NEWS
The Southwestern College Sun
Sept. 1 - Oct. 3, 2015 — Vol. 59, Issue 1
Peraza: Trustee pushed campaign finance reform and more transparency Continued from pg. A1
gives the opportunity for candidates to step up and start talking to people, rather than me holding out until the very end.” Peraza has been an instrument of change during his tenure, pushing for greater accountability and communication between the board and the college community. “I think the governing board’s transparency improved in the last few years,” said former faculty union president Eric Maag. “(Peraza is) always starting the dialogue and he asks a lot of questions. I don’t always agree with where he ends up, but I know that he’ll talk to me about it and argue with me and ask me for my viewpoint, and that’s really all you can ask for.” Peraza said the college board faced many challenges when he was appointed to the interim seat in 2011, during a corruption scandal, an accreditation report critical of the “toxic climate” of the college and a looming budget meltdown caused by former college officials. Although SWC is beginning a new cycle of accreditation this year in better condition than 2011, Peraza said, but there is still work to be done. “When we get to start focusing back on education will be the moment that we climbed out of the mess that we were in,” he said. In light of the corruption convictions against 12 former SWC officials and construction contractors, Peraza said he felt very strongly about campaign finance
Budget: Consultant tells board there is not a $6.6 million deficit Continued from pg. A1
two percent of that revenue, (but) you don’t have any commitment from the state on how much money you are going to get.” Though community colleges start their fiscal years on July 1, the state budget is usually not adopted until September. State revenue adjustments are usually made in November and May. California colleges typically operate
Assault: Arrested student was released by SWC campus police Continued from pg. A1
SWCPD released Balancar because under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and college policy, Balancar was cited for a misdemeanor charge of battery against a female student and not sexual assault. “One of the biggest misnomers is what happened with Balancar,” said Cash. “What he did (at SWC) was battery, what he did at SDSU was a sexual battery. Battery is if someone is touching you and it’s against your will. Sexual battery, you have to touch an intimate part of a women’s body, anything that would be considered a sexual place. We have to go by the penal code definition.” Jane Doe said she was studying in the library when Balancar assaulted her on Sept. 10. Doe said she was working at a table on the second floor when Balancar approached and began talking to her. “You know how small talk slowly ends and you expect them to leave?” said Doe. “Instead he stayed and his presence was bothering me.” Doe said she had moved her chair away from Balancar and he moved over next to her and began touching her inappropriately on her inner thigh. “So I put my headphones in and that’s
Nish: President gets contract extension, big raise on 4-1 vote Continued from pg. A1
at the time Nish was hired the board was looking for stability. Before coming to SWC, Nish worked at Orange Coast College as the vice president of instruction. “I had never been a college president, so it was a big leap for me,” she said. “But I also have to say that the learning curve was really extreme. There’s no job I’ve ever had in my life that even compares to this. The workload, attempting to achieve a balance is extremely difficult because of the demands. You are
Staff Photo
AGENT OF CHANGE— Humberto Peraza has been an unrelenting advocate for free speech, a free student news media, transparency and campaign finance reform.
reform at the college. A tougher new policy was approved in 2012. “I’m really proud of the campaign finance reform,” he said. “I think for a lot of the board members that was a difficult decision and I think to some extent a very courageous decision by them knowing that they weren’t going to be able to raise the amount of money that they had been accustomed to raising for elections. But I think it was
necessary to do and it was necessary not only to show the campus, but the community as a whole, that we were making changes, we were reforming. And that meant reforming ourselves, too.” He cited the passing of the Community Benefits Agreement aimed to ensure contracted jobs to local laborers, work on the reforms to the corner lot plans under Proposition R, and making the
for months without a firm budget. Trustee Humberto Peraza said he is expecting clearer fiscal explanations from Austin. “(Austin’s) been around for a long time and he’s a real professional,” said Peraza. “I think we’ll get to see an outlet from somebody who’s seen these things before and can explain why we are where we are and why we were surprised to see it.” Austin said fiscal professionals need to be cautious. “As the timeline goes I’m going to be really conservative on revenues and really pessimistic on expenses,” he said. “I’m going to assume the worst basically.”
Austin said as the year goes on and numbers from Sacramento become more accurate, he will start to be less conservative on revenue and less pessimistic on expenses. “I have to balance,” he said. “If you are too conservative, you are shorting the students. You have to balance that natural conservative nature with a cando attitude.” Peraza said he is confident in Austin. “Once (Austin) takes a look at it, he’ll come back with something that we can see and it’s going to be explained in a proper way,” he said. “He will show us where we’re going, the direction we need to go in to fix that problem and the deficit that we had never seen before.”
when he started brushing on me,” she said. “I began to feel really uncomfortable and it was very scary.” English major Cristofer Garcia said he was present in the library and saw Balancar approach Doe. “When he removed the chairs, that was the moment I realized something was really wrong,” he said. Doe said she was grateful for Garcia’s intervention. “When I saw (Garcia) I ran to him, then I just grabbed him and told him (Balancar was) touching me and broke down crying,” said Doe. Alex Tovar, a nursing major and classmate of Doe, said he had returned to see her crying. After Doe told him what had happened, Tovar encouraged her to file a report with the campus police. “So if it wasn’t for (Alex) I would have never reported it,” said Doe. Doe said that the officer that accompanied her to the police station to file the report made comments that offended her. “He said, ‘Well of course that happened to you, look at what you are wearing’,” Doe said. “I was dumbfounded. I didn’t think that an authority figure would say something like that, like it was my fault.” Before Doe came forward, the police received two anonymous reports through email that correlated with Balancar’s description and case, said Cash. “If I can’t go back and find the person that made the report, when I stop the (suspect) and he asks me ‘why I am being stopped,’ I
have to let him go if I can’t find the person that initiated the report,” he said. “No victim, no crime.” Cash said it is important for women to speak up in order to stop the assailant from harassing more females. “If the last girl that spoke up hadn’t, we would have never got him,” he said. “We would have had to wait for another victim to come forward.” Cash said VAWA allows the police to keep the victims anonymous after they have come forward. “That’s normal for a lot of young ladies because they do not know how to really come out and express themselves,” he said. “They are a little nervous and don’t know how or where to get the information.” Students can call or make anonymous tips to the police through the use of the MyPD App, however, Cash said the most effective way to make a difference is by coming forward in person to the police department. In response to the recent arrest of Balancar, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society is holding a “Day of Action” in order to advocate against sexual assault on campus. Day of Action is a part of the It’s On Us campaign launched by President Obama last September. The purpose of the campaign is to encourage bystander intervention against suspected sexual assault on campus and teach students practical tools to use in suspicious circumstances. Day of Action will take place on October 22 from 11:45a.m. - 12:45p.m. on Jaguar Walk.
actually wearing two hats.” Nish’s formal title is superintendent/ president because she oversees the district as well as the college. Nish stepped into a bubbling caldron in January 2012. Just after Christmas 2011 the San Diego County District Attorney and armed marshals raided the homes of several former SWC administrators and board members. All eventually pleaded guilty to felonies and misdemeanors related to what D. A. Bonnie Dumanis called “San Diego County’s largest corruption scandal ever.” SWC had only recently dodged being shut down by its accreditation agency. The college was still recovering from a series of free speech scandals, including an attempt to shut down The Sun. “This district is coming out of shock
and reaction and depression of a bad public image,” she said. “Given the environment and what we were dealing with externally and internally, it wasn’t just jumping into a regular superintendent/presidency, it was a lot to handle there. So that was kinda that first order of business, establish a reputation of transparency and honesty. And also to really establish this goal of stability and I think we’ve come a long way from where we were.” Nader agreed. “The expectation I think was that we would continue on the trajectory we had established by then,” he said. “If you compare the college now to where it was five years ago, there is no comparison. We are way better off.”
budget bigger and more transparent as achievements. “We basically went in and changed the way we do business to be more transparent, to not allow what happened before to happen again.” To its credit, the SWC governing board was able to implement these changes quickly, said Peraza, which helped restore the college’s credibility. Trustee Nora Vargas said Peraza’s shoes will be hard to fill. “I think it’s important to have someone who really cares about our students,” she said. “[Someone] who is willing to advocate to ensure that our students have the best opportunities possible. Somebody who is not afraid to ask questions and think outside the box, a champion of higher education and for our region and our community. That’s what we need to continue doing the work that we are doing.” Maag said Peraza has made an admirable effort to understand how people view the college and its issues. “I’m disappointed that he’s leaving,” he said. “I think he’s been a good governing board member for us. He’s one of the more vocal governing board members. He talks to a lot of people on campus and makes sure he gets different opinions so he can have a good understanding of what’s going on. He has a really good way of talking to a lot of different people. He’s very friendly and makes people feel comfortable, so I think he’s able to access a large group of people to get advice from and that’s a strong characteristic to have.” Maag said he hoped Peraza’s replacement would have his level of dedication to the school. “They’d have to be charming like Humberto,” he said. “Someone who puts the needs of the students first and helps this college be successful in our mission to
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provide a good education. Someone who has a strong vision and is able to communicate that to get people to work together towards those common goods. Someone who cares deeply about us.” Peraza said elective office is not the only way to affect change. “I also really believe that you can be involved in politics and have an impact on your community, and sometimes a bigger impact on your community, when you’re not an elected official,” he said. “So I am not going away, I’m just not planning on running for office. I’m passionate about activism and involvement in the community from residents and my neighbors. That is never going to stop. I’m always going to be involved.” Peraza said leaving board will be hard. “It grows on you and it becomes family,” he said. “That made this a much more difficult decision, but that’s what I’ll miss probably the most, the people on this campus.” Peraza said he expects the college to continue to improve. “I hope that the climate continues to get better on this campus,” he said. “I hope we find a way to bring people together on this campus, to work together to make this a better place for our students. In the end, we’re all here for one purpose and that is to make this a better campus for our students, to provide a great education, so that we can put people out into the workforce or go on to the university.” He offered advice to his replacement. “Don’t be afraid to ask the questions,” he said. “Be courageous. Stand up for what you believe in. Sometimes it’s not easy. People will criticize you for whatever decision you make, but stand up for what you believe in and you can’t really go wrong.” Voting on values is something this board has done well, said Peraza.