Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Southwestern College's Proper Snack Bar

Like many community colleges, Southwestern College, located in Chula Vista, had to severely cut course offerings in the spring and summer of this year. At a June 2010 press conference, California Community College chancellor Jack Scott said, “Over the past year, about 140,000 students came to community colleges to take classes but were not able to enroll because those classes were not available.”

Despite budget problems, Southwestern’s superintendent/president Raj Chopra hired Trilogy PR using general fund monies for an unknown reason. According to Trilogy’s website, “Southwestern College called on Trilogy PR group’s expertise and contacts to ease media and community pressure during a critical period with a successful crisis management plan implemented by Scott Alevy.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

According to Southwestern College’s April 2010 purchase order, Alevy was paid $2491 for communication services. The purchase order names Chopra as the initiator of the agreement. Aside from being a principal at Trilogy, Alevy serves alongside Chopra on the South County Economic Development Council.

In a March 2009 Union-Tribune Q&A piece, Chopra identified wasteful practices that he was correcting at Southwestern. Among those practices, he mentioned, “Work was being outsourced when personnel from the college could have performed the services.”

Chris Bender is Southwestern’s "chief marketing, communications, and community and government relations officer." When contacted on July 19 to inquire what crisis Southwestern College was experiencing when Trilogy PR was hired and what services were performed, Bender was unable to answer. Bender said he was newly hired during the period in question and was unfamiliar with the situation. When asked in a follow-up email why the college could not handle the matter in-house, he said he would send an update later in the day. That didn’t happen. (On July 21, Southwestern College’s communications VP called to say he was still searching for the requested information.) Bender was hired in March 2010. His salary for the fiscal year 2011 is $95,772.

In an editorial last May, Southwestern College’s student newspaper, the Sun, suggested that money spent on consultants might have been better spent on classes. The editorial stated that the college had spent $99,468 on a pension consultant, $11,500 on a snack-bar consultant, and $122,000 on a technology consultant. Regarding the “snack-bar consultant” and “technology consultant,” the editorial stated, “Both of these consultants seem strange to spend money on since the college already pays a hefty salary to a Director of Food Services and a Director of Computer Systems and Services.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Downtown thrift shop offers three bands in one show

Come nightfall, Humble Heart hosts The Beat
Next Article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount

Like many community colleges, Southwestern College, located in Chula Vista, had to severely cut course offerings in the spring and summer of this year. At a June 2010 press conference, California Community College chancellor Jack Scott said, “Over the past year, about 140,000 students came to community colleges to take classes but were not able to enroll because those classes were not available.”

Despite budget problems, Southwestern’s superintendent/president Raj Chopra hired Trilogy PR using general fund monies for an unknown reason. According to Trilogy’s website, “Southwestern College called on Trilogy PR group’s expertise and contacts to ease media and community pressure during a critical period with a successful crisis management plan implemented by Scott Alevy.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

According to Southwestern College’s April 2010 purchase order, Alevy was paid $2491 for communication services. The purchase order names Chopra as the initiator of the agreement. Aside from being a principal at Trilogy, Alevy serves alongside Chopra on the South County Economic Development Council.

In a March 2009 Union-Tribune Q&A piece, Chopra identified wasteful practices that he was correcting at Southwestern. Among those practices, he mentioned, “Work was being outsourced when personnel from the college could have performed the services.”

Chris Bender is Southwestern’s "chief marketing, communications, and community and government relations officer." When contacted on July 19 to inquire what crisis Southwestern College was experiencing when Trilogy PR was hired and what services were performed, Bender was unable to answer. Bender said he was newly hired during the period in question and was unfamiliar with the situation. When asked in a follow-up email why the college could not handle the matter in-house, he said he would send an update later in the day. That didn’t happen. (On July 21, Southwestern College’s communications VP called to say he was still searching for the requested information.) Bender was hired in March 2010. His salary for the fiscal year 2011 is $95,772.

In an editorial last May, Southwestern College’s student newspaper, the Sun, suggested that money spent on consultants might have been better spent on classes. The editorial stated that the college had spent $99,468 on a pension consultant, $11,500 on a snack-bar consultant, and $122,000 on a technology consultant. Regarding the “snack-bar consultant” and “technology consultant,” the editorial stated, “Both of these consultants seem strange to spend money on since the college already pays a hefty salary to a Director of Food Services and a Director of Computer Systems and Services.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Woodpeckers are stocking away acorns, Amorous tarantulas

Stunning sycamores, Mars rising
Next Article

Could Supplemental Security Income house the homeless?

A board and care resident proposes a possible solution
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader