Interview with J. Michael Straczynski

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?

I Return to the Southwestern College Sun, and I Return to Writing About Proposition R Construction

So... as much as I'd like to come up with an excuse as to why I haven't posted this, there isn't one. The truth is that I simply forgot. I've been stupidly busy and this simply fell off my radar.

I have little to say, except that this is my most recent piece for the Southwestern College Sun.

I'm back, writing about construction and money issues related to the $389 million dollar Proposition R projects on campus.


And while you're at it, check out the Southwestern College Sun website. Our brilliant staff has redesigned it from stem to stern and has a new URL and a new host for it.

In case you want them, these are earlier pieces from the same Proposition R series:

"Board Orders New Audits on Contracts, SWC Foundation" (April 14, 2011)

"Delays, Controversy Again Stagger Corner Lot Project" (May 27, 2011)

A Summer of Hoop-Jumping (Dealing With the Administration at Southwestern College, Part I)

I know a few college professors. To be truthful, I know a lot of college professors. They are as different from each other as any population, but like any subset of the people, they have their own recurrent topics of conversation.


One such topic, of course, is “students.” As a smaller part of that subject, another frequently mentioned discussion topic is ‘student excuses.’

“My student says they were dropped without warning while they were trying to register.” “Well, my student claims his financial aid package just disappeared.” “Oh yeah? Well, I know one who says…”

I’ve heard a lot of them: the comments, questions, disbelief. In one instance, a professor of my acquaintance described a situation that a student had with financial aid as “impossible.”

The same thing happened to me.

Don’t think I’m castigating the instructors – I’m not. Not everyone has yet had that student who was able to explain things, to clarify exactly what happened. I suspect that eventually all of them will, because frankly, this system is deeply flawed.

As a result of that flawed system, some students will never get a chance to try again. Some simply fall away from college, because they were wrongly dropped or rejected, or because “they” put up one last hoop, one too high for the student to jump through.

(This article also appears on the Patch network.)

A SUMMER OF HOOP-JUMPING

I applied for financial aid in May this year. I knew about what classes I wanted to take, and by that I mean I had a vague idea, but I was bound and determined to actually get that education. I want that degree I’d never acquired, but the education was my goal.

Okay, the degree really is the goal, but I didn’t want to muck about and try to game the system to get that degree with as little work as possible. I wanted to take those blasted classes and learn something.

I applied near the end of the spring semester. Things began to go wrong immediately. Every day I checked my email with a vague sense of dread, wondering what hoops Southwestern College had for me to leap through this time.

On two separate weekends, I received trios of emails in the middle of the night, starting late Friday – three days of three emails. Both times the format was the same: two emails that read “Congratulations! You’ve been approved for financial aid at SWC!” followed by one that said “We’re sorry, but you’ve been rejected.”

I’m a writer. I can handle rejection.

But each rejection including a line that read (and this is a quote): “…you are not eligible for the program due to the following reason:”

And… nothing. No reason, just a blank line.

Each time that happened, I packed up various documents, records, schedules, tax forms, and so on and hauled it all down to SWC’s financial aid department. Each time I was told, “Whoops! That’s a computer glitch. You shouldn’t have had to come down here. You’re fine.”

That happened twice.

On two other occasions, I received emails that read, “Your application for financial aid at Southwestern College has been received. However, the documents listed below are required to review your file.”

And… nothing. No documents listed, just a blank line.

Of course, these happened at different times than the terrible trios of emails occurred. So again, each time I packed up the document box and hauled it to SWC. And again, each time I was told, “Whoops! That’s another computer glitch. You don’t owe us anything.”

On my fourth and final trip to SWC this past summer to account for documents they didn’t need and to find out why I was eligible, eligible, and ineligible, I asked the employee at the financial aid desk if I needed to provide anything.

“No,” she said. “Your file is closed. You don’t need to bring anything else. We’ll review it and you should be set come autumn!” (I’m paraphrasing here. I didn’t know I’d need to record the conversation.)

Autumn arrived. I’d selected my classes and on the Sunday afternoon before I went back, I suddenly had a feeling of dread. I logged into the campus computer system to see how things were going.

They weren’t.

YOU NEED TO BRING THIS!

There was nothing there about a grant – nothing at all. The school had no record of it.

Had I discovered this during the week, I’d have broken land-speed records getting back to campus to find out just what the hell was going on. As it was, I didn’t get the chance. Stuck at home on Sunday, I dug around the various files and links attached to my records, and through a link titled “Documents,” I found that SWC needed a copy of my high school diploma.

I was actually speechless, until the swearing began.

Diligently, I’d brought copies of everything, including my passport, to the school. As far as I knew, I’d accounted for everything. What high school did I attend? When? Whom do we contact? Can we get copies of your high school transcript? Yep, yep, sure – I filled out all of it. But sometime late this summer, someone decided they wanted that one document.

I accept that. I also have it.

However, no one at SWC ever sent me an email informing me. In fact, no one ever contacted me about it at all. They apparently assumed I’d discover this need on my own. But then another question appeared.

WHO IS “THEY?”

Let me preface this by stating for the record: I don’t hold the SWC employees responsible. With all of California’s budget slashing going on – and thank you so much to the conservatives for making that happen while preserving those precious tax breaks for oil companies that have quit hiring locals and have moved many of their operations to countries with non-existent minimum wages – the campus employees are shorthanded and overworked. Each time I went there, I tried to be polite and reasonable, hence the reason I brought every document I had with me when I went.

But who is “they?” Who sent out these alerts? Who decided to send me ridiculous requests for nothing and constant trios of acceptance and rejection?

The computer system did. It’s all automatic, I’m told.

Seemingly, the computer system outranks the employees, and sends out what it wants at the time, whenever it wants to do it – except when it doesn’t. When it decided that I needed to jump through one more hoop before receiving any grants, it apparently chose to not let me know, and to rely on my scavenging through its innards to find out on my own.

Had I not done this, I never would have known about the damn diploma.

COMING NEXT TIME!

Students clutter up the campus, the Dean of Student Services ignores me, computer systems that are meant not to talk to each other, and how this is all my fault.



Non-Traditional (Part 6) - A Bit About the Students

The end of my first semester back at school was a busy time, what with all the running around, studying, writing, reading, staying up late, waking up early, and ignoring this blog… and that’s nothing on what most of the students I know do.

I was so frazzled that when I woke up, I’d have a mug of coffee with breakfast, or for it. I’d stop at a 7-11 about two hundred feet away, fill up my mug, and stop again at the one across the street from SWC. Then and only then did I feel fortified to start thinking.

Don’t get me wrong. I had a lot to do outside of school, but I saw a lot of students working their tails off to ace those finals and get those grades up. I am impressed. They impressed me, and by and large, they were those students who were here for an education, not a degree.

I say again – I was impressed.

I did well. I pulled some high grades on some finals, turned in some tremendous work, and now have a GPA floating at about 4.0. I’ll be honest. There’s some strutting involved. (But only because this is the first time in recorded history that I’ve rocked a 4.0. In fact, I’ve got some teachers back in the days of yore who would have laughed their rumps off had I told them I’d ever do that well.)

I’m going to show restraint. I’m going to keep my strutting to a minimum. Because I’ve seen students do a lot more, a lot better, and with a lot more obstacles. I know students who have kids and families, are carrying an insane number of classes, who have to travel from campus to campus, who are holding down overtime jobs while they go to school, and who are taking classes and writing essays that make me say, “whut?”

That’s impressive.

Now that I find myself jumping through the same ridiculous hoops that they jump, and digging out exactly what forms the admissions and financial aid people want, and dealing with SWC’s insanely rude and backwards computer systems, and trying to do everything the administration demands, I realize…

It’s really damn impressive. Not me. Them.

I’ve got some things to say about things, believe me. But it only took me a moment to realize that I didn’t want to use this space talking about them. I wanted to use this space for something better.

There are students that still drive me crazy with their laziness, their inability to arrive on time, their dishonest, and their willingness to cheat their ways to that degree.



Like this guy.

 But this isn’t about those people. This is just my way of saying how good it is to know students who do care, who strive to succeed, who work hard, who are never late and never miss a class, are honest and honorable.

This is my way of saying, “Wow, you folks really and truly impress me.” You are the reason that professors like doing what they do. You set an example for your classmates and your colleagues. You make coming into class a joy. You are helping to make the world a better place.

Keep it up.

And speaking as that non-traditional guy who’s gone back to school to improve himself, and who probably watches you and what you do more than you realize… thank you.

More Financial Shenanigans at SWC: Forensic Accountants to Investigate Alioto and the Contractors

Whoa. I need practice keeping these short. I had hoped to put this one up two or three days ago when the link to our stories on the Southwestern College Sun website. But it only came up sometime tonight. So with little adieu, allow me to present:

“Board Orders New Audit on Contracts, SWC Foundation” (on the SWC Sun website)

Allow me a minute to crow and say this is my third front-page article in a row. This makes me unusually happy. But more importantly, this is another financial story that grew and grew as I looked into it. I started this by going to an oversight committee meeting to hear a short positive audit report. But when I was there, I heard something disturbing. The next day, I spoke with Bob Temple, the new interim vice president of business and financial affairs at SWC. He gave me more still more disturbing information.

It grew like that. As it did, other reporters and other writers started finding more information that started to overlap what I had. And as we started looking into it, several things became clear.

The first is that Nick Alioto, the now-ex-vice president of business, was involved in many different questionable – possibly illegal – actions. We always knew that, but it was good to have it confirmed. Secondly, it also became clear that Henry Amigable, the project manager for Seville Construction who worked hand-in-hand with Alioto to oversee construction on campus, was almost as dirty as the vice-president. The third thing is that the entire construction situation is dirty and possibly corrupt.

We have one more issue coming out this semester. I hope to have a piece written with another couple of editors and reporters about the construction situation. And if I don’t get everything I want, I’ll try to follow up either this summer on the blog, or next fall at the paper.

So if that seems like I’m saying that I’ll likely be back in school next fall… yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Provided they’ll take me – and you can take that to mean either SWC or the Sun – I’ll be back.

I kind of like the place, you know?

Are You Going to the Governing Board Meeting? I Can Give You 22.5 Million Reasons To Go

This Wednesday, I’ll make another public appearance at the Southwestern College Governing Board meeting. Yes, I’ll be speaking, and yes, I’d like to invite any and all of you to come with me and make them hear what you have to say.


Why am I going? What on Earth could get me back in front of the board to ask just exactly what the hell is going on?

It appears that the SWC district might be expected to pay for more of Nick Alioto’s shenanigans again. To the tune of $22.5 million.

Alioto? Shure.

Alioto, as you know, is the former VP of Business and Financial Affairs at SWC and one of my personal targets. Given that he was heard referring to me as “an archenemy” – and yes, that’s in quotes, I am delighted with my role versus his Lex Luthorness.

So it should go as no surprise that I’m doing this as an activist, not a journalist.

The money is question arises from construction taking place at SWC. The plans and budgets were developed by Alioto, former superintendent Raj K. Chopra, Seville Construction’s former project manager Henry Amigable, and former SWC consultant John Wilson.

See a pattern?

The board will be discussing paying contracts to several different companies. Some of these contracts are appearing for the first time, but some are contracts that have grown larger since Alioto and Amigable signed them.

Apparently, Alioto – known as a financial wizard – didn’t realize that the construction contracts signed by he and Seville Construction didn’t include funding for the various subcontractors that Seville would be hiring, including the huge Echo Pacific Construction.

Now I’ll grant this is all back-of-the-envelope math, but it’s taken from the agenda of Wednesday’s coming board meeting. It appears that $4,338,077 in contracts needs to be replaced by $26,799,522 in contracts.

In other words, the district is being told that they need to pay an extra $22,461,445 to pay for the mistakes made by Alioto, Amigable, Wilson, and Chopra.


Nick Alioto


Yes, that’s nearly 22.5 million dollars paid out to the following companies: Echo Pacific Construction, Fordyce Construction, Arthur Gensler and Associates, NTD Architecture, Act Inc, Countrywide Mechanical Systems, Southern California Soils and Testing, Tel Tech Plus, The Casper Company, Rocky Coast Framers, RL Electric, Chambers Inc, Winzler and Kelly, Consulting and Inspection Services, Willock Contracting, GA Abell Inc, Barnhart Balfour Beatty, BCA Architects, BRG Consulting, Bytesolutions Inc, and Union Bank.

This would seem questionable at the best of times. But these aren’t the best of times. In early November, the voters threw Salcido off the governing board, leaving Chopra and Alioto unsupported. Late in November, Chopra resigned. That December, Wilson “retired” from his consultant position and Seville Construction fired Amigable. Alioto clung on until February, when he also resigned. With the possibly-guilty parties all scuttling away like cockroaches from a light bulb, it’s clear that these are the bad times. And during the bad times, one must question these facts even more diligently.

These decision-makers weren’t strangers. They were connected in many ways. Working together with Focuscom’s Dan Hom, who attempted to provide rah-rah spin about the project, the men were the architects of the college’s construction future.


It's a little like Caligula, but in English.


Wilson was the live-in boyfriend of Yolanda Salcido, the former GB president. Several other news outlets have already covered their conflicts of interest, so I won’t bother. Salcido hand-picked Chopra as her superintendent, and Chopra and Salcido hand-picked Alioto as his vice president.

In return, Chopra and Alioto hosted fundraisers for Salcido’s reelection campaign – which failed. But they coerced many, many contractors into donating, which included Seville and Echo Pacific.

Somehow these men “forgot” that the contracts they signed didn’t cover sub-contractors.

Though it’s not an exact parallel, it reminds me quite strongly of the story in the Los Angeles Times, which detailed the process of creating and using “body shops” in Los Angeles County.

With this process, the L.A. Community College District (we are also a CCD) used district bonds (which we are using) to hire numerous contractors (which we have) and select a project manager (we have Seville) to oversee the whole thing (which we are doing).

In return for this largesse, the contractors sub-contract the hiring of workers into smaller companies, and then everyone above them charges a cut for their pay. One contractor, Patricia Torres, earned $210 thousand, but the county was charged $563 thousand for her work.

URS Corp is allegedly the mastermind of all this. But also named several times for adding tax and pay markups – Seville Construction. In fact, URS Corp attempted to shuffle Torres from her position at URS to Seville, a common practice to move them away from their job, but keep them in the payroll mix.

With Alioto out at SWC and replaced by apparent straight-shooter Bob Temple, even in an intermittent role, Seville should be putting their best face forward.

They’re not.

In December, Seville removed Henry Amigable from his project manager position, later replacing him with Bob DeLiso. Amigable left Seville in February.



Bob DeLiso

 From 2006-2010, DeLiso worked at Harris & Associates, which was the “point company” for many of the construction projects paid for by the LA Community College District. The LA Times did not list them by name, but did say around “two dozen” other contractors were involved. I’d wager that Harris & Associates was one of them.

Before Harris & Associates, DeLiso worked for URS Corp for 32 years, from 1974 until 2006. This is the guy who is now the project manager for construction at SWC.

Amigable, who was fired from Seville, has also shuffled to a new position and is now working for Echo Pacific Construction, as their SWC project manager.

Remember that $22.5 million in question? Echo Pacific is the largest beneficiary of this “mistake.” With contracts of $4,024,977 outstanding, they are claiming they deserve $10,614,180.

That means they expect the governing board to vote to increase their coffers by $6,589,203.

And the guy in charge of it is Henry Amigable, who was part of this “mistake” happening in the first place.

Alioto, long believed to have hidden and spent down millions of dollars – and recently confirmed by the Southwestern College Sun, and written by Yours Truly -- somehow managed to sign these contracts and Amigable never said “boo.”

So, yeah, I’ll be at the governing board meeting on Wednesday. Unless DeLiso, Amigable, Seville, and Echo Pacific are strenuously investigated, the district must not pay for these decisions. At these times of brutal budget cuts and soaring property taxes, expecting the people of the district to cough up an additional $22.5 million is not just ludicrous.

It’s criminal.

Non-Traditional (Part 5) - One Foot in Journalism, One Foot in Activism - Or How Nick Alioto Made My College Days a Lot Harder

Now that I have returned to college, I have found myself in an unusual position this year. With both an interest in journalism, but also a nearly-complete lack of training, I decided to take journalism classes and write for the Southwestern College Sun. The Sun is widely considered the best two-year college newspaper in the country and one of the top two or three papers of any school there is. Max Branscomb, the advisor, is worshipped as a God Among Men in his field, and I’ll say his reputation is rightfully deserved.

I am there to relearn how to write. I know I am good at many things, but at the beginning of the year, I was rusty, rusty, rusty. Now I’m just rusty, but the improvement is something I do notice.

Also at the beginning of the year, I had to speak with Max; Lyndsay Winkley, the Editor-in-Chief; Albert Fulcher, the News Editor; and Marcela Appelhanz, the Assistant News Editor, and tell them that I was in an unusual position – a position I admit I both relished and loathed.

My desire was to both practice and retrain as a journalist. But I am also a political activist. I have been involved, am involved, and will be involved in progressive politics in the area, and none of that will change. So with one foot in journalism and one foot in activism, I had to set a few boundaries.

One of those boundaries was that I would never cover the Governing Board meetings as a journalist. As anyone here (or at my older blog, SWC Board Must Go) knows, I have never attended a GB meeting in an objective fashion. I have photographed board members, ripped publicly into them, and helped ringlead actions against them.

One of the other boundaries that I insisted on establishing was that I would not go after Nick Alioto, who was still then the Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs at SWC. He was also the dirtbag I’d pursued here, at my other blog, in person, with the press, and at every turn, to run him out of town and prove that he was the criminal that we all know him to be. I’ve even used this blog to poison his chances of future employment, and I’m happy to say that I have no intention of changing that. Fully one-third of the people that end up on the Washroom through a Google or Bing search come by searching for some version of Alioto’s name and position – either here in California or back in his home state of Wisconsin.

I set the boundary that I wouldn’t use journalism to chase Alioto, which appealed to my activist nature. I am not so hypocritical that I thought that fair. Even after he resigned a month or so into this semester, I tried not to chase him.

But every piece I wrote from then on twisted and turned and went back to the actions of Vice President Alioto. I started a small piece on a technology plan that had stalled and was going awry, and within a week determined that it had basically been sabotaged by Alioto himself. When a whistleblower unloaded information about money illegally spent, it became a story on Alioto’s decision to spend that money.

"Superintendent Shakes Up Tech Study Group" (February 22, 2011)

"Former VP Hid, Dumped Millions" (March 22, 2011)

The third story, regarding nothing more than the positive reports of an independent auditor, also twisted and turned, looped and swirled, and landed directly in the lap of Alioto himself. That one is not yet online. When it is, I’ll post it.

I remain with one foot in journalism and one foot in activism. I keep my worlds discrete and I make certain that I don’t set foot past my boundaries. I’ll be present at this week’s Governing Board meeting. I’ve got something to tell them – something that I’ll say well, thoroughly, and loud.

It won’t be as a journalist.

But as a journalist, I’ve finally decided it is okay to use my blog to showcase what I’ve written for the Sun. Feel free to comment, blast, critique, or complain. I’m good with all that.

After all, as a journalist, I wrote these for the good of the college, the district, the students, and the public. But it’s as an activist that I have no trouble whatsoever showing them to you.

Enjoy!

Feb. 22, 2011 - "Superintendent Shakes Up Tech Study Group"

March 22, 2011 - Former VP Hid, Dumped Millions"

Non-Alioto: March 22, 2011 - "Budget Cuts Force College to Plan For Worst"

Non-Traditional (Part 3)

This is the third part of the ongoing saga in which Nick returns to the college for the first time in two decades. Read the first two parts: (Part 1) and (Part 2).

In our last thrilling episode, I mentioned that I’d talk about different lecture styles. Well, I lied. Okay, not lied. Let’s call it underestimating the amount of homework I’d need to be doing.

So let’s talk about homework. I’m going to keep it brief.

I’m estimating that I have somewhere between 15 and 20 hours of homework to do this weekend. That includes two Journalism assignments, a sixty-odd-page reading for Business, and a Business quiz to prepare for. I also need to get as much written as I can of three different pieces for a special edition of the Southwestern College Sun.

I’m certain that’s not much compared to what it will be like later in the semester. And it’s just a patch on what students who are carrying 15, 16, 18 credit hours have to do. But when I say I feel a little daunted, I mean it. I’ve recently drifted into my fourth decade of life and I’ve good a very good analytical brain – and my brain is letting me grasp the web of options in front of me.

The easiest option is the one that requires the most discipline: get the books, get started, and don’t stop. The end of the semester will come quickly, and the gulf of time between “a whole term ahead of me” and “I’m out of class time” will narrow faster than you can expect.

Do the homework as soon as possible, ask the questions you need answered, and interact with the instructors and the classes – learn.

I wish I was a little older, back when I was younger.

I’ve got more to say, but it’s going to have to wait. I have homework, you see.

Non-Traditional (Part 2)

The further adventures of Nick, as he returns to school for the first time in twenty years...

In the first part -- recounted here -- I made my way to the hallowed campus of Southwestern College to attempt a second go at furthering my education.

Day 1 went well.  Which was the one thing I had assumed would go well this semester.  I had a few shocks, particularly when seeing how late students would mope into class, and just how apathetic the atmosphere was here and there.

More shocks on Tuesday?  You betcher butt.  But we'll get to that in a moment...

Crushing Tiny Cities, The Four Things All Students Need, and What Happens When James Bond Mistakes You For Someone Else

Last Thursday I went to the Student Center to get my photo ID, to make it easier to use the facilities.  To do so, the man with the camera had me step behind a blue line, then tilted it up about forty degrees to get my head in the shot.  The camera was mounted on a shelf about two-and-a-half feet high, meaning that my ID photo is shot up and at an angle that makes me look like that big fellow atop of the beanstalk. 

Before I left the building, crushing tiny cities as I went, the cameraman asked, "Hey!  Are you still with the newspaper?"  This was a bit distracting, since I'd only been with the paper about two hours at the time. 



You have no rightsh on thish campush.



I then recognized him - James Bond.  And no, I'm not kidding.  Mr. Bond is the very gent who tried throwing me off campus a little more than a year ago for trying to register voters.  It didn't go well for him.  He got schooled in First Amendment rights by a lawyer/professor and I had to agree to sign in if I showed up on campus again to do radical terroristy things like utilizing the Democratic process.

I signed in that day, and never again.  And that little action was mentioned in the nationally-infamous Muzzle Award given by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression to SWC for their (former administration's) inability to understand those most basic American rights.  I call that a win.

But apparently Commander Bond had assumed I was already with those rabblerousers at the Sun, so I answered, "Nope.  I was a civilian when you tried to throw me off campus."

The last bit of weirdness I got was when I took a little coupon book with discounts for those important student needs.  A couple bucks off for books, a buck off at the cafeteria, a couple of dollar-off coupons at Jason's coffee cart, and...

Discount hepatitis shots.  Yep, a little something for that student that does have everything.

True Believers, You Mean... I Actually Gotta Buy Stuff?, That Sneaky Homework, and You'll Get Your Money When We're Damned Good And Ready To Give It To You.

I picked up my books over the weekend, and armed with those books and my coupons - in case the urge for a hot coffee or an ice-cold Heptivax struck - I returned to class on Tuesday morning, Business 120.



You're serious about the textbook?

 I also brought my completed homework - the only homework yet assigned.  So what percentage of the class had finished theirs?  Maybe 25%.  And how many of the forty or so students had bought their textbook - the one necessary for the 60-page reading assignment it took me about six hours to complete?  About four.

Forgive me if I seem to be harping on this, but I simply can't understand this.  So far, we've been told to do only three things: get the textbook, read two chapters, and do a short non-graded quiz.  The answers of most of the students appear to be "no, no, and... no."

Sometime later, I found out that one of the reasons that so many of the students didn't have the books, is that at SWC, the school doesn't start giving out financial aid - including that needed to buy books - until the second week.  Apparently this makes sense to someone.  But not to me, and likely not to the students who are now at least one day behind in every class, and will likely be closer to a week behind.

If only we had some new people in power who could look into this vast abyss of stupidity!

In Journalism 200, Professor Max Branscomb spent the day lecturing on the journalists' Code of Ethics.  It's clearly a passion of his, and it came through.  It's always a pleasure to watch someone who believes in what he or she is lecturing.  Max's passion is good, high-quality journalism, and that comes shining through.

Mike Van Keith is a true believer of the power of business, and he demonstrates that with every word, peppering his lectures with anecdotes and asides that shows how well he understands how it all works.  Both instructors are easy to listen to and easy to understand, but use completely different styles of lectures.

More on that later.  I've got to keep this short.  I've got a couple of chapters to read, and a bit of homework to do.

Thank God I went ahead and bought those books.

Non-Traditional (Part 1)

About twenty years ago, I left college. Not with a degree or a cum laude or any of that; I just left. On Tuesday, I returned to college.

For those of you regular readers, it probably comes as no surprise that I chose to continue my continued education at Southwestern College, a school that I have championed as being far better, and much more deserving than the corrupt Governing Board it was saddled with.

But I’m not going to travel that road today. Today I’m just here to say that I – quite literally – put my money where my mouth was, and enrolled.

After a few oddly nervous days, worrying about what my return to academia would be like, I woke on Tuesday morning without a worry in the world. I got up and realized I wasn’t thinking of this as going to school; I was thinking of it as going to work.

I showered, shaved, grabbed some coffee, and glanced in the mirror to check my man-nificence one last time, then headed to work…er, school.

The first class was Business 120 – Intro to Business. It may seem odd that I was taking the absolute basic business course, but in all my previous college days, I had never taken a single class of the kind. Granted, I had written extensively about business in my freelance writing days, but I thought it might be time to actually get a little education to go with my knowledge.

Michael Van Keith is the instructor, an adjunct professor with style, charm, and magnificent hair. He engaged just about every student, even if they came in forty-five minutes late.

Which leads directly to my first rant: what the hell are people doing showing up for class half an hour late or more? On your first day? Is this a particularly unique way of making a good first impression? Because that’s not what happened. A very young student near me grumbled loud enough to be heard, “This is a business course. It’s not professional to be late.”

SWC Governing Board to Southwestern College Sun: "Stop the Press" - Sun to GB: "To Hell With That!"

[I first posted this at SWC Board Must Go! a few hours ago.]

It's no secret to anyone that the Governing Board of SWC has major issues with its school newspaper, the Southwestern College Sun. The Sun, which is unquestionably one of the finest student-run newspapers in the country, has received numerous awards for its writers, its advisor, Max Branscomb, and for the paper itself.

Why does the Board have problems with it? Because the Sun insists on printing the truth.

This time, the board and the administration have gone several steps over the line past just complaining about it, to...

I'll let the following letter speak for itself. As a person highly interested in the Sun, I received a copy of this letter today and have spoken with the writer.

As usual, I have edited it only to remove the writer's phone number.

Southwestern College Board Must Go!

As of just a couple days ago, I have started running a website dedicated to defeating our corrupt Governing Board at Southwestern College, by voting the bums out in November. The site is not a Writer's Washroom site, but it is certainly related to the work I did last year to trash the Board at every opportunity.

The site is located at: http://www.swcboardmustgo/ - and I'd love some visitors familiar with the situation over there. If things go right, we'll have essays from students, members of the faculty, and me; a video or two; maybe some nifty evidence of corruption; and more surprises than you can shake a stick at.

If you'd like to write something for the site, email me here at my usual address, or visit the SWC Board Must Go! website and join in.

This does also mean that I will be keeping most, if not all, of my new anti-Board work over there, and not here. For my South County-based readers, this may be a hassle. For those of you who come from elsewhere and just like reading the drivel that I post, this will probably be a blessing.

One last thought: I still get a buttload of hits from people searching for "Nick Alioto" or some combination of his name on this site.

(Some real recent searches: "Nick Alioto Wisconsin Criminal", "Nick Alioto Wisconsin School Corruption", "Nick Alioto Southwestern Corrupt", "Nick Alioto Kenosha Wisconsin Rip-Off", and "Nick Alioto Thief". I'm not saying any of that; I'm just saying what searches brought you to me.)

If you know Nick Alioto from the past - people of Wisconsin, I'm talking to you, then I would love to hear from you. I'd like to know every stinking thing he did in the Midwest to rip off all those school districts. Anyone want to drop some knowledge on me, do so. Send me an email. If you want to remain confidential, I'll respect that. If you want to trash him publicly, I'll respect that even more.

Thanks for visiting everyone, and remember: SWC Board Must Go!

Southwestern College Students Protest Class Cuts (And What the Administration Did Afterward)

On Thursday, October 22, students at Southwestern College in Chula Vista chose to protest against the unilateral actions of the school president and its Board. The protest was civil and held in the fifty yard-by-fifty yard zone that the school calls its "Free Speech Area."





It should also be noted that the Free Speech Area is hidden away between several buildings and is invisible to any road, parking lot, or driveway that surrounds the campus. To a member of the voting public - such as myself - who showed up to watch the students, it was difficult to find. I, like others, had to park and wander the campus until we found it.





For the last Board meeting, President Chopra refused to move the venue from the tiny room it usually used to the auditorium it regularly uses when it expects a big crowd. He knew that students, professors, members of the public, and the press were coming to express their displeasure at his budget-slashing plans, so more than one hundred people – like me – stood outside and listened to the meeting on little speakers, while police guarded the doors. So it comes as no surprise that he is using locational tactics to try to suppress his opposition again.


The students had one hour to express their disgust and displeasure, and to try to rally support among their peers. They used it. And, at the end, they decided to march across campus to the president's office to be heard. Campus police intervened, and after a reminder that they had no rights at all on the campus, the students decided to do this again, and they dispersed.

President Raj Chopra's reaction? He suspended four professors, including the head of the faculty union, a man who has stood against him time and again, while always standing up for his fellow instructors. I suspect he was suspended last night more for that than for anything the students did yesterday.

A Very Brief History

The Administration's Story -- Faced with California's looming fiscal crisis, President Chopra formed a committee of faculty and administration to decide on budget-saving measures. Eventually it became clear that the only way to maintain operations was to cut classes. That would keep any instructor from being laid off, and wouldn't effect the students much at all.

The Truth -- The President formed a committee. Ostensibly scheduled by the admin, it never met until the very day of the most recent board meeting (one week ago). Absolutely nothing was decided, except for the admin representatives to let the faculty reps know what was going down. Many cost-saving measures were floated: cutting the maximum number of students in classes, instructors taking pay cuts, instructors taking unpaid furlough days, laying off unnecessary administrators, cutting athletics, and utilizing the school's "reserve funds."

Southwestern College has several million dollars in its reserve fund - also known as its "rainy-day fund." Over the past few years, the reserve fund has increased to 7% of its holdings. In other words, the school has made a profit the past few years. The State of California says that all colleges should have a reserve, but the amount they recommend is "not more than 5%."

That two percent overage in the rainy-day surplus equals about two million dollars. The budget shortage? An estimated $1.3 to $1.7 million. The overage in the surplus could sate the budget issues for the time, but the Board doesn't want to give up on that banked profit.

Furthermore, during the last Board meeting, the one member who puts students, faculty, and the South Bay area first - Nick Aguilar - put a motion on the table. It was not to stop the slashing of classes, but simply to consider some of these other options. The Board refused to even consider anything but slashing classes (which means laying off instructors). When it was pointed out that they actually would lose about fifty percent of their adjunct (non-full time) professors, one member - Maria Valledolid - responded, 'those are adjuncts, so it's not layoffs.'

President Chopra's proposal for budget-cutting involves slashing about 25% of all classes that SWC offers. Thousands of students attend school, and most of them realize that their schedule will be affected. Professors will be laid off. Classes will not be offered. Some students will not be able to graduate! But that fat 7% profit hidden away remains safe. This is what led them to protest.

Unilateral actions are never popular, and almost never warranted. These anti-faculty and anti-student decisions by Dr. Chopra are symptomatic of a weak leader and a rubber-stamping board.

Raj Chopra is a coward; he was off the campus for all this. He sent police to the four professors' home with letters informing them that they had been suspended (and how much did that cost taxpayers, Raj?). He insists that students hide their protests where the public can't see them. He hides the actions of himself and his Board in the tiniest room possible.

Sure, the students will suffer. Sure, the faculty will suffer. Sure, the reputation of the school will be irreparably damaged. Sure, the city of Chula Vista, and the South Bay area will suffer. But, hey! We'll have that profit banked, and that's apparently all that matters.

For more information on this, go to the Save Our Southwestern College blog at http://www.saveourswc.blogspot.com/. If you’re in Chula Vista/South Bay/San Diego, please follow @saveourswc for more updates.

It also appears that this is finally getting some attention from the local paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune (which is solidly in Raj’s pocket): http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/oct/23/bn23college-instructors-suspended/?dsq=20886274#comment-20886274


(Photo credits - me with the cell phone)

Edited to add the last two paragraphs, and to tweak the bit on the location of the last Board meeting.


UPDATE: It appears that the Union-Tribune has decided to take a slightly more even-handed look at this situation. This story, updated early this morning, finally begins to dig into the issues: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/oct/24/4-faculty-college-suspended-after-rally/?education&zIndex=188347