DYER: In 1967, Phil Swearingen, a resident of Sonora, was 19 years of age and a student at Modesto Junior College. Phil, why don’t you spend a little bit of time and tell us a little bit about what your position was at Modesto Junior College in 1967?

SWEARINGEN: Well, at that time I was student body president there, and Dr. Garcia asked me to head up the student portion of involvement in the tax override for the Columbia Junior College campus, and improvement of Modesto and the third campus. Primarily, what I was doing while the rest of the group was going around speaking – the various groups in Stanislaus County and Tuolumne County intending to get the override past.

DYER: Did you work with a group of students – students who attended Modesto Junior College?

SWEARINGEN: I worked with two or three that also went along with this speaking. Actually, it was only two of them that went along, a couple. I also worked with a group that held a parade the day of the voting for the tax override. We had a parade down through Modesto trying to get some support, letting the people in that area know that the students did support it. The only other group I had worked with really was at the time there was a ??? of cutting down some trees which were eventually cut down in the quad area of Modesto Junior College campus, and this was coming right before the election and there was some – a number of students who were really against cutting down these trees. At this time Berkeley had exploded into – prior to this, there was all kinds of people upset over student involvement in political measures and any kind of marching, and this kind of thing. And we were – we were frightened that if something did happen, that it would somehow affect the outcome of the election. And as it turned out it might have in that we won just by a real close majority, and anything could have tipped it the other way, so

DYER: You feared a kind of backlash, then, as a result of the – the student involvement in the override?

SWEARINGEN: Well, what I feared was that the students would really get going on this, not wanting the trees cut down, and that the community would be backlashing that respect, the community would get angry and we might lose our tax override, so what I did is got together with the students who were heading up the group that were against the trees being cut down, told them our political position in terms of the tax override, the importance of that, even said, y’know, I know we may be talking about having the trees cut down, but we have to look at all the trees we are going to utilize up in Columbia if we get the campus up there. “Let’s cool it.” And students listened, I was surprised because I didn’t know how their reaction would be, but I just set it down in black and white, and they said OK, we’ll cool it. And they – the marking stopped, at one point in one particular day it was really getting – the kids were getting hot about it and there could have been a lot more than just some signs, you know, like one that said like, you know like “How’d you like your daughter to marry a lumberjack?” I know one of them that kinda – And at that point it had just been those kinds of signs but kids were getting hot, and really afraid that if they got too hot that we could be in big trouble with ???. But they listened and they said OK.

DYER: Was there any real organized opposition to the establishment of a second campus on the part of the students?

SWEARINGEN: No, none. The students were all for it, they – they knew of course improvement of the present campus and the formulation of another one down in the Valley and certainly the Columbia campus – They were all excited about it, they all wanted it – I’m sure there were a few that didn’t, and if there were some I certainly never came in contact with them. And I think one evidence of it was ??? of these people telling what could be the result – everybody kind of blew up over those trees. They were willing to cooperate, which to my mind – I was very pleased with it. ??? ??? but.

DYER: Now as you went from group to group, did you have sort of a canned message that you delivered to try to convince them that they should support the override?

SWEARINGEN: You talking about the speeches?

DYER: Yes.

SWEARINGEN: I don’t think any of the speeches we had were canned. There were points in them that were canned, points that we always brought up, but depending on the group we were talking to, we spoke very informally to these groups, and this – this was something that we wanted to do, we do want to stand up there as college people trying to shove something down the throats of voters, we wanted to be as – as informal about it as possible. I know I’ll never forget as long as I live one speech I was on with Dr. Garcia, at the Chamber of – it was the – one of the groups, it was up in the Twain Harte Lodge, and I’ve forgotten the group that we spoke to, but it was – it was an example of how we were changing our methods. He started out with some humor that was very dry, and – it just wasn’t going over very well. I mean everyone had had a couple of drinks there, and they weren’t ready for that kind of humor. It was a Rotary club now that I think of it, and as the speech went on for probably 35, 40 minutes, he began to tone his humor down to where, you know, the group would, group would get it and by the time he was done, he was right down in the dirt with everybody else. But this was – really the best example I could think of how we’re plutonium, and of course overall all our speeches, nothing was canned, other than the particular points we brought up.

DYER: Was it difficult for you to go in and try to convince adults that they should support the override?

SWEARINGEN: Well, not necess- I had short hair at the time, which, you know, gave me the – still, it gave me a real ???, in terms of I didn’t put any of them on the defensive, um. The relationship that I had with a group was really good with Dusty and Dr. Garcia ???, and Les Nolls, Bob Deal – was really good. So that I think people could tell that we all got along well. There wasn’t a real – I got a lot of criticism, eventually, for this ??? ??? students, they all thought I was the answering man for the administration but ??? ??? we were all together. And we were all for this ???. I think people felt that. And when I tried to bring a part as a student, what I felt this campus meant, and talking about the philosophy we had for ??? this commune for education, let alone just this community. I don’t think we got much of an opposition. ??? did, ??? of the time and so very exciting I think it caught on with a lot of people. A lot of people I don’t think really – when we did a speech to a captive audience, whether it be the Grangers or the Rotary or the Lions, someone would be interested in education, someone could care less. I think a lot of those people that could have cared less became kind of enthused because we were so enthused. We ??? fifty times a week, you know, setting who’s going to go where, what we were going to do, and there was such enthusiasm that it was just catchy, it was so darn catchy, I know Bob Deal all the time, we’d be sitting there at the beginning of the meeting, and we wanted a pollster, we wanted to do something for the newspaper. And we’d be sitting there talking it over, and all the time we’re doing it Bob Deal would be sitting there with his pencil, and by the time we were done with the meeting he’d have the thing all sketched out, you know, it was remarkable sketches too, excellent and but we were all working hard and so enthusiastic, it caught on with everyone I believe.

DYER: Well, as a resident of the area – did you have any personal feelings about the establishment of the new campus in your own backyard?

SWEARINGEN: I was so darn excited I couldn’t hold myself at the time. It really – I knew what the area looked like, and we used to come up here, particularly for afternoon games. There was some light after-??? Before we spoke, we used to come up here and tromp around the campus. Kind of good for a laugh at times,  but you’d only picture what it was going to look like. Where the buildings would be set, how the lake was – and talking about the philosophy in conjunction with the setting and what it would mean to this community.

DYER: Did you see it as a kind of evolution of the Modesto plan, or did you see it as something that was to be entirely new?

SWEARINGEN: I think I saw ??? something new. I mean, following in the – there is some sameness among all campuses of higher education, but people – and here we were, starting out a new campus – the ideas, the criteria we were basing our philosophies on, were completely to my mind different than other campuses, and I say I, primarily Dusty and Bob Deal and um, Dr. Garcia, all these people that got together and talked it over there, they’re looking at it in a different way. It was new, as new as I think a campus can be.

DYER: You must have spent considerable time talking with Dr. Garcia and Dr. Rhodes and Bob Deal about it – were there certain things that you remember, vivid impressions that you had as a result of this conversation? Their interest in it? Were you asked for your input?

SWEARINGEN: Oh, yes. We – everyone was asked, and we’d drive somewhere, this is where most of our discussions went on, where we could all sit around and talk, and talk about the philosophy – we wouldn’t, at this point, it wasn’t down to the real fine points it eventually culminated - ??? – they were general ideas, comparatively speaking, and all of us would be included, and then and uh, I know Dusty was very interested in how I felt about it, as he was anyone that was willing to talk to him about it. They were taking suggestions, they were mulling them around from all sides. And no-one was left out in terms of – you had to say it if you wanted to say it. There was no doubt about that. Many untold hours were spent just talking, just trying to set down something very general.

DYER: Are there any impressions that you had after all the work was done, all the hours, all the shoe leather used and the tears shed, any final impression that you had after you had finally been able to convince the public to buy the plan?

SWEARINGEN: Oh, I, you know, we knew the election – we all got together with the exception of Dr. Garcia who was on accreditation, came down in Concord community college, I believe, and we were all over at one of the members’ houses, watching TV, same night Governor Reagan was elected, so it was good ??? ???. And, you know, waiting for the reports to come in. There was just, you know – When it finally passed, and particularly when it passed, it wasn’t something that went over like a bang, it was really close, we were just absolutely – We couldn’t have been happier. And two or three days, I think it was two days later, Dr. Garcia was flying back, Buena Vista airport, and we all got together – it was in many respects, well between he and Dusty – those were the two that headed the whole thing, both the philosophy to great extent and the uh, well the day-to-day things that had to be gone through in order to create the campus. We got the school, student police as an honor guard, and Dr. Garcia’s secretary somewhere dug top hat and tie and tails and the whole darn bit, the whole outfit, I don’t know where she got it, and I dressed up in the thing and we got three bags of money, and each – written on each bag, one was for Modesto, one was for Columbia, and one was for the third campus, signifying this. The band was out there from the school. And all the people were involved, and we met him at the airplane. He was so darn tired I don’t even think he could see straight at the time. I don’t know what he thought of it. But that was, you know, kind of the culmination of the real joy we had in the thing passing. Everyone was just thrilled, you know, it was so fantastic.

DYER: Phil, thank you very much. Certainly we appreciate the interview and your significant input in the establishment of Columbia Junior College.

END OF TAPE

General Information:

Interviewer: Dyer, Richard

Interviewee: Swearingen, Phil (A resident of Sonora who was 19 years of age when he was a student at Modesto Junior College)

Name of Tape: (a section of) History of Columbia Junior College (CC_hist_6_1)

When: Late 60’s early 70’s

Transcriber: Alden (4/17/08)

Transcriber’s Note: n/a