Professor Gail Stockin and a number of her colleagues are not calling anyone liars at this point, but they insist college administrators are using faulty numbers to make decisions about programs to eliminate. Administrators say otherwise, claiming their data is not wrong.
Vice President of Human Resources Dr. Albert Roman said the criteria was created to identify programs the district could look to potential personnel reductions.
“The criteria was quantitative in nature in that we had a scoring for various aspects of programs,” said Roman. “But what I also mentioned at the board meeting was that there was going to be a qualitative aspect to it and that means there might be programs that do not score well quantitatively, but they have a lot of value to students.”
Stockin, professor of business management, said data from the district shows completion rates being low in programs such as accounting, nursing, web design, administration of justice and ESL.
Vice President of Academic Affairs Kathy Tyner said she and Stockin have had a number of meetings during the last few months about completion rates in several programs. Stockin was told her program might be cut because the district’s measuring criteria show it has a low number of “successful” students. She said the college was only counting students who earned certificates as successful. Stockin said they are many students who successfully pass all the courses with C grades or higher who do not apply for certificates, which is their choice. That does not mean they have not been successful, she said.
Stockin decided to take matters into her own hands by collecting data of the students who had completed the courses with at least a C or above. Her conclusion is that the program is effective and serves students well.
SWC has used a software program called Datatel to determine success rates. Stockin said Datatel should be replaced or updated so counting problems do not continue happening.
Professors Kathleen Lopez, Maria E. Martinez and Tom Luibel have joined up with Stockin in their efforts to demonstrate that their programs are generating successful students. Numbers the professors had generated are inconsistent with Datatel figures. When they first presented their data in a meeting with administrators, the professors were told their findings were wrong. Undeterred, they insist their data is correct because they have been counting their students personally.
“What we were showing was (perhaps a) small portion that was queried was correct, but what we’re showing is there’s a huge chunk that is missing,” said Stockin.
Stockin expressed great concern about conflicting data because it seems to show that the college is underperforming. There could be a number of consequences if accreditors see it, she said, such as a reduction in state funding.
SWC offers more than 250 programs, far more than most community colleges. Every year faculty reviews programs offered at SWC for accreditation purposes.
Tyner said academic program review dictates that programs should be reviewed every five years. Programs judged as unsuccessful are reviewed by the district and the Academic Senate. There is a five-step process for removal of programs spelled out in the Program and Course Approval Handbook.
“Now, I can tell you that the data that I provided and that (Stockin) is referring to is essentially the best data we have,” said Tyner. “In other words, essentially it is looking at student records.”
Tyner said she and Stockin have different data because they obtained it different ways. She also said she understands professors’ concerns about some students not being counted. She agreed that the problem arises from students not applying for certificates, as the state encourages.
Degree Audit, a new enrollment management program, is scheduled to go online at SWC in 2014. Tyner said she is hopeful it will solve the problem of students being counted only for receiving certificates rather than taking and completing courses.

HOMETOWN HERO – J. Michael Stracynski signs copies of  ”Ten Grand” at Yesteryear Comics in Clairemont Mesa. 
Nickolas Furr/Staff

J. Michael Straczynski is a man of many firsts. Back when the Internet was unknown to everyone except a tiny number of techies, geeks, wealthy dilettantes and nerds, he was the first showrunner (Hollywood-speak for a television show’s executive producer who handles day-to-day operations) to go online and interact with fans.

He was the first – and will likely ever be the only — scriptwriter to write 92 out of 110 episodes of a show, his brilliant creation “Babylon 5.” B5 was the first television show meant to run a certain number of seasons, five, with a definite beginning, middle, and end, and included dynamic storylines the characters and multiple, overlapping story arcs. Long form television writing is now common thanks to Straczynski.  He did it first.

He is probably the first journalist to cross over into a successful television career, likely the first journalist and television writer to cross over into mainstream comic book writing, and absolutely the first television and comic-writing journalist ever to become a major Hollywood screenwriter.

Other “firsts” include developing his own comic book line (Joe’s Comics), his own multimedia studio (Studio JMS), directing his first movie and creating an original series for Netflix.

The word “first” applies to Straczynski in many ways, including as a fiery, intelligent defender of the First Amendment.

From 2009 to 2010, students, faculty members, Sun journalists, and concerned citizens fought with a corrupt Southwestern College administration and governing board to keep the First Amendment Freedoms of Speech, Assembly, and the Press alive on the campus. In 2010, when the administration attempted to strangle the newspaper by tying its purse strings around its throat, Straczynski responded by undermining the administration the best way possible – financially.

It was definitely the first time that had happened.

And now, for the first time, an unbridled, warp speed first person Q&A interview with the 2013 Southwestern College Honorary Degree recipient:

First Amendment Warrior

In September 2010 Straczynski personally funded an issue of The Sun after former superintendent Raj Chopra and his vice presidents attempted to block publication. The issue broke the story of construction contract corruption involving college board members and administrators.

Sun: In the fall of 2010, the Chopra administration dug up a never-used print bidding policy to force the Southwestern College Sun to prevent printing a controversial issue. You stepped in and paid for the entire issue. Why did you feel this was necessary?

J. Michael Straczynski: I hate tyranny and I hate bureaucracy, and when I found out what was going on and the way an obscure rule was being used to suppress the truth and repress the rights of the students to publish and hear the truth…well, no way was I going to let that stand. I think we are defined as people as much by what we won’t allow as what we do, and when it comes to a subject like this, I draw a hard line in the sand. If the only way to ensure that the truth got out there, and the issue came out, was for me to pony up the cash for that to happen, then so be it. What’s life if you don’t stand up for something from time to time?

Sun: How did you find out about the Sun situation in 2010?

JMS: Because it was known that I’d graduated from SWC, I heard about it from a number of folks at Southwestern, from folks at The Sun, some fellow graduates, staffers in the library. They felt that something had to be done, so something got done. That this was, in some ways, the first pebble falling downhill that later resulted in indictments, and further exposes about corruption, is icing on the cake.

Sun: Given that you are famous for your belief in, and support of, the First Amendment, how strongly did you feel about it?

JMS: I think it’s important in every circumstance to confront bureaucratic stupidity, cupidity, deceitfulness, malice, intimidation and manipulation – especially when it’s being done deliberately to either repress the truth or otherwise stomp on First Amendment freedom of the press. I don’t believe in a sliding scale. You fight all of it. Otherwise you have to start reconciling yourself with the idea that some evil is okay if it’s small evil. No. You have to make sure that not one of those snakes gets past you or they’ll multiply and grow and eat you when you’re not looking. In this case, the abuse was so obvious, so offensive in its deliberateness, that it practically demanded response.

Sun: Are you glad you got involved?

JMS: Hell yes!
Sun: You are being given an honorary associates’ degree this year. How long did it take you to decide to come down and accept it?

JMS: Ten seconds, nine of which were taken up by typing “Yup, I’m honored and will happily attend.”

Growing Up and Attending College

Sun: What part of your life was spent in Chula Vista and the South Bay? I know you moved here when younger and I believe you graduated from high school here, but how long did you live here?

Straczynski

JMS: That’s a more complicated question than it might appear at first blush. My father had a unique economic philosophy: blow into town, run up a lot of bills, then split. So we moved 21 times in my first 17 years, averaging about six months in any one place. We moved from Inglewood to Chula Vista in the fall of 1971, so I put in some time in the fall semester at Chula Vista High School, then graduated in 1972. It was at CVHS that I had my first articles published, including one from JoAnn Massie’s creative writing class, Under the Sun. She and Rochelle Terry got me to write small parody plays that we’d perform from class to class, which culminated in writing a play for a general assembly that was performed before the whole school and started the Smile Day tradition. It was that experience that really confirmed for me that I wanted to be a writer.

We then moved to Kankakee, Illinois for one year, followed by Richardson, Texas, for one semester. During this time I kept lobbying and hoping for a return to Chula Vista. I considered myself fortunate that we returned in February 1974 and immediately enrolled at Southwestern.

I lived in Chula Vista until about 1977 when I moved to El Cajon, so if you add it all up it was nearly five years. I lived in San Diego from 1977-81, picking up two B.A. Degrees from San Diego State University, one in Psychology, the other in Sociology, and a bunch of writing credits along the way.

Sun: Your description of your father’s economic philosophy seems quite negative. Did you have a strained relationship?

JMS: Strained is putting it mildly. My father was probably the most intrinsically evil person I’ve ever known: a drunk, a philanderer, a wife-beater, a cheat, a thief, a racist and a generally violent man. I broke off all contact with him in 1986, and never spoke to him between then and the day he died.

Sun: Why did you decide to attend Southwestern College — reputation, price, location, or something else?

JMS: The choice was based on necessity and comfort. Because we never had any money, I basically put myself through college through a combination of published articles, part-time jobs, student loans and grants. So on the one hand, Southwestern was all I could afford. But on the other hand, I genuinely liked SWC. I liked the campus, the somewhat laid-back attitude, the friendliness of the staff and the opportunities it provided. It didn’t hurt that some of the folks I knew from CVHS were also attending SWC. So even if I’d been able to afford SDSU, I would’ve preferred Southwestern.

Two interesting asides to that point: one of my part-time jobs while attending SWC was at the CVHS library, where I worked part-time as a combination bouncer, book-filer and shusher. So if anyone using the library back then remembers being a bit loud and getting shushed by a 6’3″ geek weighing in at 140 pounds – that was me.

Also, many Chula Vistans who were around during the mid-late 1970s will remember that there was a somewhat cultish group operating out of the First Baptist Church called the House of Abba, which was part of the Jesus Movement of the period. They owned and operated a bunch of communes around Chula Vista housing anywhere from 10-15 people who lived together. I was part of that group, and lived in a communal household on Mitscher Street during a good chunk of my time at SWC.

Sun: Can you describe the kinds of courses you took here, your major? Any interest in journalism, perhaps?

JMS: I felt that the best use of my time at Southwestern was to take care of as many of my general education requirements as possible before transferring to SDSU, so I didn’t really have a major. My AA from SWC is in Interdisciplinary Studies. At the time, I was more interested in fiction and stage work than journalism, so I tended to take lots of creative writing classes and some theater classes.

It was during this time that I met Bill Virchis, who saw something of value in my work and quickly began giving me a regular venue on campus for my one-act plays. They proved very popular, and he assigned me to write a take on Snow White that ran in summer stock at SWC’s main stage in 1975.

I went on to continue writing plays, some of which were performed at SDSU while another ran for a while at the Marquis Public Theater. I was sure that I was going to be a playwright, and the Chula Vista Star-News ran the very first article anyone ever written about me, June 17, 1977, announcing rather foolishly that I was on track to become the next Mel Brooks.

So throughout that entire period, from the day I returned to the South Bay and for the next four years, Southwestern and Chula Vista were not just recurring themes, they were absolutely essential to my becoming the writer that I am today.

Sun: At SDSU, you were known for writing anything there was to write. In fact the Daily Aztec became colloquially known as the “Daily Joe.” How did you develop such a drive to write in so many different fields?

JMS: I believed, even then, that if you’re going to be a good writer, you should write everything. You need to be willing to experiment, try new things, and if necessary fail gloriously, pick yourself up off the cement, and try again. I knew that as a student, I could fail and learn and try things without the pressure of doing so in the outside world. College is where you can experiment to your heart’s content and not get killed. So I did as much of that as I could in order to then walk out into the world of real-life publishing with all the tools I would need to claw my way into the business.
Early Work in Television

Sun: Given that you seemed to know you wanted to be a writer, initially what did you want to do? And can you tell us how you crossed over from prolific college graduate to television?

JMS: The dream was always there, practically from the moment I was born, but the specific form of that dream morphed with time. Initially I thought I’d make my living writing novels and short stories and plays. But it took a long time to sell any of my fiction. At best most of the very few markets around paid a hundred bucks or less for short stories, so the idea of making a living at it seemed pretty remote. So I focused on writing articles for magazines and newspapers. I appeared regularly in The Daily Californian, the San Diego Reader, and the San Diego bureau of the Los Angeles Times. I did a year or so as an on-air reviewer for KSDO. I got to burn through a lot of words in a short amount of time, which is crucial for a writer because the only way to get good at it is to do a lot of it.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I continued that by working for the Herald Examiner, Writer’s Digest and other magazines, and finally ending up at Time, Inc. It was at this point around 1984 that I made the decision to try and flip to television. I wandered in the wilderness with no income for over a year before I finally scored a spec sale with [the animated program] “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.” I sold three or four freelance scripts and they were good enough that they hired me on staff…and I was on staff on one show or another pretty much nonstop until 2003.

Sun: You somewhat-famously took over “Murder, She Wrote” several seasons in and took it in a vastly different direction — adding a real career for Jessica Fletcher, real deadlines, and real authorial hassles. What sort of reaction did you get for doing this, and how much did it appeal to you to take a long-standing (possibly staid) concept and turn it on its head?

In 1991, Straczynski was made a producer on the mystery series “Murder She Wrote.”

JMS: To say that I “took over” “Murder, She Wrote” is overstating the situation by several orders of magnitude. David Moessiner, for whom I’d worked on “Jake and the Fatman,” was hired as executive producer and showrunner, and he brought me on to work with him. It was David’s idea to move her to New York, and to support that I came up with the notion of making her a teacher and digging in more to the writer’s life – which Angela Lansbury loved. In the past, there was very little about Jessica Fletcher’s life that showed her as a working writer. Because I’d been in the prose arena quite a bit by then, fiction and nonfiction, I could apply those aspects to her character in ways that felt real. The audience responded to it in a big way, the show jumped substantially in the ratings, and stayed there while we were working on the show.
Sun: Of your early TV work, what are you the proudest of?

JMS: “The Twilight Zone.” Not even close. You can write the best “Jake and the Fatman” script in the world, but in the end, it’s a “Jake and the Freaking Fatman” script. It’s like taking ten years to teach a pig to sing. In the end, even if you pull it off, all you have to show for your efforts is a singin’ pig. When I worked on “The Twilight Zone,” I was able to tell the stories I wanted to tell in the ways I wanted to tell them. For the first time, I could write about battered wives, and loneliness, and loss, and the lure of the past and the fear of the future and the reawakening of love and all the things that matter to me on a personal basis. That’s desperately important because at the end of the day I’m a storyteller. That’s not just what I do. It’s who I am at a cellular, possibly genetic level.

Sun: You are regarded as the first showrunner ever to go online and communicate with fans, on GEnie and CompuServe, I believe – up to the point of taking some of their questions, comments, and worries to heart. Given that, it had never been done before, what was the impetus for reaching out into that completely unknown atmosphere of communication, the internet?

JMS: Part of it stems from being a stubborn pain in the ass who doesn’t like to change his habits just because suddenly he’s a Known Entity. I’d been online – as much as anything pre-1994 counts as being online and logging on from a 28.8 modem – since the late 80s. I enjoyed the discussion boards and sites like GEnie and CompuServe, and saw no reason to reason to change that. Yes, suddenly I found myself deluged with questions, but that eventually became another part of the reason for staying online.

I believed, and still believe, that unless people understand how television is made, why things are done and why certain decisions are made, they can never bring the necessary influence to bear that will let them get the shows they want instead of the shows they are given. So I set out to create a document, tens of thousands of messages long, documenting the day-to-day production of a TV series from end to end. That document is still out there, being used by academics and fans and others curious to see a real-time log, or a blog as it’d be called now, about the making of a TV series.

But yeah, at the time, everybody else in The Business thought I was insane to put myself out there in the very Wild West that was the internet then, heavily populated by trolls and psychopaths. Or as one showrunner said, “those people are crazy-mean.” Some were, sure, but the majority weren’t, and those were the ones I stuck around to chat with. Now everybody does it.

Creator of Babylon 5

Sun: When did you start coming up with the idea of “Babylon 5,” and how did you work to start moving toward it?

Popular characters (l-r) Londo Mollari, Captain John Sheridan and Ambassador G’Kar from Straczynski’s “Babylon 5.”

JMS: I’d been playing with ideas for what I thought initially were two different series: a big, expensive, galaxy-spanning saga with empires rising and falling in the course of an interstellar war, and a smaller, more confined story about a group of people living on a deep-range space station. Then one day I realized that they were the same story, with the big events of the saga writ small on the lives of those living on the station. When I had that flash of understanding, I was suddenly able to see the whole five-year arc of the story, with a beginning, middle and pre-set ending, which was something that no one else in American television had ever attempted. Now, of course, with shows like “Lost” and “Battlestar Galactica,” multi-year arcs are the norm, but we were the first.

Sun: Was the five-year plan part of the development of “Babylon 5,” or did you realize that’s what you were going to do a little further down the line?

JMS: No, the five-year arc was there literally from the moment the story crystallized in my head. I saw the whole thing in one massive flash, a moment of perfect clarity, then spent the next several years extracting those threads and putting them into story form. Kind of a Big Bang that spread outward in every direction.

Sun: I believe “Babylon 5″ was first aired via the Prime Time Entertainment Network [a venture affiliated with Warner Bros. and other independent television stations]. Did you find it easy to work with them?

JMS: It was a mixed bag. On the one hand, because we weren’t an in-house Warner Bros. show, we tended to get short shrift on just about everything, from publicity to budgets. On the other hand, that benign neglect let us do pretty much anything we wanted to do, allowing us to tell stories that no other network in its right mind would ever have allowed on the air.

Sun: Why did you put yourself through the grinder of writing so many episodes of “Babylon 5?” There is probably no other human being in history that can claim that much writing in that little amount of time.

JMS: We were shooting 22-episode seasons, and I’d written roughly half of Season One and half of Season Two, when I realized how tight the arc was getting, and consequently how difficult it was becoming to assign stories to freelancers. It became consistently harder to figure out where one episode was going to end and the next begin. The stories began to flow together. So in Season Three I decided to write them all myself. It just seemed simpler than trying to explain it. It worked out well. Warners was happy, so they asked me to do it again. And then again for Season Five. Though year five did have one freelance script from Neil Gaiman.

In the end, I singlehandedly wrote something like 92 out of the 110 episodes and all five of the TV movies. What I didn’t know at the time was that this had never been done before, and there was a very good reason it had never been done – because it was impossible…especially if you’re functioning as the day-to-day showrunner handling physical production.

Happily, no one told me it was impossible before I started doing it, so I was able to pull it off.

Sun: How were you able to create such vivid, disparate, and often alien characters – like Centuari Ambassador Londo Mollari, Narn Ambassador G’Kar, Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova, Captain John Sheridan, and Minbari Ambassador Delenn – and frankly, everyone else?

JMS: Writers write from what they know and have experienced and believe. We cloak it in other characters, and sometimes borrow a bit from one source or friend or another, but at the end of the day, it’s us. B5 was no different. All of the characters are pieces of me. Sheridan is who I had to be to make this show, Ivanova was the dour Russian in me that is sure we’re all going to die. I like to think that I’m a lot like G’Kar and Delenn, but I suspect I’m probably closer to Londo. It’s all visceral material given form. They’re all still alive in my head, and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t get at least one of them whispering to me about one thing or another. It makes me crazy some days, but on other days it’s nice to hear from old friends.

Sun: There’s a sense of humor running from beginning to end in all B5 properties. Did you feel this was something missing from the science fiction of the time?

JMS: Absolutely. There’s this weird thing that happens when someone puts on a wardrobe piece that belongs to a science fiction series. They get all serious, as if thinking that if they don’t take it really seriously nobody else will. At that time in particular there was a definite lack of levity in shows like “Star Trek,” where you had to treat the characters with white gloves, as though you were afraid of breaking them. Me, I’m a goofball, and consequently my characters were, at times, goofy. Unlikely, improbable things make me laugh, and pound for pound, where are you going to find more unlikely things than in a science fiction series?

Sun: Did B5 accomplish what you wanted it to do?

JMS: We wanted to change the way storytelling in television was done – very episodic, pushing the reset button at the end of every episode. We did this by introducing the five-year arc. We wanted to change how science fiction was done by showing flawed characters and creating a massive space-opera saga. We did that. I could go on, but yeah: everything we set out to do, we did.

Sun: If I’m not mistaken, Warner Bros. owns the television rights to “Babylon 5.” What sort of relationship do you have with them, and is there ever going to be a time when B5 will be available on Netflix, or in its entirety on Hulu — or somewhere else? Studio JMS TV, perhaps?

JMS: Warners has never really understood “Babylon 5.” We’ve always been their little-favored stepchild, complicated further by the fact that the folks running regular network TV programming were kind of shut out from what PTEN was doing, leading to resentment toward the show. Consequently there’s never been any real desire to keep the show on the air in the US, though it continues to do very well overseas. As to the future: the problem is that WB owns the TV rights and I own the film rights. One can’t be done without the other, so maybe one day we’ll find some way to make this work.

On Superheroes and Careers

Straczynski has written numerous ground-breaking comic books for more than 30 years including a six-year run on “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

Sun: You moved into comic books and earned yourself a stellar reputation in the field. I know people who’ve never heard of “Babylon 5,” but consider you to be one of the greatest comic book writers in the past couple decades. What led you to doing this, and taking on new careers?

JMS: I’m a geek and a fan, and as a writer I do the stuff I like to do and don’t do the stuff I don’t like to do. I like comics. I read comics. Hence, I write comics. I learned to read from comics, learned my sense of morality and ethics from comics, so it’s great that I have a chance to give back to the next bunch of dreamers coming over the hill.

To the question of personal identification, it’s kind of a funny situation, because I’ve had four completely separate, whole careers. I had this whole career as a journalist, publishing over 500 articles, landing at Time, Inc., which would be enough on its own. Then I had this other whole career in TV, writing over 300 produced episodes and having my own shows, winning two Hugo awards and Emmy awards, which would be enough on its own. Then there’s the movie career, working on five movies that have earned nearly a billion dollars worldwide and netted me a British Academy Award nomination, and that would be enough on its own. Now there’s the comics work, writing over 300 books, having my own line, picking up Eisner and Inkpot awards, and you’d think that would be plenty. But here I am at 58, still going, writing as fast as I can to keep up with the dreams, still looking for the next horizon to explore, the next mountain to climb.

And that, all of that, comes down to just three words: follow your passions. The stuff I cared about as a kid, the things that excites me, are the things that I pursue and write about and fight for. I’ve been fortunate enough to make a career at it.

Sun: In that vein…what sort of advice would you give to young writers?

JMS: Write what you care about. Nothing else is worth the time, the sweat, the blood, or the energy.

Sun: Are there any particular Marvel or DC characters that you particularly enjoyed writing – given your penchant for creating well-rounded, vivid characters?

JMS: For Marvel, it was Spider-Man in first position, with Thor coming up fast behind. I really got to dig into those characters and show colors that they hadn’t much shown before. For DC, it’s Superman, hands down. Coming from a position of being a huge Superman fan, to have the chance to reinvent that character for a new generation…there are no words how stunning that is for a guy like me.

Sun: You worked with Marvel Comics for years, but also created your own comics – “Midnight Nation” and “Rising Stars.” Granted, there are many more people to answer to at Marvel, but how would you compare these two different companies?

JMS: My assessment of Marvel is less than valid because I’ve been outside of that world since Joe Quesada moved on to fish in broader waters, so any comparison I’d make would be equally flawed.

The Silver Screen and Points Beyond

Straczynski has written numerous successful screenplays, including “Thor,” which grossed more than $400 million.

Sun: How did you get involved with the “Changeling” script?

JMS: I’d heard about the story years before while working as a reporter. When I decided to flip from TV to movies, I revisited that story and spent a very long time researching it until I felt I was ready to write it. There were no secondary references, so I had to go down to City Hall and the County Library archives, and the LAPD archives, to dig out the material. I wrote the draft on my own time and my own dime, gave it to my agent without a heads-up, and within days he’d sold it to Ron Howard. They brought on Clint Eastwood to direct, and Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich to star, and before I could digest that this was actually real, they were shooting the thing.

Sun: Screenwriters are notoriously ignored on movie sets. What sort of reception did you get?

JMS: Clint was profoundly welcoming and always made a place for me on the set. Sadly, the Writers Guild strike that happened a couple of weeks into filming made it impossible to be on set for most of it, but I was there for the start and the end, and it was a great experience.

Sun: Do you have any comments on your early scripts for “Thor” or “World War Z”?

JMS: “Thor” was fun to work on because the thing really had to focus in on that sibling rivalry. Everything else would work if you bought that aspect, and that was something I emphasized a lot early on.

In terms of “World War Z,” I was the first writer brought in to figure out how to turn [Max Brooks’] book of interviews into a narrative story, and finally cracked it. The thing got changed a lot later on, but I get screen story credit, so I’m a happy guy.

Sun: You recently announced the creation of Studio JMS. Can you describe it for people unfamiliar with it?

JMS: The thing about being a writer in Hollywood is that in many cases you’re a hired gun working for other people. You don’t actually own much, or any of what you’re touching. Having gone as far as I could as a producer and writer, the next logical step was to create a situation where I could own what I wrote.

“Ten Grand” is Straczynski’s newest comic creation. It sold out in its first week and immediately went into second printing

Now, there are any number of writers who have a bigger footprint than me in comics or TV or film, but nobody has the same footprint that I do in all three. So we launched Studio JMS to create TV shows, produce movies, and publish comics. And in less than a year we’ve had a ridiculous amount of success. We have a ten-episode order for a new series called “Sense8” for Netflix, which I’m doing with the Wachowskis of “The Matrix” fame. I’ll be directing our first film in Berlin very soon. And our in-house line of comics, Joe’s Comics, debuted last week with “Ten Grand” #1, which has rocketed in sales, logging in nearly 68,000 pre-orders, great reviews, and has just gone back for a second printing. Again, everything we set out to do, we did, and this is just the beginning.

Sun: What’s coming next?

JMS: Issue Two of “Ten Grand” hits stores the first week of June. We’ll keep going with that for as long as we feel we can tell good stories, then we’re done. Our second title, “Sidekick” – about a sidekick whose mentor/hero partner is killed, and then begins a long slow descent into madness – will debut at San Diego Comic Con in July. In my copious free time I’m writing a movie based on Valiant Comics’ Shadowman character, working on a screenplay for Will Smith, doing another film project for Disney, an online graphic novel for MTV.com, and the next “Superman: Earth One” graphic novel.

Coming into my middle 50s, I thought I’d begin to slow down a bit, but I’m busier now than at any time in my life, and it’s great. Yeah, there’s a lot to get done, but it’s all good work, and I’m enjoying it immensely. So I expect I’ll be pounding away at the keyboard until the game is finally called on account of darkness…and maybe beyond. We’ll see….

LIVING HISTORY— Chicano Park’s newly-restored murals are brighter and bolder than ever before say artists and afficionados from around the world. Painted on the pillars of the Coronado Bridge, the murals form the largest and most visited outdoor collection in the United States. Former SWC Professor of Art Michael Schnorr painted three of the murals, including the iconic “The Undocumented Worker.” Chicano Park is now an official California Register of Historical Resources site.
Photo by Serina Duarte

Michael Schnorr may be gone, but his trio of iconic Chicano Park murals live on. In fact, thanks to an ambitious cleaning and restoration project, his towering masterpieces under the Coronado Bridge are brighter and more beautiful than ever.

Schnorr ended his life in a tragic jump from the same Coronado Bridge last summer. His suicide shocked and saddened human rights activists and artists around the world. The brilliant and enigmatic professor of arts had recently retired and had told friends he was looking forward to working on the restoration of his world-famous murals.
Todd Stands, an SWC adjunct photography instructor and accomplished artist, helped restore the murals and chronicled the process with his camera.

“I saw how old and new artists came together to restore the murals and decided to document the project,” he said.

Another original artist that returned to assist with the restorations was Armando Nuñez.

“The 1970s was a time of social change and I could feel the magic in the air while working on the project,” he said.

Plans to restore Chicano Park murals have been brewing for more than a decade. Restoration started a year and a half ago. A grant of approximately $1.6 million provided the restoration group enough for almost every aspect of restoring Chicano Park. Hundreds of artists came to take part in the community action.

Stands photographed the entire 18-month restoration, often climbing three-story high scaffolding to get the right position. He also helped to retouch Schnorr’s murals “Undocumented Workers,” “To the Stars Breaking Down Walls” and “Thoughts of Change.”

SWC students and alumni pitched in.

“Helping restore the park was such an amazing experience,” said Montserrat Granados, 24, an art major.

Students worked on “Undocumented Workers,” inspired by one of Schnorr’s trips to Afghanistan. He related the immigrant issues of Central Asia and the Middle East to those of the U.S.-Mexico border.

All of the artwork is very symbolic and most paintings have an explanation at their feet. Each composition is meant to express a universal message, said Stands.

“Schnorr was always videotaping and documenting,” he said. “He had tons of footage, most of which is unedited.”

Immigration was the subject of much of Schnorr’s work.  His creations include a miles-long Dia de Los Muertos display on the Mexican side of the border fence and “portable” representations of graveyards of migrants who died crossing the border.

Stands said he did not alter designs out of respect for Schnorr. He said he enjoyed the process and the people.

“The artists were full of life and so much fun just to hang out with,” he said. “A genuine good time.”

Stands said many original artists who could not help restore the murals themselves came to watch or had family and friends assist, he said. Sometimes as many as 15 artists worked on a mural. During the project they decided to add important faces. Schnorr’s face is included a mural, as is the cheerful visage of legendary Chicano recording artist Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez of Los Alacranes.

“I would like to see young up-and-coming artists try to find their voice support and create more art on the empty walls,” said Stands. “Mexican descent is not a necessity. Schnorr was not Mexican. It is more about the message and issues that the people are trying to bring up.”

Nancy Curry, a Mexican-American Studies teacher at San Ysidro High School, said she was inspired by the experience.

“I love taking my students to see the amazing murals,” she said. “I am proud to say some of my former students went and helped with the restoration.”

Chicano Park mural restoration projects were honored with the Grand Orchid Award last fall at the annual Orchid and Onions Awards ceremony at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Arts.

By Ernesto Rivera and Mason Masis

Santa Claus is about to get visitors – unless they are eaten by polar bears and orcas.

Former professor of anthropology Jose “Pepé” Aguilar has spent the past 16 years preparing for an epic journey to the North Pole. He will be joined by SWC film student Carl Thiessen to document the adventure.

Aguilar is a veteran of the frigid north. He has made five trips into the Arctic Circle, alone and unsupported, using only a pair of skis and what he could carry. The added companions only increased the danger involved in the journey.

Thiessen said he approached Aguilar last year and asked to join the expedition with the intention of documenting the entire trip. Aguilar said he has been asked to take others before but always said no.

“I trust Carl with my life,” said Aguilar.

“We aren’t going with a huge group,” said Thiessen. “If one of us gets hurt we don’t have a helicopter. If we call in a rescue it’s gonna be a good $10,000.”

Thiessen is no stranger to the cold, he said. He has made numerous trips into the mountains of British Columbia where temperatures can plunge to polar levels.

Challenges abound, but the first is to raise $150,000 to support the two explorers. In addition to travel expenses, Aguilar’s team must purchase special jackets, astounding amounts of food to combat the caloric burn associated with Arctic travel and camera equipment. He said he has always run a small operation, paying for most of his trips with his own money or with donations from relatives. Thiessen said the duo has to have certain items for survival, but will not be extravagant.

“We are not working on a National Geographic budget,” he said.

Temperatures could reach minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill that will make it feel like 130 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, Aguilar said. At these temperatures the filmmakers will need to know special techniques such as when to remove lenses and how to acclimate cameras so condensation cannot destroy the internal structure. Even a photographer’s icy breath could badly damage cameras at Arctic temperatures.

Members of the expedition will also be dragging about 300 pounds of Arctic gear and food in sleds as they cross-country ski toward the North Pole. A delicate balance of weight and clothing must be maintained in order to keep from sweating, Thiessen said, because perspiration can ruin the gear and cause death by hypothermia. Aguilar said if the team members do not take enough food they will not be able to replenish the 7,000 to 10,000 calories burned daily in the Arctic.

“I remember a trip I took where the cold temperature re-broke ribs that had been broken and healed well before the trip. Pain killers will constipate you and I just had to push through it,” said Aguilar.

Dangerous wildlife in the Arctic is also a real problem. Aguilar will be armed with a shotgun to protect the team from polar bears which may see members as food. He said he had to abort a previous solo expedition because his bear alarm stopped working.

“It’s necessary because after skiing all day with all your gear you will not wake up until it is too late,” He said. “I have never encountered a polar bear on any of my expeditions, (but) orcas have been known to break through ice and take people.”

That last part was new information to his comrade he said with clear consternation.

Aguilar said the team plans two practice runs to Northern Canada before their assault on the North Pole. Explorers must travel in the dead of the Arctic winter when the ocean region that is the North Pole is frozen over. Practice runs will test how team members interact with each other in challenging conditions and if the filmmakers will be capable of dealing with the environment. Rehearsals are important because they test the team for the complete journey.

“If we all get an A we are good, if we don’t, we will need to rethink things,” said Aguilar.

“Annoyances will only be compounded in the Arctic.”

Intense training is necessary to bulk up for the journey, he said. Footage of Aguilar training on the beach with tires and weights to simulate the load he carries in the Arctic will be shown in the documentary. So will an Arctic right of passage.

“We are going to the Franklin Expedition grave site,” he said.

British knight Sir John Franklin and his entire team of 128 died on King William Island in 1845 on what is now the far north of Canada. It is considered one the great tragedies of modern exploration and was all the more gruesome when evidence of cannibalism surfaced. Searches for the Franklin party gripped British and American citizens for decades and evidence of ships, equipment and human remains were discovered over a period of 150 years.

Though the journey to the graves of this failed expedition can be done with a tour guide on snowmobiles, getting there on cross-country skis is a bucket list must for Arctic explorers. Danger and intrigue are fueling the team, Thiessen said.

It still won’t be easy, Aguilar said.

“Anguish is the name of the game.”

DOWN AND DIRTY- Renovation of the football stadium began with the removal of the main seating area and south bank. March 14, 2014 is the target completion date.
Photo by David McVicker

DeVore Stadium has been football-free since Aug. 1, 2012. Yellow hard hats have replaced golden helmets, steel-toe boots trod the surface instead of cleats, construction bosses are barking orders rather than coaches. Renovation of DeVore Stadium is the most visible and ambitious project in Phase 1 of Proposition R projects.

A 40,000 sq. ft. building will house faculty offices, a weight-lifting facility, locker rooms, an auditorium and four classrooms. Synthetic turf will be installed to replace the natural grass. These features are included in the central plant, field house and fields project, which amount to $49.5 million, more than half of the $90.2 million provided for Phase 1. The central plant alone will cost at least $35 million. Practice fields are included in the project, which means the renovation of DeVore Stadium, the field house and synthetic turf totaling approximately $14.5 million. Prop R is a $389 million project passed by voters in November 2008.

March 31, 2014 is the target completion date for the stadium. Terry Davis, dean of the school of health and athletics, said completion of football facilities will create a domino effect.

“When we’re finished, our (existing) area will be given to the math and science department,” he said. “And the School of Social Sciences, Business and Humanities will move to the Math, Science and Engineering area.”

Governing Board President Humberto Peraza said many current board members were not holding office when the original decisions about stadium renovations were made. He said improvements to academic facilities are a priority.

“I’m very excited about Math, Science and Engineering getting its own facilities over there (where the gym and P.E. buildings now exist),” said Peraza.

Head football coach Ed Carberry said he likes the idea of his players not having to run back-and-forth from class to class.

“The entire health department is gonna move there instead of being scattered all over campus,” he said.

Carberry said DeVore Stadium renovations will serve the entire district.

“We’re all gonna benefit,” said Carberry. “We’re supposed to be here, as a community college, for the community.”

Although the term “field house” is synonymous with sports, Davis said it will serve many purposes.

“Our facilities are used not only by students, not only by athletics, but by the community,” he said. “I always thought the field house to be an educational building sitting on a football field. All our facilities are used for exercise science, which is a transferable class to a four-year college. We get double the use by using it for athletics.”

Renovations were long overdue, according to Davis, since the athletics department was left out of the Prop AA bond more than 10 years ago.

“At some point you just have to build new,” he said. “And why not do it now when we have funds for it and it was approved?”

For some, it is a way of life—a religion. Teeter tottering between sobriety and indigestion, football Sunday–or simply referred to as Game Day–is church for the diehard, where homes become cathedrals and big-screen TVs are shrines of prayer.

When Joe Namath signed the first million-dollar contract the fuse was lit and professional football would explode and crumble baseball’s pedestal as America’s favorite pastime. But beyond the glory days of the National Football League are darker, more ominous times. A day may come when America’s gridiron guardian’s will stand by and watch while white war paint is stripped from the fields of our coliseums. Jerseys will be packed off to museums and helmets will go cold while pigskin picketers pray for mercy. The rapture is coming. The end of football is nigh.

Professional football’s sustainability has come into question. Popularity and cultural significance aside, health risks associated with the NFL have revealed serious integrity flaws deeply rooted in the core structure of this corporate giant. Concussion and brain related injuries have toppled the clumsy giant in its track.

More than 4,200 retired NFL players have filed a class action lawsuit against the league for deliberately concealing the dangers of head injuries. Although the league has attempted to dismiss some of the allegations and judges will decide the case, evidence of the health risks are well-documented. While the suit is still under litigation, findings in favor of the retired players would be catastrophic to the league as more veterans will pursue justice for the long-term damage done to their bodies and brains.

Parents around the country — even in states like Texas and Florida where peewee football is a right of passage for young boys — are beginning to say no.

Medical professionals and even former NFL players have publicly stated that football is too dangerous for young kids and should be banned in high school immediately.

A retired New Hampshire physician said the call to action to ban high school football is not drastic and predicted the end of football is inevitable.

“We have the moral imperative to at least begin the process to ending this game,” said Dr. Paul Butler to ABC News. “The literature is clear, this is a dangerous game for children to be playing.”

Banning high school football would surely seal the fate of the sport, as the production of players would come to an immediate halt, etching the final R.I.P. on the NFL’s tombstone. Football will go the way of gladiators, jousting and dueling – “sports” that withered as sophistication increased and tolerance for maiming other human beings decreased.

In recent years the NFL has reluctantly acknowledged the health risks and attempted to make the game safer for those risking their bodies. Fining players for dirty hits with the helmet, seeking equipment technology and launching a campaign to re-teach the fundamentals in the pigskin youth stages are steps the NFL is taking to create a safer environment.

Given the tragedies of Andre Waters, Junior Seau and others, the league has its back against the wall and unless a miracle occurs those diehard football fanatics will have to find another way spend Sundays

Cartoon by Joaquin Junco Jr.

Southwestern College is perpetrating a myth that its students are safe.

Recent events illustrate that is clearly not true.

Instead of joyfully strolling to class, chatting with friends and planning the day’s activities, some students are trapped in an endless cycle of crippling fear and intimidation. They battle harassment, mistreatment or stalking by others, disrupting their academic performance and quality of life. Some quit SWC out of fear, abandoned by the administrators who are supposed to protect them.

Unfortunately, when threatened SWC students turn to school officials for protection, they seldom get any. Worse, they often end up being hassled by the very school officials who are supposed to protect them. In case after case, the Office of Student Affairs does little about serious and possibly violent situations on this campus. A time bomb is ticking.

Federal and state laws require educational institutions receiving federal funding to adopt and implement policies and procedures concerning harassment, intimidation, stalking, assault and battery. A power of swift and fair justice is left in the hands of the administration. SWC’s plan is outlined in the Standards of Student Conduct Procedures and is available at the Office of Student Affairs. It spells out steps that school officials must take when presented with a grievance or complaint. Preliminary Action Procedures are identical throughout the process. A student may submit a grievance under specific circumstances. If the circumstance is a crime, then the responsibility falls on campus police.

Unfortunately, the current leadership of Student Affairs interprets these policies to mean that perpetrators of harassment and stalking have rights that supersede those of the victims. Often students who report crimes and threats find the tables turned on them while the perpetrators are given de facto carte blanche to continue their threatening behavior.

If Student Affairs administrators handle the procedure, expect all talk and no action. Steps one and two include an “informal consultation” between the student, the Dean of Student Affairs, and other parties involved. Step three is a completion of a “Report of Grievance.” Step four, another redundant conference with the student to attempt to resolve the issue. This weak, ill-conceived slog inevitably ends with a cliff-hanger – maybe a slap on the wrist and often not even that. Most often bragging by the bad guys about how no one at SWC can touch them.

Disciplinary Action Procedures are measures taken when student misconduct is exposed. A vague, indifferent attitude is evident throughout the steps. Repetitive, fruitless discussions with the misbehaving student are the only avenues of action, and if a charge is filed, sanctions are weak and ineffective.

Verbal warnings, written reprimands and disciplinary probation pale in comparison to the harsh penalty of immediate expulsion for students caught plagiarizing. Lift some Shakespeare, you’re outta here, threaten a teenage girl, let’s chat.

SWC’s Dean of Student Affairs was unwilling to meet with staff members of The Sun to discuss her office’s irresolute practices. It is easy to see why. The California Sex Equity in Education Act requires educational institutions to have written policy on sexual harassment and distribute it to students and faculty. This document is never distributed during the academic year. SWC adopted a new plan in January, allegedly separating student grievance procedures from grade disputes. This new proposal is shrouded in secrecy, hidden from students by apathetic school officials who concentrate their efforts on penalizing literary theft rather than tangible dangers.

Safety is a very serious matter. Threats reported to administrators need to be taken seriously. Murders, rapes and beatings on college campuses have terrified students from Virginia Tech to San Diego City College.

SWC needs to adopt and execute a fair but firm grievance policy to ensure the safety of its students and employees. Disciplinary actions must be swift, strong and fitting with serious offenses. A casual discussion and slap on the wrist are not enough to keep a harrowing delinquent at bay. Issues left unresolved after the initial meeting call for immediate charges and reprimands. Filing a formal report should be the first step that administrators take when presented with a complaint to ensure the accuracy of details and prevent recurrent offenses. Subsequent measures should include immediate suspension for repeat or severe transgressions, as well as follow-up consultations with the student to guarantee the effectiveness of the actions.

Student safety is a matter that requires the full attention and energy of the administration. One slip-up can mean the difference between life or death.

In a global e-mail sent this week titled “Letter to the Editor,” Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Angelica Suarez mistakenly wrote that there was a “correction to the editorial.” That is not a true statement. The Editorial Board of The Sun has not issued a correction to the editorial “SWC fails to safeguard vulnerable students.”  The Editorial Board unanimously stands by its position that the office of student affairs does not adequately protect vulnerable SWC students from students who have demonstrated proclivities toward threatening behavior and violence. Dr. Suarez’ letter was published May 15 on theswcsun.com and will run in the first fall 2013 issue of The Sun newspaper as an opportunity to express her opinion on the topic.  It is not, however, a “correction” or any admission of a mistake or factual error by the staff of The Sun.

The Editorial Board of the Southwestern College Sun.
Amanda L. Abad, Editor-in-Chief

Dear Editorial Board,

This letter is in response to your editorial published in the most recent publication of the SUN entitled “SWC fails to safeguard vulnerable students.”  As Vice President for Student Affairs, it is absolutely essential to set the record straight with the following correction to the editorial – Southwestern College, Student Affairs, and the College Police are strongly committed to the safety of all students, staff and faculty throughout the district and we have clear policies and procedures in place to assure that each student’s due process is carried out, that confidentiality of all parties is maintained, and that the appropriate response/action is taken.

Last semester, we further strengthened the procedures of student conduct and created a student grievance policy to include new federal and state requirements.  Procedure 5530 (Student Rights and Grievances), and Procedure 5500 (Standards of Student Conduct) are posted on our website (http://www.swccd.edu/index.aspx?page=417) and outline the student’s and institution’s responsibilities that govern student conduct, grievances and due process at the college.

As part of the procedures, students, faculty and staff are encouraged to come to the Office of Student Services to discuss student grievances or student misconduct with the dean.   However, we must protect student confidentiality as required by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); therefore, we are not allowed to discuss the outcome of such conversations with college staff.  Hence, this may create the erroneous perception that action has not been taken.

Please rest assured that staff takes student grievances and staff reports of student misconduct seriously, and works closely with our college police department, College Safety Committee and the Crises Response Committee to balance student rights with institutional responsibility in order to maintain a safe working and learning environment for students and college employees.

Thank you for helping us ensure that students know they can continue to report any incident that impacts their safety and ability to successfully learn at Southwestern College.

Angelica L. Suarez, Ph.D. | Vice President for Student Affairs

Southwestern Community College District

900 Otay Lakes Road | Chula Vista, CA 91910

Phone.619.482.6315 | Fax.619.482.6491