SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday to temporarily rename one of its campuses honoring Cesar Chavez in light of sex abuse allegations against the late labor leader.
The building in Barrio Logan will now be known as the College of Continuing Education Harbor View Campus while the district initiates the process to find a permanent replacement. ABC 10News learned that the name of a previous campus for the district in that area was the Cesar E. Chavez Campus, which was built in 2015.
The board also plans to remove any elements connected to Chavez and ratify a petition to rename Cesar Chavez Parkway.
Before making the decision, board members wanted to hear from the community.
“Making a change gives the community the power to say ‘We’re not going to take it,’” Geysil Arroyo said.
Arroyo, the SDCCD Board of Trustees president, was inspired by Chavez as a child and is now in charge of handling his tarnished reputation.
“He’s someone that looked like my family. Someone that was — it’s hard to even think positively given the allegations,” Arroyo said.
After the sex abuse allegations against Chavez were made public, there have been countless efforts to remove or replace dedications to him. ABC 10News was there in late March when the San Diego Unified Board unanimously agreed to start the renaming process for Cesar Chavez Elementary School in Southcrest.
During Monday's SDCCD meeting, community members shared mixed reactions. David Oddo spoke in favor of a change that pays tribute to the farmworkers movement.
“I’m heartbroken about the allegations that have been made against Chavez, but I think it’s important to recognize the contributions he did make to the overall cause,” Oddo said.
Others, like former SDCCD student Enrique Velez Garcia, think Chavez’s legacy should not be erased.
“(Chavez stood) up with people as a leader. But what happened with Dolores? There’s no investigation,” Garcia said.
The district’s Continuing Education president will lead community discussions and return to the board with a permanent name recommendation by the end of the Fall 2026 semester.
“We want to be on the right side of history, and this is an opportunity for us to wake up to teach the younger generations what’s important,” Arroyo said.
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