PCC Courier, July 11, 2013

VOLUME 107 ISSUE 1 ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM JULY 11, 2013 Antonio Gandara/ Courier After months of delays, the new Center for the Arts building is finally nearing completion. Faculty and staff will be moving into the new facility in just a few short weeks. GET WET! Students beat the heat by jumping into the Aquatics Center. w PAGE 6 » ANiME EXPO PCC gaming, manga, and fantasy enthusiasts join to¬ gether at the Anime Expo. PAGE 7 » College scrambles to fix Fall transfer fiasco Christine Michaels Editor-In-Chief The college struggled for more than two weeks trying to make good on a promise administrators made to students that the classes they took in Extended Spring would be transferable for Fall 2013. The cancellation of the Winter Session left a lot of students unable to transfer because they wouldn’t be able to complete the number of units needed in the spring. But the administration guaranteed students that it would schedule courses the college would call Extended Spring, which they said would allow the classes to be accepted by the universities. However, the college moved ahead with its plans without getting approval from the California Com¬ munity Colleges Chancellor’s Office. When the Chancellor’s Office ruled that the college could not label transcripts as Extended Spring, the administration realized the severity' of its mistake. They were informed that all of the classes had to be labeled as “summer,” according to Robert Bell, senior vice president of student and learning services. No universities accept classes labeled “summer” on transcripts for the upcoming fall term. Bell and a team of counselors and college staff began lobbying each university to take the units so students wouldn’t be penalized. The UC and CSU systems, with the exception of CSU San Diego and CSU San Jose, are allowing a one-time only exception for PCC students who successfully complet¬ ed Extended Spring, even though the classes are labeled as “summer” on transcripts. Patricia McCormick, television production major, was one math class away from transferring to CSU SD when she spoke with a coun¬ selor at the school who warned her there was no guarantee the Extend¬ ed Spring classes would transfer for the fall. “I talked to the counselor to tell me what was going on. I wanted to know if I could take any summer classes for transfer. She pretty TRANSFER page 7 ► District releases details of harassment complaint Christine Michaels Editor-In-Chief College officials released details about a claim filed by a Courier staff member alleging sexual harassment and retaliation by journal¬ ism instructor and Courier adviser Warren Swil today. Swil, who was put on administrative leave on March 28, has been the focus of an investigation following complaints of sexual harassment and retaliation. Journalism student Raymond Bernal filed a claim for $100,000 with the college on May 22. The claim, which was rejected by the board of trustees on June 5, listed the accusa¬ tions, but only stated that the claim was filed against an unnamed district employee. With the claim rejected by the board, Bernal is able to file a lawsuit. Although people speculated that Swil, 61, was the subject of the complaint, his identity was not confirmed until today. In the complaint, Bernal asserts that in early January following winter break, Swil called him into his office, closed the door, and revealed naked pictures of himself taken on a boating trip. Bernal said that when Mr. Swil pointed to the naked picture, smiled and asked him what he thought about the pic¬ ture, he tried to change the subject to other pictures depicting sexually benign subject matters. The complaint also states that “Unde¬ terred, Mr. Swil grabbed the second group of pictures, again pointed to a picture of himself naked, smiled and asked Mr. Bernal what he thought about that pictured. When Mr. Bernal changed the subject a second time, Mr. Swil was visibly disappointed and acted as if he had not received the desired response to his provocative pictures. As Mr. Bernal left, Mr. Swil said, ‘Let’s keep this between you and me.’” Bernal originally filed a complaint with Joe Futtner, dean of the visual arts and media studies division, prior to Swil being put on administrative leave in late March. Bernal said he “was unsure if Mr. Swil had made a sexual advance or if Mr. Swil simply felt more comfortable sharing risque photographs with him.” Both Swil and Bernal are gay men. Bernal, 49, also claimed Swil retaliated against him by giving him bad grades on arti¬ cles that were written for the Courier. According to the complaint, before the SWIL page 2 Don Eckmann named Classified Employee of Year Paul Ochoa Staff Writer A hard worker his whole life, Don Eckmann, facili¬ ties services supervisor, has come a long way since he first started working construction for a family friend at the age of 12. “I started around my dad’s house with a contractor he knew and then worked for his company,” said Eckmann. He learned early about hard work— that’s why it was no surprise when Eckmann was awarded the 2013 California Community College Classified Employee of the Year Award. “It’s nice to be recognized and when I found out it was exciting. To say it wasn’t wouldn’t be truthful,” he said. AWARD page 6 John Novak/Courier Don Eckmann, an employee since 7 988, was honored with top employee award.