hiring process. Cash is no longer here, but that does not matter. Nish and now Dr. Kindred Murillo have perpetrated a coverup. Although an internal investigation determined the gunfire was intentional and negligent, an outside investigator who was friendly with Nish mysteriously came to a different conclusion, then was paid with taxpayer funds. Unfortunately for the curious public, both reports were hidden from the community, even though we paid for them. Covering for Cash was a catastrophic mistake. The Sun subsequently reported on Cash covering up numerous campus sexual assaults, misuse of public funds to hire his friends for high-paying jobs that did not exist, failure to keep accurate crime logs, and spending more than $1 million on unauthorized vehicles and other toys. SC is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on lawyers and investigations. It has spent tens of millions on settlements. There is virtually no public accountability of how this public funding is being spent. The Sun wants to get to the root of the issues that plague our college and bring them into the light. Only then can the infection heal. Corruption at SC has taken a huge economic and psychic toll on this campus for more than two decades. Instead

LETTERS POLICY

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.

of admitting mistakes and firing problematic staff and faculty, the college’s history consistently shows that administration’s first instinct is to cover up misdeeds. Raj Chopra, Melinda Nish and Kindred Murillo are all cut from the same cloth — a thick black curtain of secrecy. Nish protected Cash from the consequences of his actions and provided him a golden parachute. Now Murillo is doing the same for others. Murillo tried to bury a scandal involving a professor who had sex with students in his office, filmed them and stored the images on his college computer. Murillo allowed him to leave with a “neutral” recommendation without publicizing his identity. John Tolli was then hired by San Diego City College as a lab tech where he worked for more than a year, free again to prey on young women. He was put administrative leave after Stegall’s investigation. Tolli would still be in a position to endanger City College students were it not for Voice of San Diego and Tinkov forcing SC to release its investigations. Murillo should pray every night to whatever god she worships that Tolli did not molest any City College students. If he did, she should be terminated and never be allowed to work with young people again. Stay tuned. Opacity breeds corruption and crushes accountability. This college has closed public meetings to student journalists, intentionally misrepresented crime reports to hide sexual assaults, permitted insubordinate administrators to secretly rewrite board policies to decrease access, hid public documents behind phony excuses and ignored legitimate California Public Records Act requests. The Sun plans to make up for lost time. We are making a Christmas list of back information we plan to sue the school for. Our administrators know what they are. So do we. Winter is coming.

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.

VIEWPOINTS

The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

DOES NOT RESPECT AUTHORITY

What would

you do if you witnessed domestic abuse or violence on campus?

“I would immediately want to stop it. I might not jump in because I’m a tiny person, but I would try to stop it no matter what.” Kyla Carpenter, 21 Biology

“I’d report it to the police and to any of the faculty I trust. Not everybody is your friend on campus and you want to make sure the motives are right and you always want to take it to the person you know that will get the job done.” Dimitrius Loa, 28 Nursing

FAILED

YOU KNOW

COMPLY

HOW THEY ARE

SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO THE POLICE

Victor Santander

and Justin Dotte

Karen Sanchez, 23 Nursing

“If I knew the people, I would try to talk it out, try to help them to see the better part of why they shouldn’t be doing that, especially in the public area.”

Rasilia Thomas, 32 Psychology

“I’d report it immediately to campus police, a professor or any staff member. I would intervene if it’s serious enough.”

Danika Johnson, 19 Dermapathology

ry/Staff

Disrespect of black men demoralizing By Solé Ruiz A Perspective

“Tell the police here and the Chula Vista police. If there’s anything to help I can do, I will do it.”

JUST

Computer Engineering

WAS SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN LOUD THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE PROBABLY A CRIMINAL ANYWAY ANOTHER

Joseph Sebastian, 21

SHOULDN’T HAVE DONE WHAT HE DID WAS JUST LOOKIN’ FOR TROUBLE

THUG

“I would report it to the police.”

NEEDS TO LEARN SOME MANNERS

HE WAS PROFANE

LOOKED AT ME WRONG

LS UOS POI CKI OE UDS

viewpoints@theswcsun.com

very black person has a story of when they were taught how to act when confronted by the police. I was in high school— many of my black male friends were younger. We see black people killed, brutalized and tortured by the police on a near daily basis. It cycles through viral videos, haunts our histories and makes recurring appearances in our nightmares. Now it’s on our campus. I wasn’t watching a stranger be taken down by four Southwestern College officers. David Rasean Vereen is my friend. I ran towards the computer screen the video was playing on as I recognized his voice. Brutality against my people is not new. Each time I see black men assaulted, I picture my brother, my future children. This time it is someone I really care about. I wept as I watched my friend David slammed to the ground by the police. His pleading echoed throughout the Devore Stadium parking lot. His only protection was a student filming the brutality. God only knows what might have happened to David if the police knew no one was watching. Community members do not want to believe something like this can happen on such a diverse campus. Some viewed it as a rare outside plague that slithered in and infected Southwestern College. That is false. Black students do not need a viral video of a black man being brutalized by police to understand because this is a reality we face every day. Even at a fine institution like Southwestern that promotes education and awareness, we are defined by the color of our skin. People quickly formed uninformed opinions as the video went viral. Controversy broke out before David was even united with his family. I saw how people downplayed his assault because he swore. I heard people justify his assault because of a “misused” handicap placard. What many people do not know is that David tore his anterior cruciate ligament in 2017.

“I tweaked my knee a couple times after my ACL surgery,” he said. He used his mom’s handicap placard to make it less painful to walk to class. David had a previous altercation with the same officer over the placard, but not about “misusing the placard.” The first encounter was over the placard being expired. An officer followed David to his car like he was stalking prey. He assumed David was still using the expired one. David explained that the placard was up to date and would not expire until 2021, but the police officer took it upon himself to continue to harass him. This ultimately led to him being slammed to the ground, his face smashing the hot pavement. It is easy for an outsider looking in to say, “He deserved it for not complying,” but no one deserves inhumane treatment. Race played a part in this violence, whether it was direct or subliminal. Peers who are not black expect us to justify our reactions. They ask questions like, “Why didn’t he just follow orders?” They expect us to plead our case on police brutality. We are worn down. When we voice our concern, we are said to be loud and aggressive. Southwestern College administrators refused to admit that the officers handled the situation poorly. This encouraged people to think that what was done to David was somehow acceptable. I asked SC Chief of Police Dave Nighswonger how would he feel if it was his son wrestled to the ground. Instead of giving an honest and humane answer, he hid behind the college’s favorite excuse, “It’s an ongoing investigation.” Our college administrators and police demonstrated a startling lack of empathy and showed they do not care for black students and our safety. We heard promises of justice and change, but no action plan. David’s story is one that scares black mothers. They lie awake at night in fear for their black children. This was a traumatic experience for David’s loving mother that will be scared into her memories. David will also have to carry pain right up through the day he has to teach his children how to act when confronted by the police.

viewpoints@theswcsun.com

VIEWPOINTS

The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

Fashion designers should respect indigenous artists Gamaliel Carreno Arango A Perspective

here is a difference between cultural appropriation and appreciating a culture. Many fashion designers have yet to realize this. Cultural appropriation is a growing problem in the fashion industry. In their hunt for “new” designs, fashionistas steal the cultural heritage of indigenous people, including sacred traditional patterns and symbols. Appropriation happens when designers rip off another culture’s imagery without proper credit. This is insensitive and it is theft. Fashion designers know it can be difficult to prove and have ways to divorce the original source with the purloined imagery. This problem has been normalized and is now confused with the term “cultural appreciation.” If designers become genuinely interested and

understand the traditions of a specific culture while working with the community, that qualifies as “appreciation.” Otherwise, it is appropriation and stealing. Indigenous-rights activist and attorney Brigitte Vézina described at the 7th International Copycamp Conference three causes of appropriation: the appeal of the aesthetics, lack of protections of cultural elements and misinformation in regards to the term “cultural appropriation.” “Culturally, it is an attack on the cultural integrity of the owners,” she said. “On a socio-political level it is also an attack on their loss of identity. It is experienced often as another form of domination or exploitation or even colonization.” Indigenous people gain nothing from the expensive apparel sold by famous designers. This perpetuates to the poverty many indigenous communities

It is insulting to indigenous communities that their culture is celebrated by others not for historical value, but for aesthetics. experience. “They might be deprived of the sales of their genuine, authentic products,” Vézina said. It is insulting to indigenous communities that their culture is celebrated by others not for historical value but for aesthetics. Adopting ethnic elements with no intention to treasure or understand them is disrespectful. It is understandable that influential designers seek inspiration. What is unacceptable is taking elements without acknowledging and sharing the benefits with members of the culture. Chidi Oguamanam, an expert in intellectual property and author of the article “Rethinking Copyright

for Indigenous People Creatives Works,” wrote it can be difficult for marginalized groups to protect their sacred traditions. “The real problem lies is in the fact that colonial copyright laws simply do not meet or fit the understandings and expectations of Indigenous creators and knowledge holders,” he wrote. “When Indigenous peoples resort to copyright laws for protection of their literary and artistic creations, they find that these protections fall short, because more often than not they fail to account for the intangible essences, spirituality or symbolism – not to mention the collective communal and transgenerational interests – that are attached to those works.”

VPs installed without formal hiring process

Native American designer Bethany Yellowtail was offended when she saw Kokon to Zai, a London label, present a dress that held significant resemblance to one of her designs and traditional patterns of Native American culture at New York’s 2015 Fashion Week. “To be honest, [it] took the wind out of me, this felt really personal,” Yellowtail said, “like an attack on me as a Native person.” Powerful designers must create a respectful environment with cultural transactions done with responsibility and awareness. Indigenous artists should be able to draw on their heritage without being poached by the industry. Desecrating traditions sacred to others should always be out of bounds. If cultural elements are used in a design, they should be included with the appropriate involvement of the original creators and with respect.

Victims of abuse can find help on campus By Aide Valdez A Perspective

Victor Santander/Staff

Former Sun EIC named National College Reporter of the Year Sun Staff

Katy Stegall, the 2018-19 Editor-in-Chief of the Southwestern College Sun, was named the Ernie Pyle National College Reporter of the Year by the Associated Collegiate Press at its National College Media Convention in Washington D.C. Stegall was selected from more than 100,000 student journalists in the United States and Canada. It was her second consecutive Reporter of the Year award. The Sun won the Pacemaker Award, the collegiate Pulitzer Prize, for two-year publications. The Sun was one of four American newspapers so honored by the ACP. It was the 11th Pacemaker awarded to The Sun since 2003. ACP inducted The Sun into its National College News Media Hall of Fame this spring in a ceremony in La Jolla. SC’s journalism program has earned three Pacemaker awards for El Sol Magazine and one for the website theswcsun.com. The Sun earned its 2019 Pacemaker for work during the 2018-19 academic year. Issue One of The Sun published in October earned second place in the ACP’s Best of Show competition among the nation’s two-year colleges. It was published by this semester’s journalism students. Stegall was honored for her investigative work into the beating and death of a homeless AfricanAmerican veteran in the hands of the San Diego

Police Department and San Diego Sheriffs, coverage of the SC ASO controversy and an article on a protestant church that welcomes members of the LGBTQ community. She broke a story this summer as an intern with Voice of San Diego about a former SC professor dismissed KATY by the college for sexual STEGALL misconduct whose secretive departure allowed him to gain employment at San Diego City College. Stegall is now an intern at the San Diego Union-Tribune. Her first investigative article about surveillance cameras on San Diego street light was published on the front page. This year’s Editor-in-Chief Brittany Cruz-Fejeran called Stegall “a role model and inspiration.” “What Katy achieved during her time as a journalism student at Southwestern College was amazing,” she said. “On top of being a great reporter and talented writer, Katy was a wonderful leader and teacher for her staff. We all know Katy has a very bright future as a journalist.” Stegall was not the only SC student honored at

the ACP Convention. Andrew Perez of The Sun won first place in feature writing for his story about Ruth Goldschmiedova Sax, a Holocaust survivor presented an honorary degree by the college in 2018. Ailyn Dumas won a National Photography Award for her shot of a Central American refugee probing the border fence in Playas de Tijuana. Clarissa Esquivel won a National Arts Writing Award for theatre criticism. Stegall also won a National Story of the Year award in the Diversity category. Last month The Sun was named San Diego County’s Outstanding College Newspaper by the San Diego Press Club at its annual Excellence in Journalism Award Banquet. SC journalism students won 19 of 31 possible awards, including 9 of the 11 first place awards presented. The Sun is published by the students of the Campus Newspaper Production class. SC’s first student newspaper was called The Southwesterner and was published in 1964. Its name changed to the Athapascan during the 1970s and to The Sun in 1984. It has been the National Newspaper Association’s College Newspaper of the Year or Two-Year College Paper of the Year every year since 2005. Journalism is the first academic program at Southwestern College inducted in an national hall of fame.

Healthy relationships have their good and bad times as long as there is love. When a relationship is based on control, it may be time to end it. Many students involved in abusive relationships may not say anything due to a lack of confidence and self-esteem which can emanate from the abuse. Students must learn to identify abuse, talk about it, seek help and not be afraid to report an abuser. Students who witness abuse need to speak up. Domestic violence happens in every socioeconomic group and culture. Sometimes domestic violence happens out in the open at SC. We all have a duty to intervene or get help. Signs of abuse include yelling, profanity, unwanted grabbing or holding, inability to leave, threats and cruel comments. Psychological abuse is increasingly common and can play out on a college campus. It should be immediately reported to campus police or a nearby employee. SC crisis psychologist Dr. Clarence Amaral said abusive and violent behavior can run in families for generations and is called epigenesis trauma. Abusers and victims often were subjected to violence during childhood. Abused children are often not able to concentrate at school and act out, causing stress and suspicion to intensify, Amaral said. “People are being put on medication because of stress and anxiety at school not knowing that sometimes it has its origins within the family,” he said. Amaral said relationships should not cause fear, anxiety and trepidation. Violence is not love. “It is important to identify the problem, report it and not normalize it,” he said. Personal Wellness Services last year saw a total of 515 students, Amaral said, and 10 percent were for domestic violence situations. San Diego County data showed 17,513 domestic violence incidents in 2018, a four percent increase over 2017. That included 15 homicides by a current of former intimate partner. Children are often secondary victims who may become abusers in the future. Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control reported that 24 percent of women and 14 percent of men have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. About two-thirds of the female victims were stalked by a current of former intimate partner. Amaral said abusers are often charming and sociable at first, but can change. Sometimes the evolution is gradual, sometimes it is sudden, he said. Either way, the victim needs to get help. “Abusive relationships should never be tolerated. That’s no way to live, living under a threat” he said. “People come here with a black eye or some kind of physical bruises. It is important to develop a plan and know where to get the resources to get help.” Students may visit Personal Wellness Services at any time by walking in. No appointment is necessary and there is no cost for services. All visits are confidential.

CAMPUS

Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

The Southwestern College Sun

CONSTRUCTION: Building 300 goes down as campus police station nears completion, 10 STUDENT CLUB

WAKE UP EARLY TO STUDY

CAT NAPS ARE REFRESHING

DEEP BREATHS AND STRETCH

Mornings are excellent times to study or work on assignments. Get up early and work while the brain is rested and ready.

A pair of 5-10 minute naps a day can recharge the brain and body. Set a phone alarm and take a quick siesta. Short naps leave busy students feeling refreshed. Campus Nurse Grace Cruz agreed.

Light, fresh air and exercise wake up the mind and body. Deep, relaxing breaths while softly stretching gets oxygen into the body and brain.

Get to sleep early, too, no later than 10 p.m. Students do not sleep enough. Doctors recommend 8-9 hours and insist that seven hours are the minimum.

SC health counselor Margaret Daynes said naps should not exceed 15-20 minutes as longer naps may interfere with night sleep.

ASK FOR HELP Feel free to ask questions.

SC Exercise Instructor Angela Chelik agreed. “Power naps are a great way to revitalize,” she said.

SC is staffed with people dedicated to helping students. SC’s $17 million library is an invaluable treasure teaming with talented researchers eager to help students with virtually any academic project. SC has an Academic Success Center with writing coaches and tutors for most subjects. Students may also take advantage of the excellent public libraries in Chula Vista and National City.

SURVIVAL

TIPS

FOR STRESSED

STUDENTS By Marissa Romero Staff Writer

HYDRATE Students should drink water throughout the day. Good hydration helps the body to function at its best. Chelik recommended setting a hydration reminder on the phone to drink water every hour. Campus Nurse Grace Cruz encourages students to carry a water bottle wherever they go.

Students can be very busy people. Balancing school and work is challenging, but tens of thousands of students complete college every year. Talent helps, but time management is essential. So is good health. These tips can help busy students achieve their academic goals.

“With your mouth closed, breathe in deeply through your nose and feel your ribcage expand,” she said. “Hold your breath for a five count, before slowly exhaling through your nose.”

EAT WELL College students often fail to eat and drink nourishing food and beverages. It is worth taking the time and spending the money to eat well. Vegetables, fruits and whole grains are power foods for the brain. Chips, snack foods and sweetened carbonated drinks cause blood sugar spikes and then deep fatigue. Chelik recommended finding a green drink recipe to make at home.

WALK Walking as light exercise releases endorphins which are body and brain enhancing hormones. Great ideas may come to mind while walking. Walks also reduce stress and elevate mood. Park at the far end of the parking lot or get off the bus one stop early and get in that healthy walk. Cruz extolled the benefits of walking. “Walking 30 minutes a day (or most days) is a great way to improve or maintain your overall health,” she said.

USE FREE TIME WELL

POSITIVE THINKING IS POWERFUL

Free time can be hard to come by and is always precious. It is a chance to get ahead with school projects. Fight procrastination and finish assignments in advance to eliminate stress and to do better work.

People who are optimistic and think positively live longer, are happier and achieve more. Keeping an optimistic spirit is a choice. Things occasionally go wrong in life, but people who deal with adversity in a positive, proactive way will come out stronger.

Free time is also a good time to exercise the brain, said Cruz. Christian Larson’s Optimist Creed says it well. “I recommend students having flashcards or snapshots of their homework, that way if they’re on the bus, waiting in a line, or sitting at a doctor’s office, they could be reviewing their flashcards or pictures of their work on their phone,” she said. Daynes emphasized good time management, including time for friends, family and hobbies. ab

“Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all your friends feel that there is something in them. To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.” Optimists count their blessings. Chelik agreed.

“Recognize things that are going well for you,” she said. “Every morning when you get up, take five minutes to write down things that you are grateful for and things that you are looking forward to that day.” Cruz concurred. “Positive outlook can make a difference,” she said. ab

Daynes encouraged self-talk or positive affirmations such as, “I am a good person. I am doing the best that I can. I deserve the time and space to heal. I am in charge of my life.”

Phi Theta Kappa welcomes its newest members Traditional ceremony greets 2019 inductees into honor society By Ana Paola Olvera Staff Writer

Phi Theta Kappa inductees held a candle as they strode into their ceremony. Intellectual candle power is one reason they were there. PTK is an honor society that encourages scholarship, develops leadership skills and inspires academic excellence, said advisor Myriam Moody, a professor of mathematics. Membership is exclusive. PTK requires a 3.5 GPA and a one-time membership fee of $100. PTK officer Jenai Funk said the club provides life-changing opportunities. “It has so many benefits,” she said. “When you want to transfer to a university and you say you’re a Phi Theta Kappa member, they open the doors to you. They know you’re an honor student.” PTK Advisor Myriam Moody kicked off the ceremony. She explained the society’s purpose and graciously thanked everyone for attending. Then three students talked about PTK’s history, its beginning at Stephens JENNIFER College in GOMEZ Columbia, Missouri and an eventual recognition as the official honor society by The American Association of Community Colleges. SC Professor of Anatomy Dr. DIMITRIUS Allison Green LOA was the keynote speaker. “In high school I realized that education was going to be my way out,” she said. “It was going to be my way to change my narrative. It was my way to go from a scared, neglected little girl to becoming a strong, educated, independent woman.” Green, who earned a Ph.D. at USC, said her passion for education took her far. She was hired as tenure track faculty in 2014. “Education is now part of your life and it’s going to change your narrative forever,” she said. “And it’s going to be a narrative of success.” Moody and MSE Dean Dr. Michael Odu introduced each student, including an aspiring U.S. Supreme Court justice and an aspiring Peace Corps volunteer. Each inductee signed their name onto a PTK membership book. They lit candles, signifying knowledge and wisdom, and accepted a white rose from a beaming Green, signifying intellectual friendship. Funk said it was inspiring to welcome new PTK members. Meetings take place every two weeks. They go over fundraisers, birthdays and events over slices of pizza. She said members can always lean on each other and provide motivation. “It’s a family,” she said. “And our goal is to change the world little by little.”

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The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

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“It was a 1965 campus for the most part. It’s time. It’s about time you do these things and the community agreed, providing a bond to do this work.” Mark Claussen, Construction Bond Program Manager

‘THE PHOENIX MUST BURN TO EMERGE’ Demolition kicks off Phase I of the Southwestern College master plan, $28M IT data center and $99M classroom complex in the works By Lisa Pottger Assistant Campus Editor

fter more than six years of planning, a $1.9 million demolition of the 300 buildings on the southeast corner of the campus is underway, kicking up dust and kicking off the next stage of renewal at SC. For most of October a roaring team of backhoes and Bobcats pummeled and pushed the Mayanesque walls of the old math and science buildings into piles of concrete rubble and tangled rebar. When the gritty cloud of dust settles, a $28 million central I.T. Data Center and a $99 million classroom complex will rise in its place. Construction bond Program Manager Mark Claussen said the old buildings are ready for an overhaul.

PROP Z BOND Taxpayer-backed bond measure Proposition Z raised $400 million in 2016 to further Phase One of the SC Facilities Master Plan. l Prop Z funding pays for the new $61 million performing arts center located next to the gymnasium on Otay Lakes Road. l

$8.1 million campus police building.

$97 million student union complex.

While there is a spreadsheet showing that construction on the new IT building is targeted to begin in 2020 and a map showing approximately where all the new buildings will go, there are still no drawings for the future construction.

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

“It was a 1965 campus for the most part,” he said. “There were some buildings done in the 1970s. It’s time. It’s about the time you do these things and the community agreed, providing a bond to do this work.” Taxpayer-backed bond measure Proposition Z raised $400 million in 2016 to further phase one of the SC Facilities Master Plan. It is a campus renewal project “That brings together the voices of college and community stakeholders,” according to a message from SC President Dr. Kindred Murillo. Prop Z funding also pays for the new $61 million performing arts center, $8.1 million campus police building and $97 million student union complex. While there is a spreadsheet showing that construction on the new I.T. building is targeted to begin in 2020, and a map showing approximately where all the new buildings will go, there are still no drawings for the future construction. Claussen said planners will identify the needs for the I.T. building by the end of the year. Architects and designers will then put together a rendering. He said every project in Phase One is dependent upon another. “It’s kind of a daisy chain of construction and demolition,” he said. “We’re not building additional space, so you build that building, you demo this (one). We’ll put in instructional building number one and that will house other people from other buildings on this campus and it follows another daisy chain.” Acting Director of Facilities and Planning Aurora Ayala said there have been a few complaints about the dust from the demolition project, but she said the college is working hard to mitigate airborne particles. “We actually have an environmental company on site monitoring our dust control and if you pass by (the demolition site) you’ll see we water down, so we do our due diligence,” she said. “Because we’re an operating campus, it’s not like it’s a full-on construction site. We’re very conscious of our students. So, it’s not been a problem that anyone is going home sick or anything. They’re spraying down as the demolition’s being done.” Ayala said there has only been one complaint about the noise from the heavy machinery pounding the concrete. Andrew Rempt is the Learning Assistance Services Coordinator and works in the Academic Success Center, right next to the demolition site. He said noise is not especially bad inside the tutoring center, but the building shakes when crews break up the concrete chunks to be hauled away. “Today we’ve had shaking,” he said. “That’s always fun.” Rempt said the Academic Success Center had to be closed for two Fridays at the end of September because the workmen were doing heavy demolition, creating noise and a lot of dust. Otherwise, he has only heard of a couple of complaints about headaches from the tutoring staff. Rempt admitted that his problem with the project is more about nostalgia for the venerable concrete halls. “It’s just (that) the ongoing construction is kind of destabilizing, in some ways,” he said. “I’ve been here for 25 years, so it’s really depressing to see the areas where I spent my entire professional life just sort of wrecked. I understand great things are going to happen afterward, but in the meantime, it’s kind of sad.” Ayala is sympathetic, she said, but looking at the end game. “When you think of construction and all that can go wrong, everything’s going well, especially the 300 (buildings),” she said. “Everything is going pretty smoothly and I’m excited that we’re almost done because it gets you to the next stage.” Governing Board President Roberto Alcantar agreed. “People are very excited to hear about the progress that we’ve made at the college and seeing our plans moving forward,” he said. “It’s really nice to see that we’re building the college that our students deserve, which is important, because our communities have a history of being neglected, being last in line to get resources.”

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

The walls come tumbling down Heavy equipment and construction workers arrived on campus in early October to begin demolishing the former math and science building, which stood on the southeast corner of the campus since 1965. During the summer a construction fence went up surrounding three acres of campus where the buildings stood. First the structures were emptied, then backhoes were used to knock down the walls. An enormous jack-hammer attached to the backhoes was used for the most stubborn concrete slabs. After the demolition, trucks will haul away the concrete chunks to be recycled. Some of the material will be ground down to reuse as cement. The remaining material will be turned into a product called riprap, which is used to protect against water erosion.

Fernando A. Martinez/Staff

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The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

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Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff

END OF THE ROAD— Psychology Instructor Shannon Pagano hits a dead end on a sidewalk with no curb cut. She said SC has many barriers that prevent wheelchair users from transiting campus.

Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff

OUT OF REACH — Pagano and other people who use wheelchairs often cannot reach sinks, soap dispensers and hand dryers. She is unable to unlock or open many doors. Lack of curb cuts forces her onto dangerous East H St. or the football field.

Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff

Mobility is an uphill battle By Kathleen Blankenship Assistant Viewpoints Editor

rown vs. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court ruling, was a bold attempt to end the Jim Crow era doctrine of “separate but equal.” “Separate but equal has no place,” read the 1954 decision. “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” Disabled Americans are still victimized by inferior facilities, according to a Southwestern College psychology instructor who uses a wheelchair. “Disabled people are definitely separated and sure ain’t equal,” said Shannon Pagano. “We are the forgotten final battle of the Civil Rights Movement. The acts of inclusion and equality are divided goals that do not include people with disabilities. We talk a lot about diversity and inclusion, but that only seems to me to be about race and gender. It doesn’t seem to ever have anything to do with ability.” Pagano said SC meets minimum American Disabilities Act guidelines, but that is not nearly good enough for staff and students with disabilities. “We are still not reaching that whole point of inclusion,” she said. “I still have to go off separately on a separate path that’s going to take me twice as long to get to the same spot where everyone else is going.” People who use wheelchairs have to go through dangerous places at SC, Pagano said, separated from other students and employees. Posted access pathways send people in wheelchairs out onto busy roads, dark remote areas, steep hills, and even along the football field during practice and games. “Believe it or not, people in wheelchairs are directed through the athletic building, down the elevator and out right along the field,” she said. “There are footballs or soccer balls being thrown and kicked in every direction. If a football hits me in the head it’s all over, I’m dead.” Disabled students’ “Devore Detour” is a

“(The message here is) I do not matter. My safety is not important to this institution that I work for and where I was a student.” Shannon Pagano Southwestern College Psychology Instructor disregard for their physical and emotional safety, Pagano said. “(The message here is) I do not matter,” she said. “My safety is not important to this institution that I work for and where I was a student.” Flying footballs are not even the most dangerous projectile facing people in wheelchairs on campus, Pagano said. “Death Hill” is the moniker disabled people at SC have given the entrance/exit to East H Street. As she climbed the hill facing traffic at dusk, Pagano was inches from cars and trucks – so close she had to duck under the mirrors of larger vehicles. SC’s sidewalks are not safe either, she said. Many have signs posted in the middle, are broken or are dead ends with no curb cuts to allow wheelchairs to descend to street level. There are places on campus where curb cuts lead to a sidewalk without cuts, forcing the wheelchair user to roll out into the busy ring road. “It’s kind of unbelievable that a sidewalk with a curb cut leads to one without a cut,” Pagano said. “I pointed these situations out to the college years ago, but they haven’t fixed the problem. It’s so disheartening and disrespectful. They have the resources to fix these accessibility problems, but they haven’t done it. It makes us feel like we are invisible, like the college just doesn’t care about us disabled folk.” Potential lawsuits abound for the college, she said. “Part of the accessible pathway takes us behind an industrial dumpster outside the football stadium,” she said. “It’s isolated and

dark. It’s rape waiting to happen.” Pagano said people in wheelchairs are reluctant to file lawsuits or speak up. “Whenever a disabled person does file a lawsuit, they get ridiculed for it because it’s taken as us just being difficult,” she said. “I do not feel acknowledged when I’m behind those dumpsters. In fact, when I’m behind those dumpsters, I feel completely disregarded, that I do not matter.” The ADA passed in 1990 to keep people with either physical or mental disabilities from being separated from the rest of society. It requires employers to provide people with disabilities with reasonable accommodations. ADA guidelines were intended to create inclusion for people with a disability, Pagano said, but they often create more separation. ADA was last amended Jan. 1, 2009. Patricia Flores Charter, the former director of SC’s Disability Support Services, said Pagano is right – ADA does not go far enough. “If we only comply with ADA, then people will not have full access,” she said. “People who use wheelchairs oftentimes can’t get into the bathroom [and] can’t wash their hands.” Pagano agreed. “A year ago, I said they needed a lower soap dispenser (at the new gym) because it was too high,” she said. “College officials said it was being ordered and it’s still not here.” Pagano carries hand sanitizer because she cannot wash her hands in most college restrooms, she said. “People look at me like an uncouth slob because I don’t wash my hands,” she said. “Believe me, I want to! I wish I could.”

Dr. Malia Flood, dean of Student Services and the former director of Disability Support Services, said the college has accessibility shortcomings. “I think there’s more to do and I think the challenge is to always keep that at the forefront,” she said. Humberto Gurmilan, an adjunct instructor of journalism and a wheelchair user, said doors on campus present a challenge for the disabled. Gurmilan, former sports director at Telemundo who was recently elected for the San Ysidro School Board, has worked hard all his life pushing past boundaries for the disabled, but cannot push through many of the doors at SC. “Some doors are too heavy for some people with disabilities,” he said. Pagano agreed. “Not only are the doors too heavy, most do not have disabled buttons to open them,” she said. “There are literally rooms Beto (Gurmilan) and I cannot enter.” A stated goal of the original Americans with Disabilities Act was to open the nation’s institutions, businesses and recreational facilities to citizens with disabilities who had traditionally been excluded. Since 1990 the estimated percentage of California college students and staff who use wheelchairs increased by 11 percent. During the same period wheelchair use at SC increased 17.35 percent. Data suggested the ADA helped to increase the number of people who use wheelchairs who attend college. In 1992-93 the college reported that 46 students had a mobility impairment. In 2018-19 the number grew to 64 students. Pagano was asked if SC’s topography discouraged students from enrolling. She said she was not aware of any research exploring that question, but her “gut feeling” was yes. “It’s hard enough for me in a motorized chair,” she said. “It’s got to be nearly impossible for someone who uses a manual chair.”

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The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

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Nicholas James/Staff

HOME IS WHERE THE CAR IS — Cesar Vizcaino Garay sorts through his school bags to find his homework and the textbooks he needs for the day. Garay has been living in his car since September.

Homeless students cling to college dreams By Nicholas James, Photo Editor

or Cesar Vizcaino Garay, home is not so much where his heart is as where his buddy’s couches are. Homeless since

coming out to his disapproving family, Garay has not surrendered his dream of earning a college Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) is working on a bill to allow community colleges to provide parking spaces for students who live in their vehicles. His original bill, Assembly Bill 302, stalled due to concerns about the high costs of maintaining the parking lots, but Berman said he will not give up. He pledged to work with Gov. Gavin Newsom to find a way to provide campus parking spaces for students.

degree and transferring to UCSD as a linguistic major. He credits Southwestern College with helping him keep his dream alive. “Southwestern College is the perfect bridge between the students and the universities because they truly give you a lot of support,” he said. “If you ask, they’ll give you everything you need to succeed.” Dr. Malia Flood, dean of Student Services, said Garay is one of many homeless students at SC. “Last year we had 44 students come forward and say that they were homeless or unsheltered for a variety of reasons,” she said. “During the first two weeks of this semester we had 17 students come in.” Flood called the increase in homeless students a growing problem on campus. SC Campus Police Chief David Nighswonger agreed. “Everyone is reporting this rise and how we are responding to it,” he said. Nighswonger said the safe parking initiative would allow students to sleep in their vehicles at night on campus, a plan he said deserves study. “There are a number of different ways to focus on the bigger problem, so it is a big discussion going on,” he said. “Right now, we are in the stage of trying to offer resources and direct people to shelters and South Bay services.” Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) is working on a bill to allow community colleges to provide parking spaces for students who live in their vehicles. His original bill, Assembly Bill 302, stalled due to concerns about the high costs of maintaining the parking lots, but Berman said he will not give up. He pledged to work with Gov. Gavin Newsom to find a way to provide campus parking spaces for students. Nighswonger said SC is looking at efforts by Imperial Valley College and Orange Coast College to provide permanent housing. Flood said many students need more than just financial aid. Hundreds of students suffer housing, food and clothing insecurities, she said, as well as lack of money for bus passes and gas. “We are really trying to connect them with our campus resources, because we do have a lot of good resources,” she said. “We have agreements with a few community partners that do rapid rehousing, so we are working with students to get with those partners, too.” Campus resources includes the Jag Kitchen food pantry, shower facilities in the gyms, enrollment priority and emergency grants.

Nicholas James/Staff

MOBILE HOME — Garay sleeps in the parking lot at Jewish Family Services, a safe zone for the homeless who spend the night in their cars.

SAFE PARKING LOTS AVAILABLE FOR HOMELESS STUDENTS IN CARS By Nicholas James Photo Editor

Colleges and universities considering plans to allow students living in their vehicles to park on campus are looking to social services for models. San Diego County’s venerable Jewish Family Services has a parking lot program up and running. Diane Kuffman and Rob Nielson have suffered through periods of homelessness. Nielson is a homeless veteran, Kuffman could no longer afford her room in a senior center. “They just kept upping the rent and the new management company came in, and all of a sudden it was 90 percent of my social security check for my rent and utilities,” Kuffman said. “When my lease came up for renewal, I really didn’t have a choice (but to move out).” Kuffman found refuge in her car. She also discovered an “invisible community.” She met Nielson in a parking lot. He said becoming homeless is jarring. “I notice that with a lot of people, it is a cultural shock,” Nielson said. “All of a sudden, they are living in their car. They are experiencing that shock and that trauma, to be homeless.” Nielson said homeless people are invisible, lost in the sea of others looking for help. The Jewish Family Services offered Kuffman and Nielson a hand – and more importantly, a place to park. Kuffman said a

safe place to park provided peace of mind. “I am just so grateful that JFS existed for me, because I don’t know where I would be parking if it wasn’t for here,” she said. “I have not felt unsafe a single night here.” Lea Bush is the senior director of Family and Community Services at the Jewish Family Services. She said the Safe Parking Program assists individuals and families in San Diego who live out of their vehicles. Their largest one in Mission Valley helps about 200 vehicles nightly, while their two smaller ones hold roughly 40 vehicles. JFS services are more than a temporary place to sleep, Bush said. They are the first step to helping homeless people reestablish their lives. “We try to be as supportive as possible,” she said. “Jewish Family Service provides a case manager to each individual or family to help them plan out their needs so that they can get back up on their feet as quickly as possible.” Bush said the average time an individual or family spends at the parking lot is four months. Jewish Family Services provides fruit and vegetables to encourage healthy eating habits and shower facilities. Bush said the work of JFS is growing more important as the region’s homeless population swells. “Our goal is to continue to listen to the community and making sure we are being responsive with their needs.”

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The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

Caleigh Goldman/Staff

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Caleigh Goldman/Staff

CAPT. CRUNCH CRUSHES COSPLAY COMPETITION STORY BY LISA POTTGER

ap’N Crunch is not usually wandering around the Cesar Chavez building on a sunny Halloween afternoon. Neither is Pikachu or a bus full of chanting hippies, but they were all there, along with a colorful lineup of other characters. It was the annual Boo-Fest costume contest. Every department is invited to pick a theme, then dress up and decorate to compete for prizes. Party music and a festive mood turned the usually business-like atmosphere at the Chavez building into a midday bash. Employees paraded before a panel of judges. EOPS came out in full hippie force, carrying signs and a token groovy bus. A canary-yellow Pikachu skipped through the line. Prerequisites turned into Willy Wonka world, Counseling became a bag of M&M’s and Student Activities showed up as a live Pac-Man game. Downstairs, the Admissions and Outreach department became The Nightmare Before Christmas and Financial Aid turned into a haunted house. Upstairs, the First Year Experience department became home to Pikachu and other Pokémon characters. SC Police Chief Dave Nighswonger, cleverly disguised as Cap’N Crunch, picked up a prize for Most Creative Costume. His fuzzy white mustache clung to his upper lip with a piece of tape. Looking like a dainty doll in pigtails and polka dots, Tabitha Ibarra from Student Services took home the prize for Scariest Costume as Gaby Gaby from “Toy Story 4.” Forky, also from “Toy Story 4”, took home the prize for Funniest Costume. “I’m trash. They call me trash.” said a blue-lipped Janet Bynum of Student Service, staying in character and carrying her black plastic trash bag with her to make the point. Student Services also took home a big prize for Group Costumes. Dr. Malia Flood suited up in a Woody outfit and led her cast off “Toy Story 4” to victory. Disability Student Services staff turned its office into a very convincing set of Jurassic Park, 8 gigantic dancing dinosaurs included. Their efforts were a roaring success and earned the prize for Best Office Decoration.

Caleigh Goldman/Staff

ALL DRESSED UP — Boo-Fest in the Cesar Chavez Center celebrates Halloween in style. (clockwise from top) Marah Cooper as Picachu, Davis Nighswonger as Capt. Crunch, EOPS employees as a van full of hippies.

PRISM group advocates for AUTISTIC STUDENTS FIND SUCCESS WITH SUPPORT FROM DISABLED SERVICES TEAM LGBTQ employee rainbow By Caleigh Goldman Assistant Campus Editor

By Aide Valdez Staff Writer

Autism is described as a spectrum. So are rainbows and sunrises. All are unique. Southwestern College Disabled Student Services staff tries to treat all its clients as special and one-of-a-kind, said Alejandro Fernandez, a rehabilitation counselor and former SC student. Fernandez said being a member of the disabled community can be challenging, but also rewarding. He earned a BA then a Master’s degree at SDSU before becoming a counselor. He encouraged DSS students to seek support, then stick it out. Two SC siblings are working to do just that. Andrew and Emilio Penalosa agreed that the help they have received at DSS has been key to their success. Emilio Penalosa said DSS provides a variety of useful services. “More time for tests, books, counseling and priority enrollment are some of the main services I receive,” he said. DSS specialist Dr. Michelle Gealy said there were 113 students enrolled in DSS department in 2018-19. “Accommodations for students on the spectrum could be a variety of things depending on their level of functioning,” she said. “It could be extended time on tests, availability to walk around in the room or take small breaks.” Gealy said students with autism may ask for permission to use an audio recorder and a note taker.

Karla DeAlba/Staff

HIDE NOT YOUR TALENTS — Alejandro Fernandez encourages DSS students to stick with it.

“About six percent of students who received DSS services are autistic,” she said. “We have about 1,900 DSS students in the program this school year.” Emilio Penalosa said the program needs some improvements. “I would like the counselors to be more involved in the students’ goals and provide better counseling,” he said. At the beginning of their academic path the Penalosas experienced confusion about the college process, said Andrew Penalosa. “We had to dig into it to learn about DSS,” he said. “When we first got to the DSS department we had no idea what services we needed and the people there

expected us to already know what we needed.” Things are different now, he said, and the brothers both consider DSS personnel staunch allies. Andrew Penalosa said he has blossomed as a student thanks to DSS guidance. He is an editor at The Sun and a curated artist. “One of my biggest accomplishments at Southwestern College was to have my photography exhibited at the art gallery in campus,” he said. Emilio Penalosa said his desire is to be seen as part of the community like anyone else without impairments. “Autism is an ability, not a disability,” he said.

A prism can split light into a rainbow. Creators of SC’s PRISM said they are working to bring the rainbow together. PRISM is an LGBTQIA affinity group designed to advocate for students and employees. Kyler Miller, a lab technician at the Otay Mesa satellite campus, and Jessica Noel, a research analyst at the Chula Vista campus, are the founders of PRISM. Miller said they are working to create welcoming safe spaces for LGBTQ adults of the community. They also hope to educate people outside of the LGBTQ community about its needs and issues, he said. “You may never truly understand what it is like to be in the LGBTQ plus community, but if you come in and learn you’ll understand more than you could have before,” he said. Miller said he and Noel are also still contemplating whether or not to invite allies into the group. Noel said that it might come down to “open and closed” meetings. Open meetings would include allies and closed meetings would be specifically for members of the LGBTQ community. Noel said the goal of PRISM is to help LGBTQIA members prosper. “Ultimately we want to see LGBTQIA members who are really thriving and especially thriving here at Southwestern,” she said. Miller said it is helpful for LGBTQ youth to see adults of the community thrive.

“It is a moment for students to know that they are not alone, I will be fine, I will thrive, I will move on,” he said. “I will become an all-star in life, Southwestern College is giving me that opportunity to thrive.” Miller said he and Noel want to make sure PRISM reaches all campuses. “A lot of our specialty programs are in satellite campuses, which also means that the students going to those programs only take classes there, so it’s important that no matter where you take classes, you should be able to plug in,” Miller said. PRISM’S stated mission aligns with that of SAGA (Sexuality and Gender Alliance), a student club advised by Child and Family Development instructor Bill Marsden. SAGA meets twice a week with the formal goal of creating a pleasant environment for LGBTQ students on campus. A request by SAGA two years for a room designated an LGBTQ “safe space” was rejected by SC President Dr. Kindred Murillo, who said at the time that all students needed to mingle and not separate themselves out into interest groups. Since then, however, the college opened a Veterans Center for former members of the armed forces. Marsden, who said he identifies as LGBTQ, said he wants SAGA students to learn, love and grow into self-actualized adults. “We’re human beings who have families, wants, needs, loves and concerns,” he said. “Our sexual preference and gender should have nothing to do with who we are. We’re human beings first.”

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The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

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Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff

DON’T TREAD ON ME — A mountain biker on an illegal trail through a protected habitat preserve on Hill 985, the nickname environmentalists use to identify the 985-foot rise next to Madre de Miguel Mountain. Bikers cut a fence and carved a winding trail through the heart of a butterfly and cactus preserve.

Species: Endangered

plants and animals crushed by bicycles

Continued from pg. 20

i Br

Many of the endangered or threatened species found locally were put in that position by Americans encroaching on their natural environment, like Chinese did to the giant panda. Humans working together, however, are capable of turning the tide of extinction. Last month seven light-footed Ca Ridgway’s rail took flight as they were lei gh released by conservationists into the Go ldm an/Staf Tijuana River estuary. Were f it not for the efforts of POINTS OF NO RETURN Dr. Mike and Patricia — Scores of native plants McCoy in the 1970s unique to San Diego are to prevent the classified as endangered. estuary from being Without action to preserve the dredged into a biodiversity of this natural marina, there environment, much of San would be no place Diego’s natural flora such to release these as cacti and wildflowers birds. They would Br could be lost forever. it t have become extinct an yC in Southern California. ruz-Fejeran/Staff Ridgway’s rail is a small chicken-sized bird that feeds primarily on mollusks, worms and crabs found along the mudflats. They have been slammed by reckless development in the U.S. and filthy runoff from Mexico. In March 2016 a large scale El Niño caused the mouth of the Tijuana river to become blocked and resulted in a buildup of tainted runoff ruinous to the ecology of the Tijuana estuary. Among the victims were at least 50 leopard sharks trapped on the wrong side of the river’s mouth. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials tt a estimate the number of rails grew from ny Cr 142 pairs in 1985 to 656 pairs in 2016. uz -Fe jera Rail populations declined sharply during n/Staff the blockage of the inlet, when lack of tidal flushing poisoned the invertebrates susceptible to the damaging effects of inbreeding. that are the rail’s primary food source. A species needs to have a wide range A rail recovery study warns that “saltmarsh habitat(s) [are] threatened by to ensure genetic diversity so that if an a combination of development, erosion, incident like the 2016 El Niño event occurs, there are enough individuals left contaminant leaching, alteration of to repopulate. hydrology and sediment transport, and San Diego County is the most sea level rise.” In areas that become biodiverse county in the continental completely flooded by high tide, the United States, according to conservation rails are forced out of the safety of their organizations like The Nature tall cordgrass environment and have to Conservancy and Conservation brave urban areas and are more likely to International, which called San Diego face predation. County one of 36 “biodiversity hotBiodiversity is an essential aspect of spots” on the planet. conserving endangered species. When These hot-spots are defined as having a population becomes too small, its “at least 1,500 vascular plants as genetic diversity collapses, leaving it

endemics” and “30 percent or less of its original natural vegetation.” That means San Diego county is full of plants that are found nowhere else on Earth, but threatened by invasive species. Conservation International scientists wrote “[biodiversity hot-spots] represent just 2.4 percent of Earth’s land surface, but they support more than half of the world’s plant species as endemics — i.e., species found no place else — and nearly 43 percent of bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian species as endemics.” Almost every natural environment in San Diego has been impacted by human development. Mountain bikers on Madre de Miguel Mountain that touches Chula Vista have created a huge erosion “scar” on the mountain visible three miles away from Southwestern College. People traversing the mountain unwittingly damaged and killed endangered plant species such as the San Diego barrel cactus. Poorly maintained trails led to the creation of several unauthorized trails that damaged endangered wildlife that live on Mt. Miguel, Madre de Miguel and Hill 985. In August the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge partnered with San Diego Association of Governments and the San Diego Mountain Biking Association, with assistance from the Bonita Bikers, to repair the badly eroding Mother Miguel Trail. National Wildlife Refuge ecologists wrote “this trail reroute will reduce the negative impacts to species like Mexican flannelbush, San Diego barrel cactus, Quino checkerspot butterfly and California gnatcatcher, and their habitats.” It will take some time for the scar to heal, but at least there is now an effort to save these three Sweetwater Valleyregion peaks. These species and others are also threatened by the construction of the proposed southern border wall. If completed, the wall would harm people seeking refuge in the U.S. and damage the ecosystem the wall would vivisect. Vernal pools are also threatened by human activity. These little-understood ecosystems comprised of seasonal ponds have suffered extreme degradation as humans build over them. They are seasonal bodies of water 2-12 inches deep that host unique animals like the fairy shrimp, whose eggs are able to survive being dried out until the next rain replenishes their pools. Fairy shrimp are an important food source to salamanders, water birds and

Brittany Cruz-Fejeran/Staff

TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION — Mountain bikers cut the fence surrounding a habitat reserve and carved unauthorized trails down the side of Hill 985. Cactus, coastal sage and rare foothill plantain are crushed by tires and pushed out by erosion.

aquatic insects, but most vernal pools have been lost to human development. Between 1979 and 1986, 698 acres of already-rare vernal pools were eliminated. Now only 65 acres of this environment is left and existing pools are threatened by pollution. A City of San Diego Vernal Pool Habitat Conservation Plan (VPHCP) from October 2017 concluded that fairy shrimp found in 137 vernal pool complexes distributed across the region, but 28 have been completely or partially lost to urban development. VPHCP seeks compromise between the competing interests of development and conservation by forcing developers to set aside certain areas for the preservation of vernal pools. Just as no man is an island, lifeforms in ecosystems cut off into islands are generally doomed. Environmental fragmentation isolate populations from each other and force them to brave the dangers of human settlement. The California mountain lion struggles to repopulate because they keep getting hit by vehicles or poisoned by eating prey contaminated with

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rodenticide. Santa Cruz Puma Project tracks about 40 mountain lions in the Santa Cruz mountains and has found that they generally avoid freeways, but are forced to risk death to find prey or mates. California is home to about 5,000 remaining mountain lions, but they are vulnerable. One form of environmental protection that would benefit this species and others would be the creation of wildlife bridges and tunnels that safely connect natural areas. The largest of these projects is an $87 million overpass covered in greenery that would span 10 lanes of Highway 101 northwest of Los Angeles. These green bridges and tunnels, like the Vernal Pool projects, are a step in the right direction but are not a cure for the problem. Human development has had little regard for the natural environment. We must prioritize Mother Nature before it is too late.

Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

ARTS

The Southwestern College Sun

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By Karla De Alba Arts Editor

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hen Dr. Cynthia McGregor received an e-mail asking if she would like to play a concert with The Who, she said she thought it was a tribute band. Turned out “it’s the real me, doctor.” McGregor, a Southwestern College dean and French horn virtuoso, joined Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey as The Who performed its seminal rock opera “Tommy” at Viejas Arena. She jammed on French horn parts performed by bassist/brass player John Entwistle on the 1969 recording. I’m a Sensation! After years of hard work mastering the tricky French horn, McGregor said she finally feels like a rock star. “I’ve been glowing,” she said. McGregor said she grew up listening to The Who and said the band’s music was part of the soundtrack of her life. “They’re like The Rolling Stones,” she said. “You just hear their music everywhere!” SC students too young to be experts in British Invasion bands such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who nevertheless hear music by The Who almost daily on the radio as well as television commercials for GMC trucks (“Eminence Front”) and T-Mobile (“Baba O’Riley”). The Who also performed the Super Bowl halftime show in 2010. Veteran San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga said a true performance by The Who needs French horns. He gave McGregor a shout out in his U-T review. “The Who’s late bassist, John Entwistle, was himself a French hornist and played the instrument on The Who’s recording of ‘Pictures of Lily,’” he said. “That should make Cynthia’s experience playing with The Who doubly memorable.” Entwistle also played memorable French horn parts on classics “5:15,” “I’m a Boy,” “My Wife” and the overture to “Tommy.” He died in 2002. Crazy Flipper Fingers A flurry of emails were exchanged before McGregor realized she was not communicating with a local cover band, she said. They were the real deal—accompanied with a full symphony orchestra. SC’s dean of the School of Arts, Communication and Social Sciences said she did not rehearse directly with the legendary guitarist Townshend, but practiced to a click track in her home office with the sheet music and setlist provided by the band. Orchestra musicians rehearsed together only briefly during a pre-show sound check, McGregor said. “Hey, we’re professionals, we know what to do!” she said, with a pronounced twinkle in her eye. Most of the setlist were songs from “Tommy,” she said. Orchestra

please see McGregor pg.16

‘Extinguisher’ gallery wrestles with extinction, but offers hope By Pernisha Gaines Assistant News Editor

Whales called out. Crashing waves could not mute their sound. More whales called. A mother possibly searching for her calf. A call to the pack. An alarm to society, more than likely. A roaring wave joined the call. Whales and the ocean spoke as one communicating to the rest of humanity. At Joshua Tonies’s Art Gallery, Extinguisher, students at Southwestern College were greeted by a siren sound. The noise spoke to future artists, enticing them to come in. A sense of urgency moved visitors around the room before sitting to listen to the call. Euphoric waves crashed alerting the future generation to wake up. Students surveyed the depths of society’s assault on nature. “Awareness,” said Jimmy Evans. He counted heads and watched student’s curiosity aroused by the call. Viewing Joshua Tonies’s Gallery was like seeing leftover waste, he said. Film student Aaliyah Anderson saw something else. “Intricate,” she said. “Tonies’s pieces of art were unique and expressed individuality.”

Extinguisher created an experience that appealed to younger, curious emotions. Dark paintings on the wall exposed secrecy. Students looked deeper trying to find the light in each image. Eyes stared intensely while moving through the room. Observers huddled around a 3D image of a deformed soda bottled, shifting through time and space. An evolution of life and carelessness left viewers uneasy. Trees and nature were the beginning of Joshua Tonies’s journey. Living in gritty Akron, Ohio increased his natural interest for ecology. Recycling, pollution and waste are the back drop of his perspective on the environment, he said, still forming his worldview. Some of his childhood drawings and stories seemed ecological. “A place of exploration and discovery,” he said. Living in San Diego and seeing more of a garden city broaden his point of view, he said. Ideas like the enchanting landscape of San Diego County encouraged him to be more aware of his surroundings. He pondered the existence of city. He wondered if it should exist, since 70 percent of its water supply is imported from the Colorado River. “A strange phenomenon,” he said.

Nicholas James/Staff

SENSORY INPUT — SC film student Aaliyah Anderson strolls through the Extinguisher exhibition featuring work by Joshua Tonies, an artist and professor at USD.

Bizarre has refuge in Tonies’s art. Students questioned the how and why of gridded images. They made the best effort to connect to what they were experiencing through Tonies’s eyes. Black and gray art hung across the room. Like dark clouds from a fire polluting the air and shadows from older ones remaining from the damage. Sloppy black paint

splashed across the screen where the whales continued to cry. Ocean rumbles created a white noise. A comforting sound in the midst of what felt like chaos. A moment of silence during a storm. Last November, Tonies’s doctor found a tumor in his skull. It grew in his ear and branched out to his brain. It destroyed his eardrum and hearing bones, and

affected his facial nerve. Tonies said he was fortunate to have his doctor build a new eardrum and synthetic hearing bones, gifting him the ability to hear again. “It was going to kill me,” Tonies said. It couldn’t. Tonies could only hear out of one ear after surgery, he said. As his body was recovering, the appeal of sounds triggered him to think of ways the movement of sound waves could be visualized through drawing and animation. His connection to the soundscape allowed him to listen in a way that he couldn’t previously. His damaged ear improved from 12 percent hearing to 85 percent. Once again able to hear birds and distant sounds, the texture of life increased his enjoyment, wonder and curiosity. He developed a new appreciation for the world. “It’s kind of amazing that all of these different animals can thrive in such a hostile place,” Tonies said. Mammals find food, have babies and survive through their environment while it’s decaying from changing climate. Tonies said he found hope in the chaos. “Living things on this planet are very resilient and we can learn from them,” he said. “Transformation.” Captured in art.

ARTS

The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

arts@theswcsun.com

Aide Valdez/Staff

WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE — (l) Laborers call for a strike in Waiting for Lefty, a drama about labor strife and justice for workers. (above) Angel Perez makes a stand.

‘Lefty’ a powerful reminder of workers’ struggles By Andrew Penalosa Circulation Manager

“Waiting for Lefty” is like “Waiting for Godot.” The namesake never shows, but the show is well worth the wait, thanks to a talented cast, crew and director. Written by Clifford Odet, “Waiting for Lefty” is based on a 1934 cab driver strike in New York. Ruff Yeager directed the period drama which captivated the audience with superb acting and provocative political messages. “Lefty” opens in the middle of a contentious union meeting where Henry

McGregor: French

horn virtuoso will keep her day job Continued from pg. 15

members wore concert black and headphones playing click tracks or synchronized audio cues so they could accompany the band. She sat in a cozy orchestra loft just above and behind the heads of Townshend and Daltrey. Her life flashed before her eyes as the lasers pivoted and raced across the arena. Meet the New Boss McGregor joined the SC facility in 2004 and taught music for 14 years. She became dean in July 2018. She has been an advocate for performing arts programs, she said, and has tried to help faculty find resources. “I am very familiar with what the arts needs are, both for performing and visual,” she said. “I have done what I can to help them try and figure out a way to fund what they need.’’ McGregor said she always liked music, but came to French horn during her sophomore year in high school. She read a short newspaper article about a high school orchestra going on tour in Australia. “The very last sentence said we really need more French horns,” she recalled. When she met orchestra director Eric Hammer she started to gain of confidence in her ability to master a notoriously difficult instrument, she said. They worked together for years. Before he died Hammer introduced McGregor to a new mentor, Tim Smith, who she said changed her life. Doug Hall, said he enjoys having his friend McGregor in his French horn ensemble, Hornswoggle, which performs annually at SC. “I’m so proud of her,” he said. “She’s a wonderful person and musician. Cynthia

Fatt (Mason Bump) expresses his strong opposition to going on strike. He tells the others not to be puppets to the higher-ups and warned that striking is unproductive and unnecessary. Their union president, he argued, is “looking out for their interests.” Fellow cabbies were displeased and called for Lefty, the elected chairman of the committee, who has not yet arrived. Fatt bellows that Lefty has abandoned them. Workers rights, pay equity and changes of Communist sympathy are themes that drive the story. Yeager’s production is effectively

spartan. It features a desk, podium, record player, car honks, video captions and call-to-action cards to create a grimy and crummy atmosphere that transports the audience to the era of the Great Depression. Michael Buckley’s understated lighting gave the stage its appropriate muddy hue. A clever period costume design by Sasha Aguirre captured the stark atmosphere of the Depression. Yeager’s talented cast created the tension and agony of the hellish Great Depression when America was whipsawed by economic collapse, 45

percent unemployment, environmental catastrophe and political upheaval. A melancholy love song drifted from a record player for lovers Sid (Jaden Guerrero) and Florie (Victoria Hartwell) as they were saying goodbye to each other. The music almost moved the audience to tears with its haunting melody. Joe Mitchell (Bryan Larson) is a tired, overworked man ready to snap. His wife, Edna (Zaina Price), warned him to go on strike or she would leave him for her old boyfriend. During an argument his anger and hopelessness bubbled up like he was ready to burst and kept the audience on

Tommy Can Your Hear Me? Headphones that played the click track were essential, she said, due to the tsunami of sound crashing off the walls, fierce feedback and audience noise. She also wore earplugs due to the blasting trumpets right behind her head. “It was really challenging to feel in control of everything when there was so much that was different in your brain in terms of how you play,” she said. “We’re trained to listen to each other and have that responsibility. It made me feel very fortunate that I got to experience this kind of performance. It’s a completely different way of framing of being a musician when you’re on stage like that supporting a legend.”

is a very busy executive at Southwestern College, mom of two musicians, and a horn player.” Join Together with the Band McGregor said she was able to watch The Who do its sound check on stage. She took videos and even a few selfies in an almost empty arena. It was, she said, like a private concert. SC music adjunct Healy Henderson played violin in the orchestra and was orchestra manager. “She was playing and she made sure everyone was in their places as they needed to be,” McGregor said. “I thought it was cool that they had the first violinist and the first cellist that were on tour with them and they have been doing performances throughout the country. I feel like they are my people. It was really fun seeing that vibrant, classically-trained music being integrated into rock music.” McGregor said her favorite song to perform was “The Rock,” because it had the most French horn music. A massive Jumbotron gave McGregor’s friends and family opportunities for pictures of her on screen, seated right above Townshend and Daltrey. “I could spit on them if I wanted too,” said McGregor with a laugh. (She decided not to.) She even has a video of Townshend saying “Thank you to the orchestra” as the cameras pan her face. “The orchestra was so thrilled to have this kind of opportunity to be in a rock group,” she said. Her French horn parts were not difficult, McGregor said, and she did not have to practice much. She confessed that her biggest challenge was being there to work, instead of enjoying the show like other fans. “It was a totally different mindset for me when I sat down.”

edge. Agate (Azul Arellano) was another standout performance. She truly sounded like a union worker who was tired of waiting for change and demanded immediate action. Her hopes are dashed when she learned that Lefty was dead. Hope seems to have died with him. When she called for a strike, the audience was on board, clapping and cheering her resolve. With its engaging acting, dank atmosphere and symbolic props, Yeager and his cast made the waiting worthwhile.

Courtesy Jason Hums

CYNTHIA KNEW WHO — Dr. Cynthia McGregor performed with rock legends The Who, but did not smash her trusty French horn on stage after the show.

The Kids Are Alright McGregor said this kind of experience can be achieved by students if they remain steadfast on their dreams and continue to improve themselves. “Success is a combination of hard work, talent, patience and luck,” she said. “We can control hard work and we can foster talent through it. As educators we need to find opportunities that help (students) realize their dreams.” Playing with The Who reminded her of lessons she tried to teach her students. “We all need to take risks,” she said. “And taking risks sometimes we fail, sometimes we succeed, but in all those failures you learn to do better.” McGregor is now the proud owner of a Who t-shirt, guitar pick and other souvenirs. Her faculty seem to enjoy giving her the business about her flirtation with rock-n-roll stardom. An admiring colleague sang his take on “Pinball Wizard” in the ACSS faculty room just loud enough for McGregor to hear: “That deft, mum and kind dean/sure plays a mean French horn!”

SPORTS

Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

The Southwestern College Sun

FOOTBALL

Some athletes insist the marijuana derivative cannabiodiol should be legalized for pain control. NCAA and NFL officials say no chance.

Jags clinch another bowl game in a 41-0 blowout

H MP BLOCK

Will face Long Beach City College in So. Cal Bowl on Saturday By John Ceballos-Brodie Assistant Sports Editor

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CBD’s Effectiveness CBD stands for cannabidiol. It has been touted for a wide variety of health issues, but the strongest scientific evidence is for its effectiveness in treating some of the cruelest childhood epilepsy syndromes, such as Dravet syndrome and LennoxGastaut syndrome (LGS), which typically don’t respond to antiseizure medications. Psychoactive? CBD is the second most prevalent of the active ingredients of cannabis (marijuana). While CBD is an essential component of medical marijuana, it is derived directly from the hemp plant, which is a cousin of the marijuana plant. While CBD is a component of marijuana (one of hundreds), by itself it does not cause a “high.” According to a report from the World Health Organization, “In humans, CBD exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential…. To date, there is no evidence of public health related problems associated with the use of pure CBD.” Source: Harvard Medical School

By John Ceballos-Brodie, Assistant Sports Editor

any retired athletes have admitted to being addicted to prescription opioids exposed to them during their playing careers. Recently, more and more of these athletes are advocating for the use of Cannabidiol (CBD) to be allowed to athletes as a substitution to

addicting painkillers. CBD is a non-intoxicating form of Marijuana found in cannabis. After tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), (CBD) is the second-most abundant cannabinoid in the plant, and has many potential therapeutic benefits, including anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety and seizure-suppressant properties. CBD use is legal for medicinal use in 33 states including California, but remains apart of anti-drug rules in most professional and college sports. Former NFL tight-end Rob Gronkowksi of the New England Patriots, battled injuries his entire career and has partnered with a CBD manufacturer Abacus, becoming an advocate for CBD use for athletes at an event announcing the partnership. Gronk said the use of CBD has changed his life for the better. “I am advocating for CBD use to be acceptable to be used for recovery,” Gronkowski said. “For the first time in more than a decade, I am painfree and that is a big deal.” Consistent opioid use can severely damage the Liver and addiction, which possibly can lead to overdose. In the United States, over 15,000 people die per year from pain medication overdose, more than Heroin and Cocaine combined. Southwestern College Head athletic trainer Dennis Petrucci said his staff avoids giving SC athletes pain killers for long periods of time. “Pain Killers as far as I know are typically hard on the liver, more than any other organ in the body,” Petrucci said. “Typically, we try not to have

please see CBD pg. 19

Carly’s Law In 2014, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed SB 174, “Carly's Law,” which allowed the University of Alabama to conduct a study testing the efficacy of treating people suffering from epileptic seizures with CBD oil. The law then expanded to allow anyone with the condition to seek CBD-based treatment statewide. Since then 16 other states have adopted a limited-use CBD oil policy. Those are Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. 34 of the 65 NCAA Power Five schools are located in the 17 states that allow CBD usage for epileptic seizures.

A bowl game was on the line when Southwestern College faced the 1-8 Orange Coast College Pirates to close the regular season. Mission accomplished. SC will play in the Southern California Bowl Saturday at Long Beach City College. The Jaguars clinched their sixth bowl game appearance in the Ed Carberry era in convincing fashion with a 41-0 victory. Tempers flared and shoving ensued halfway through the first quarter, which was the only fight by the visiting Pirates all night. It may be true that the best defense is a good offense, but it is even better when the defense contributes to the offense. Sophomore defensive back Atoatasi Fox started the scoring with a 65-yard interception return touchdown to put the Jaguars up 7-0. They did not look back. SC’s defense created chaos throughout the game with four sacks, an interception and two fumble recoveries. Three of the sacks were made by freshman defensive lineman Brian Williams, who dominated the Pirates’offensive line. Defensive Coordinator Dionicio Monarrez said he was impressed with Williams’ performance. “I think he is finally coming into his own, starting to understand what he’s capable of doing,” Monarrez said. “He is only a freshman, but he had a tremendous game and did a great job.” On offense, the Jaguars were in attack mode all night. Despite missing starting quarterback Josh Owen and running back Keylan Chapman, they ran and passed almost at will. Sophomore running back Deandre Daniels had 15 carries for 124 yards and a touchdown, while Cary Enos, in his first start of the season, went 9-15 with 156 yards and three touchdowns filling in at quarterback Enos said he felt comfortable. “I thought we played really good,” he said. “We had a slow start on offense, but we really started going and once I got into my groove, we had a really good night.” Freshman receiver Davion Johnson contributed four receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown. Carberry said Johnson’s speed was an x-factor. “Everybody who plays us has to know where he is,” he said. “He is a touchdown waiting to happen. He is so fast so they have to be ready for him.” His 30-yard TD catch in the third quarter sealed the game for the Jags, as well as their spot in the bowl.

Lady Jaguars catch fire in the fall, presaging 2020 championship run By Nicholas James Photo Editor

Ain’t no cure for the summertime blues, especially for the women’s soccer team. Like Anne of Green Gables, the Lady Jaguars are glad to live in a world where there are Octobers. A miserable 2-5-3 record in August and September transformed into a dominant 6-2-0 mark in October. While most of America was cooling down, the Lady Jaguars were just warming up. Head Coach Carolina Soto credited a

WOMEN’S SOCCER 4-game win streak and transformational month to the development of team chemistry. “The turnaround came about because we were finally meshing as a team,” she said. “All these different personalities finally connected to build this chemistry.” Winning ways continued into November. A 5-1 win over the visiting Miramar College Jets pushed the Lady Jag’s overall record to 9-7-3 and 6-2-2 in conference.

Freshman forward Andrea Reyes got the Jags going with a goal in the third minute. After Miramar equalized five minutes later, Freshman forward Isabella Ferreira put the Jags ahead in the 24th minute. They never looked back. Reyes’ second goal in the 36th minute pushed the lead to 3-1 at halftime. Goals by freshman forward Natalie Dubon and sophomore midfielder Alondra Osuna widened the gap in the second half and sealed the 5-1 victory. SC will close out against Grossmont, San Diego Mesa and Cuyamaca.

Soto said the beginning of the season was rough, due to the large influx of freshmen after most of the 2018 sophomores transferred. Soto said every professor loves to see students transfer, though a mass exodus is hard on soccer coaches. Soto said the Lady Jags intentionally faced formidable competition in the preseason in hopes of gaining experience against strong teams. “We had a very tough preseason,” she said. “That is sometimes a double edge sword, because if you don’t do well you can lose some confidence.”

Sophomore goalkeeper Sharon Montoya said the team has hit its stride. “All in all, we did our best, and that is what matters to me,” she said. “We want to keep pushing for these last games.” Montoya has been a star for the team, allowing only two goals in October while recording four shutouts. Playoff hopes remain alive, Soto said. “It’s a very little (chance), but there is still a possibility,” she said. “I think if we had started the season now, it would be a whole different season because we finally came together.”

SPORTS

The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

sports@theswcsun.com

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JAGS RECORDS: Women’s Water Polo: 13-7 record (4-4 PCAC) (third best in PCAC conference), 213 steals (second in PCAC), 190 goals, 156 saves, 9.5 goals per game, Julissa Diaz 54 steals (leads PCAC conference), Odette Ortega 148 saves (third in PCAC) 131 goals against (third in PCAC) 53 save percentage (second in PCAC). Women’s volleyball: 11-15 record (5-11 PCAC) (more wins than the last three VENERABLE PHILOSOPHERCOACH ED CARBERRY years 879 kills, 808 assissts, 159 MODELScombined), THE WAY FORWARD blocks, 1,374 digs. Football: 6-4 record (2-3 SEASON OF Conference), 3,327 total yards, nine rushing TRANSITION, A FUTURE 22 passing touchdowns, 21.1 touchdowns, OF PROMISE points allowed per game (second fewest in conference), 11 interceptions, 23 forced F turnovers, 28 sacks (second in conference), four defensive touchdowns (most in conference), Joshua Owen 1,693 passing yards 18 touchdowns, Brian Williams 4.5 sacks (tied for most in conference) Women’s soccer: 9-9-4 record (7-4-3 PCAC), 40 goals scored, outscored opponents 21-8 in October, Natalie Dubon 10 goals (led team), Sharon Montoya 115 saves. f

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rom football coach Ed Carberry reaching his 100th win to longtime basketball head coach John Cosentino retiring after 30 years at the helm, Southwestern College athletics has had a fall semester unlike any seen in recent memory. While SC’s athletic story has been made with those SC athletic legends, some newer faces have enjoyed a lot of success this fall. Under the direction of second-year women’s water polo head coach Alissa Mashburn and first-year volleyball coach Tyler Reeves, their teams have enjoyed their best seasons since 2000. Reeves has turned around the volleyball program, finishing with their best record since 2000 at 11-13 (5-9 PCAC) placing them at sixth in the conference. In her second year as head coach, Mashburn has tripled the teams win totals from 4-15 (3-9 PCAC) in 2018, to a 12-5 (3-2 PCAC) record in 2019. While women’s water polo and volleyball are enjoying success on the season, other teams have gone through some rough patches. After being predicted to finish second in their conference, men’s soccer has endured a lot of injuries and struggled to put together a consistent string of games with a 6-13-3 record putting them at sixth place in the conference. The men have struggled to find their identity, but the women have hit their stride as they entered conference play. After struggling out the gate with a 2-5-3 record, the Jags found their groove in the month of October going 6-2 through the month, outscoring opponents 21-8 in the month.

Nic

STORY BY JUSTIN DOTTERY

JAGUARS ON THE PROWL — (clockwise, top l)Freshman goalie Dionicio Saucedo. Sophomore wide receiver Matthew Linton. Freshman defender Isabella Rocha. Sophomore mid fielder Jose Sanchez.

sports@theswcsun.com

SPORTS

The Southwestern College Sun • Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

105! “He’s made a culture here where we all expect to win. He’s instilled a value ‘have honor in everything you do.’” Dionicio Monarrez, defensive coordinator

CENTURIAN

By Justin Dottery, Sports Editor

ead football coach Ed Carberry was a history teacher as well as the head football coach at Monte Vista High School before making the move to college. Now he has made history. With the team’s early season 28-24 victory over Palomar College, Carberry earned his 100th victory at Southwestern College, giving him 100 wins at both the high school and college levels. After a 14-year Hall of Fame coaching career at Monte Vista, Carberry said he realized it was time for a change. “Looking around at my coaching friends there, I saw how tired and worn down they looked,” he said. “I did not want to be that, so I knew it was my time to leave. The community college coaching friends I had all seemed to be having fun with it, so I thought it was time for a change of scenery.” After a short stint at Mt. San Jacinto College, Carberry moved south. Carberry has made a huge impact at SC, turning an average team into one of the most successful programs in Southern California. His daughter Maegan Carberry said his latest milestone has secured his legend. “I think him reaching 100 at both levels just solidified his status as one of the most impactful coaches in San Diego County,” she said. “It’s not just about him, but everyone who has been through his program. I see generations of people that come through our lives and been through this program developed by his mentor (Marijon Ancich) who passed last year. He continues that St.Paul legacy with him, which I know is so special for him.” Carberry began coaching at his alma mater St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs under the direction Ancich, who retired as the alltime leader in California high school football history with 360 wins. In 12 years at SC, Carberry has 105 wins and seven conference championships. He is quick to share credit. “Moses died leaning on his staff,” he said. “It’s the same thing I do here.” Longtime defensive coordinator Dionicio Monarrez said he has figured out how to build a winning team thanks to Carberry. “His organization and commitment to working on fundamentals on a daily basis,” he said. “There’s a structure here of what we do every day. We all have to buy-in and it works. The players change so you adjust to them, but the organization of building a winning program from scratch, he has that.” Monarrez said Carberry convinces coaches and players they can be champions “He’s made a culture here where we all expect to win,” he said. “He’s instilled this value ‘have honor in everything you do.’ When we win it’s because of hard work. When you lose, it’s okay because we did everything we could.” Carberry said his 40-plus years of coaching experience has shaped him. “You think you know a lot, but you really don’t until you have had all these experiences,” he said. “The 100 wins on each level does not represent it all, because there are 300-plus games.” Experience, Carberry said, has been the best teacher. His 42-year career has painted a picture for him of what a successful team should look like. He said he just has to complete the artwork each year. “It is like when I help my wife with a puzzle and I use the box as a reference,” he said. “I’ve kind of seen what a championship team looks like. It’s my job to help put the picture together each year and mold the group into what it should look like.” Success has made fond memories for countless players, but Carberry said there is so much more than nostalgia. “What I want everybody to take away from this program is how to work,” he said. “No matter what you end up doing in your life, after you leave this program you will know what it means to prepare to be successful.”

CBD: Cannabis

derivative may ease pain, prevent seizures

Continued from pg. 17

anyone on any pain meds that we know of long-term.” Petrucci said CBD does show promise, but more studies need to happen before it is allowed. However, he did point to one study that showed a lot of positive for CBD use. “I read a really good study kind of grouped it in with the CBD category. A few years ago, that had to do with concussions specifically” he said. “It was actually Marijuana because it had the THC component added to it but

they actually saw some neurological regeneration with that part of it. It did not have it without the THC which is what we call the CBD. I think there is a lot of room there, but there are just not enough studies to really validate that.” Petrucci said he would not recommend CBD to athletes because he needs more conclusive evidence to justify it being useful. “Everything I do is evidence based so I read studies and not just read a study there is a difference between a good and a bad study”, Petrucci said. “Would I recommend CBD to someone? No, you know people come to me, looking at me for medical advice because of what I do and not knowing all of the benefits, long term, as well as short term of what CBD can or cannot do is not prudent or,

CARBERRY l 100-59-3 record as head coach of Monte Vista High School

Seven conference championships, three CIF championship appearances and two championship wins

Monte Vista Hall of Famer

Seven conference championships at Southwestern College

ethical for me to just go and say ‘well it sounds good, go ahead and try this’.”. Petrucci said the training staff has contemplated participating in a study on CBD use with Southwestern College athletes. “A company based out of Colorado, reached out to us wanting to do a study specifically with concussions and inflammation in the brain with the use of CBD,” he said. “The first part of it would have mouth pieces that can measure the amount of an impact a hit would be. The second part of the study would be we’d have some kids that take the oil every single day, and then the other kids that did not. Ones that did take it, we would hopefully be able to get some good measurements of it, it is a study, we do not know how that would unfold either.”

MEN’S SOCCER

OFFENSE POWERS UP WITH NEW 3-5-2 SYSTEM By Ryan Calderon Staff Writer

Soccer may be a beautiful game, but the Jaguars have sifted through some downright ugly patches on the pitches. Growing pains abound as players adjust to a new system coaches predict will help the team to new goals. A pre-season pick to finish second in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference, SC has stumbled to a 6-13-3 record. Assistant coach Metin Meral pointed to inexperience. “Players need to understand that college is a different level of the sport,” he said. “Most of them are just coming out of high school and they are still adjusting to the new environment.” Head coach Cem CEM Tont said on top of TONT adjusting to the college level, the team is learning to a new formation. “We are changing up the system,” Tont said. “We want to play 90 minutes of focused soccer. We are trying to get consistent performances.” The Jags are employing a new 3-5-2 system to generate more of an attack, as opposed to the 4-4-2 they used previously. Sophomore defender Soya Simura said the 3-5-2 will create more scoring opportunities. “Last year we were more defensive and used four defenders,” he said. “This year we have moved one man up to midfield and sometimes we move him forward to be more offensive.” With a young team and only six returners, Simura said the team is inexperienced, but has more talent. “This season we are way better than last year,” he said. “Having new people coming in is always a good thing for me. It is a new opportunity for me this year, new friends and new good players.” Sophomore defender Andres Corona said the 2019 team has a strong work ethic. “Last year’s team was not as hardworking as this one,” he said. “We want to win more this year. It has been a rough season so far, but we have been picking up little by little. We should be able to take league next year with the team we have.” Injuries have caused the team to continuously readjust its approach, Tont said, hurting its chemistry. “We are successful with this system, but injuries are making it tougher,” he said. “We are playing with many different formations this season, but getting mixed results with all the injuries.” Tont’s new system fits a number of players, Meral said, but adjustments remain. “A couple of them are working well,” he said, “but we are still working on perfecting the formations as a team.” Even so, Meral said he has faith the Jaguars will be competitive. “We have confidence in these players,” he said. “They understand all the requirements for their positions and the new formations. The players knew what we were trying to achieve on the field and the wins came from them.” Tont pointed to mental mistakes as a hinderance. “In every loss, we were okay playing-wise, but giving up scores is what is getting to us,” he said. “We play good football and get possessions, but statistics will not always lead to wins.” Southwestern College was 4-6-2 in conference matches, but made progress over the season, said Meral. Corona said 2020 is going to be the year the Jags make a run at the PCAC crown. Beautiful 2020 foresight.

A study done by Harvard University showed signs that CBD has a variety of health benefits. “In numerous studies, CBD was able to reduce the number of seizures, and in some cases, it was able to stop them altogether.” It has also been proven to help people with mental health issues as well. “CBD is commonly used to address anxiety, and for patients who suffer through the misery of insomnia, studies suggest that CBD may help with both falling asleep and staying asleep,” they concluded. CBD may offer an option for treating different types of chronic pain. CBD applied on the skin could help lower pain and inflammation due to arthritis.” CBD’s calming properties can help

athletes calm down after a stressful or physical game, so that they sleep painfree. Similarly, CBD can help athletes cope with the pressures of competition, with its ability to help alleviate anxiety and stress. It can as well help the athletes recover from pain that they have in their bodies. Athletes have remarked how CBD use has improved their lives, rather than taking opioid based medication. Before CBD, many athletes took Pills which cause them to become addicted, and leave long lasting ill-effects on their bodies. With CBD becoming popular for athletes to use, many stated that it has changed their lives for the better and want to see CBD become legalized in all of the states, and becoming widely accepted in professional sports.

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Nov. 21, 2019 – Volume 63, Issue 2

The Southwestern College Sun

ENDANGERED SPECIES UNDER ASSAULT Bikes, builders, pollution crush local wildlife and plants By Marty Loftin, Production Manager

an Diego Zoo’s two resident giant pandas Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu were returned to China, leaving the zoo panda-less for the first time

in 20 years as a result of President Donald Trump’s trade war. Giant pandas have become a symbol of endangered species, but through conservation efforts their population has increased to 1,800. It is possible to bring back endangered species from the brink, it just requires people to care enough to try. In the San Diego region there are plenty of endangered species that do not get enough love as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) mascot, but protecting them is of great ecological importance. please see Species pg. 14

MOUNTAIN LION

Human development has fractured the habitat of these roaming apex mammals.

RIDGEWAYS’ RAIL

Pollution forced rail birds out of their environment, and left them vulnerable and preyed upon.

QUINO CHECKERSPOT BUTTERFLY Rare butterfly’s habitat trampled by human recreationists.

SAN DIEO BARREL CACTUS

Rare plants among those crushed by mountain bikes.

FAIRY SHRIMP These tiny invertebrates are an essential food source, but are threatened by construction over their vernal pool habitat.

UNAUTHORIZED TRAILS Mountain bikers have broken fences to carve new trails down protected hillsides.

�� Yaritza Cuevas and Claudia Duran/Staff