VOLUME 108 ISSUE 3
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM
September 12, 2013
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Porn prof intends to retire
after sex scandal with students
Christine Michaels and
Paul Ochoa
Staff Writers
“Navigating Pornography”
instructor Hugo Schwyzer
announced Wednesday that he
intends to retire early after a dis¬
trict investigation into allegations
that he was having sex with his
students.
Schwyzer was at risk of being
terminated from the college after
publicly admitting to having
sexual relations with his students
as recently as 2011, according to
a district statement released on
Sept. 5. But he told the Courier
Wednesday that he expects to
take a disability pension.
“I’m heading into disability
retirement, acting on both the
advice of my doctors and the
pressure from the public and the
PCC community,” said Schwyz¬
er.
According to the faculty
retirement system CALSTRS,
Schwyzer is eligible for a disabili¬
ty pension if he is determined to
be disabled, regardless of age.
In Schwyzer’s most recent
post on his blog, he admits the
claims of having sex with his
students are true.
“Until recently, I maintained
that I had stopped having sex
with students enrolled in my
classes in 1 998. That is not true;
Hugo Schwyzer takes photo o;
I started sleeping with students
again in 2008,” he wrote.
Robert Bell, senior vice pres¬
ident of student services, ex¬
plained at the time Schwyzer left
that the professor hadn’t broken
any district policy by having a re¬
lationship with a person outside
of the district.
But sex with students is an¬
other story.
According to the District’s
policy no. 6022, “consensual
relationships between members
tudents with porn star.
of the College community are
inappropriate if one individual
has power or authority over an¬
other,” such as relationships be¬
tween students and instructors.
“Such conduct, if confirmed as
true, would be a grave violation
of college policy,” the district
statement reads.
Schwyzer voluntarily left
the college earlier this summer
after sexting messages between
him and amateur adult film star
Christina Parreria were made
John Novak/Courier
public. The District is still inves¬
tigating Schwyzer’s claims.
“The college is acting swiftly
to conduct an investigation and
to hold Mr. Schwyzer account¬
able for his actions while an
employee,” the statement reads.
According to Cooper, the
college will continue the investi¬
gation regardless of Schwyzer’s
employment status. “People
resign but that doesn’t mean you
don’t investigate because there
are still victims,” Cooper said.
Academic Senate tables program review
Madison Miranda
Online Editor
A proposal to charge the Edu¬
cational Policies Committee with
overseeing academic program
reviews was tabled at the Sept. 9
Academic Senate meeting. The
decision to approve the proposal
would have defined the Senate’s
power to change the Student
Learning Outcomes for college
courses.
After an extensive and heated
debate about the statement the
Senate planned to make, it voted
to table the decision until the
Sept. 23 meeting. Many exten¬
sions to the
discussion time
were added,
making the total
discussion ap¬
proximately 56
minutes long.
The wording
of the statement
was criticized as
being unclear.
Multiple sena¬
tors expressed
concerns about
giving away the
power to review programs to
the Institutional Effectiveness
Committee (IEC).
“The existing
policy says that
the IEC reviews
the reviews,”
said Dan Haley,
Senate treasur¬
er. “They don’t
do program
reviews, they
take a look at
the reviews that
come in from
the program re¬
views and they
make changes
and go from there.”
Haley suggested the Senate
make a statement to clarify its
role and the IEC’s role in pro¬
gram reviews.
“We can make a statement
that says the faculty is in charge
of program review, not the IEC.
They review the review process,
not the programs themselves.”
Matthew Jordan, co-chair of
the IEC, spoke to the Senate in
an attempt to clear up the IEC’s
understanding of its role in
program review.
“[In] our current program
review process, the program re¬
views are conducted by faculty,”
he said. “The IEC reviews the
program reviews and provides
SENATE page 7 ►
Teresa Mendoza
/
Courier
Faculty members at the Aca¬
demic Senate Board meeting
College appoints two brand new directors
Raymond Bernal
Staff Writer
The college recently appointed
Valerie Wardlaw as Interim Di¬
rector of Public Relations after
previous PR director Juan Guti¬
errez was promoted to Director
of Government and Community
Relations.
Wardlaw previously served as
a special projects consultant for
the PCC Foundation and has a
background in marketing, public
relations, and communications
and has worked for the U.S. De¬
partment of Health and Human
Services in the Women’s Health
Division.
Sounding eager to embark
in her new endeavor Wardlaw
said, “I’m very passionate about
PCC and the students here. My
main focus will be on how get
the message out about the many
wonderful programs at this col¬
lege by totally utilizing social me¬
dia and community outreach.”
Wardlaw received her masters
and doctorate in psychology
from Fuller Theological Sem¬
inary here in Pasadena and a
bachelor’s degree in sociology
from Hampton University in
Virginia.
“I used to intern here at PCC
as a student at Fuller and it’s
great to be back,” said Wardlaw.
“I’m looking to beef up our
team at the public relations
office,” she added, noting that
Juan Guttierrez,
Director of
Govermental
And Community
Relations, in his
old office in the C
Building.
John Novak
/
Courier
she is currendy working to add
more work study students.
In his new capacity, Gutierrez
will be charged with overseeing
governmental and community
RELATIONS page 7 ►
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