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The Southwestern College Sun
CAMPUS
January 21 - February 13, 2015 — Volume 58, Issue 4
Jose Luis Baylon
Words and voice team to communicate
KING JASON’S COURTYARD—Jason Brooks has weathered bumpy campus politics and a brutal recession to emerge as a popular SWC institution.
Asjia Daniels/Staff
Caffeine king creates a buzz Courtyard café a popular campus gathering spot By Asija Daniels Campus Editor
It may not be the Fountain of Youth or the Oasis of Mara, but Jason’s Courtyard Café is a place of refuge for bleary-eyed SWC students and staff. Caffeine flows like mahogany springs of liquid ambition, transforming the walking dead into revved-up scholars. Jason Brooks looked over what he had made and said it is good. His customers agreed as they carted off coffee, tea, muffins, bagels and fruit to their first class. Brooks, 49, is the owner of Jason’s Courtyard Café, arguably the college’s most popular hangout for 17 years. More than a fuelling station for the tired, poor and huddled masses, Jason’s is a happy sanctuary of civility, conversation and connection. Not to mention damn good coffee. “I love doing what I do,” Brooks said. “I feel brand new every day. I’m a creature of interaction. I love that about this business. I get to interact with all of you every day and I completely enjoy it.” Brooks said he got started in the coffee business when he was in community college. Coffee shops were always fun and frothy, he said, leading him into the bean business. “I’ve always been a lover of coffee and desserts,” he said. “I was going to San Diego City College at the time and needed a parttime job. I found a couple of coffee businesses that were hiring and I worked at Jimmy J’s at the time. That’s where it all began.” It was 17 years ago that Brooks and Jimmy J’s came south to SWC. “The ASO actually approached us at one of our older locations long ago, so we had to
put in a bid and we had to do a proposal and we had to come in and give a demonstration, taste tests, check out our menu and they asked us what we wanted to do, and that’s how we got started,” he said. Faculty and student’s tastes are constantly changing, Brooks said, requiring him to be observant and nimble. “Employee’s tastes change. Right now they are about white chocolate,” he said. “House coffee and the mocha do well.” His business has grown, but Brooks’ ego has not. He will give four scholarships this spring. His customers are legendarily loyal. Fabiola Ibarra, 36, a child development major and a regular for 10 years, gave Jason five stars. “I cannot function in the morning without his coffee,” she said. “(I like the) border mocha. They use Ibarra chocolate like my last name.” More important, she said, Brooks is friendly and charming. “I know there are other coffee places I can go to, but I love (Jason’s) customer service,” she said. “Even his employees are friendly and a joy to be around.” Employee Luke Carpenter said Jason is a prince. “He’s great at what he does and he is very friendly,” said Carpenter. Jason said he is offering wider varieties of healthier choices to help customers reduce their footprint. “We compost our coffee grounds,” he said. “We bag some of it up for our customers to take home for their composting and gardening needs. We recycle our plastic bottles as well.” Brooks said grinding coffee is never a grind. “This is a great gig here at Southwestern and I plan to stay around for a long time.”
“I like making people happy and seeing the smile on people’s faces,it’s what I enjoy doing every day.” JASON BROOKS
Dr. Faustino Escalera Jr. — 1942-2014
Beloved sociology professor leaves legion of fans By Andrew Perez Assistant Arts Editor
“Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.” – Andy Rooney Patrick Escalera remembered looking over at his father on the way home from the doctor. Minutes earlier Dr. Faustino Escalera Jr. was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer yet, despite the foreboding uncertainness that permeated the air, Escalera was calm and composed, nodding along to Credence Clearwater Revival on the radio. “You all right, pa?” Patrick recalled asking. “There isn’t much I can do,” Escalera said. “It’s just a bump in the road.” With optimism and studiousness, Escalera lived his life right to the end when he passed away at 72 on December 14 after a yearlong battle with cancer.
One of five children, Escalera was born in Brawley on March 17, 1942 to Conception Gonzalez and Faustino Escalera. After moving to San Diego County he was drafted into the Army in 1966 and served three years in the field of communications. Upon returning home Escalera earned a Doctorate in sociology, started a family with his wife of 43 years, Mary, and fathered his only child, Patrick. He spent 33 years at SWC, the first nine as an adjunct and the last 24 as a full-time professor of sociology. Sociology Professor Lisa Ballesteros said he remembers her former office mate and mentor fondly. She first met Escalera when she took his Sociology 101 class in 1994. It was there, she said, that her life came into perspective and she changed her major from accounting to sociology. After she earned her Master’s degree she was hired by the college and became his office partner. “He was quite funny,” Ballesteros said,
Courtesy Photo
CHEERFUL CHAMPION OF WISDOM—Dr. Faustino Escalera Jr. and his wife of 43 years, Mary. An enormously popular professor of Sociology, Escalera died in December of cancer.
“yet also reserved and quiet. He had the most contagious laugh.” Andres Sanchez, another former student, said he was struck by Escalera’s “caring and loving” personality.
“He was very charismatic towards us,” Sanchez said. “He made me feel as if I was a part of his family not because please see Escalera pg. A11
Words. Voice. Like lyrics and music, words and voice work in tandem to communicate ideas and emotions. Culture and history assign the meanings to words, but the origin of a voice comes from psychological factors. Spoken communication goes back to Mesolithic times and into the dwellings of flintknapping men. One day a man struck his finger so hard he screamed. This cry was communicating his agony to others. It is believed that the sensation of pain, along with the yelling, helped provoke the first spoken words. Experimental biologist, Aaron J. Corcoran found competitive voices in a sound wave that had never been examined before. His fieldwork with bat sonar systems at the University of Maryland concluded that the flying rodents do not have time to argue with a fellow bat over a moth. Instead, bats will shriek a specific audible tone into the ears of their competitors, causing them to believe south is east and north is west. This confusion allows them a split second to take their rival’s kill. Scientists are also learning the truth behind lying. By definition, fibbing is when someone uses their actions to deceive another. Much like bats use their larynx to emit a distraction, humans use their vocal chords to create words and lies. Social psychology characterizes liars into four categories: pro-social, self enhancement, selfish and antisocial. In 2013, a journal “Effects of Deception in Social Networks,” created an agent-based model of individuals, communities and societal enterprises living with antisocial and pro-social influence. They concluded that white lies, like when coworkers have your back when you show up late, keep society together calmly and peacefully. Because pro-social lies are typically meant to help keep good relationships by hiding little secrets, an individual can form a group because there is the feeling of reinforcement coming from a neighbor. At the opposite end of the ethics continuum, antisocial lying is done solely for the benefit of the liar and leads to the destruction of relationships. The key to a good society is trust. A lack of trust will usually disrupt people from coming together. In 2004 an Italian politician named Umberto Bossi suffered a severe stroke that left a permanent speech impediment. Rosario Signorello and colleagues at UCLA studied Bossi’s speeches from before and after his stroke, processing his voice through a technique called delexicalization, which helps see Bossi’s voice as a wavelength. Prior to the stroke, Bossi’s voice registered at a low tone with a wide range of frequency which gave him an authoritative appeal to his Italian countrymen. After the stroke, his flat pitch gave him a softer presence. His dominant tone had disappeared and a benevolent one took its place. Signorello then compared the voices of other European politicians to Bossi’s. The team discovered that authoritative, dominant political leaders share the same frequency of voice, ranging in an average low tone as compared to sincere, benevolent leaders which have a higher tone. For Bossi, his voice no longer conveys the same authority, even if the words are the same. Words are symbols we use to convey ideas and a voice gives them power (or not). “Thy voice is a celestial melody,” wrote Henry Longfellow. On this matter, once again, the poet best explains the science. Our universe did not have to create a voice, but it did, and what a melody it is. Jose Luis may be reached at plutotoplato@theswcsun.com