The creative writing department's director, Julie Shigekuni, held a mandatory meeting for members of the MFA program Friday to tell them it is time to move forward.
Shigekuni took over the department for Sharon Warner, who resigned from her position in March after associate professor Lisa Chavez posed for pictures posted on an adult Web site and was sent on an emergency sabbatical, a shake-up that crippled the department.
Warner is on sabbatical for the fall semester while Chavez is still teaching.
Shigekuni said she is concerned for the welfare of the department and not for the politics that are brewing within it.
She said she plans to focus on the needs of the students in the creative writing program.
"I think that situations such as the one that we're in are harmful," she said. "They harm the program. I think that it's an unfortunate situation, but I also think that the program is harmed by people who do not want to be here and are still here."
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UNM spokeswoman Susan McKinsey said President David Schmidly issued a letter to faculty members in July that said Chavez's actions were investigated and found to be "neither criminal nor rising to the level of sexual harassment."
"Through the whole time, President Schmidly has never wavered from his position that his first and foremost concern is for the safety of the students, the integrity of the program and the reputation of the University," McKinsey said.
Warner said the investigation was not sufficient because Chavez's actions after the Web site was discovered were not examined.
Chavez put a student's career in jeopardy in an effort to protect her own, Warner said.
Warner said Chavez suspected her assistant Carrie Cutler knew about the pictures posted on the Web site and told faculty members about them.
Warner said Chavez blamed Cutler for the investigation into her extracurricular activities.
"The first thing that Lisa did was to drop her as her dissertation advisee so that Carrie didn't have a director any more," Warner said.
Cutler declined to comment.
Chavez said she could not comment because she is still pursuing legal action against the University in response to the discrimination she experienced during what she called "the serious mishandling" of the case.
The conflict has trickled down to other students in the program.
Micaela Seidel, a creative writing graduate student, said she and other graduate students are astounded by the shortcomings of the University's investigation.
Seidel said it is inappropriate for the University to allow Chavez to continue teaching.
"A lot of people feel that it's a little sketchy to have her teaching undergraduates who are the most vulnerable of all, especially 101 and 102 students who are just entering the University," she said. "That seems extremely inappropriate, since it seems that Lisa apparently doesn't have good boundaries."
In an April interview with SexInThePublicSquare.org, Chavez said the University has not taken disciplinary action against her and that she doesn't expect it to.
Lucy DuPertuis, a teaching assistant for the English department, said the University is setting a dangerous precedent by ignoring the problems in the creative writing department.
"Sending students back to that same level - when they didn't have recourse, when they didn't have defense against professors doing things that were harmful to them both emotionally, physically and sexually - is wrong," she said.
Valerie Santillanes, a graduate student in the creative writing program, said students have suffered because of the controversy.
"I feel very neglected," she said. "I don't feel like I'm getting the attention that I want and deserve and pay for in this program. I want the faculty to stop paying attention to Lisa Chavez and each other and start paying attention to me - and maybe a few other students as well."
