It was just one year ago that the Save Our Southwestern College blog got its start. The issues at the time: ham-handed administration, threats to freedom of speech, accreditation headed for the rocks.My, how things haven't changed.
One of our first posts linked to a News 10 story:
College President Accused Of Targeting School Paper
Sounds familiar, don't it?
Posted the same day was a set of links to coverage from The Sun documenting problems with Raj Chopra's management going back to March of 2009:
If No News Is Good News . . .
After that came a series of posts documenting the efforts of people on the ground--faculty, staff, and students--to get the college back on track. In October 2009, nine documents were posted, including a copy of the Academic Senate's Vote of No Confidence in Raj Chopra and materials explaining the importance of Shared Governance (a key area that the Accrediting Commission later found lacking).
Also posted in October '09 were alternatives to the 25% class cuts, a timeline documenting issues with adversarial leadership, other cost-saving suggestions, and the first Governing Board meeting protest, including transcripts of some of the speeches.
But wait! There's more--much more, and if you care to take a deja vu walk down memory lane, just start back in September 2009 and work your way forward. It's a lot of reading, but a lot has been going on for quite some time.
Southwestern's issues (and this blog) didn't start with the teachers' suspensions. That event merely put both the college and the blog on the map. The people who care, the people who know, the people who work in the midst of mismanagement, greed, ignorance, ineptitude, and spite (to name just a few oughta-be deadly sins) have been trying to spread the word, trying to Save Our Southwestern College.
Will you help them? More importantly, will you help the thousands of students who depend on SWC for their education?
Please visit the sites of the candidates currently running against Board incumbents. Please contribute. (See left sidebar.)
Meanwhile, here's the roll call of press pieces on the most recent free speech mess at SWC:
Sun Under Attack (from the SWC Sun)
Southwestern College Bars Student Paper from Printing (from the Huffington Post)
College Newspaper Threatened by Contract Policy (from SignonSanDiego)
Students Claim Administrators Looking to Shut Down Newspaper (from 10 News)
Southwestern College Halts Publication of Student Newspaper (from The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Student Journalists Say College Trying to Squelch Them (from Inside Higher Education)
Now is the time for change. Es tiempo de cambiar. What will you do to make it happen?
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Note: You can find a more complete list of local and national coverage over at Southwestern Board Must Go! http://www.swcboardmustgo.com/node/30
ReplyDeleteWith this board, one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Working together, the Administration, the advisor..." What a joke and what an insult! Do they even know what they have done???
ReplyDeleteChris Bender, you're the fresh face in the barrel... I'm willing to bet you tried to warn them that no matter how hard you tried to bend the truth this time, excuse the pun, attacking our young journalists and trying to tape their mouths shut was just too reminiscent of dictators gone wrong.
THUMP, thump, thump, thump is the sound of heads rolling on November 2.
Heads may roll in November, but not unless more people get involved and start walking precincts, signing up to man phone banks and getting out into the community. A handful of people can't do it alone. Don't be left shaking your head on Nov. 3rd wondering what happened. Do something now!
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