Staff Report
Professor Scott Sanders will become interim chairman for the English department.
Sanders will replace former chairman David Jones and serve until July 2009.
Jones announced Sept. 10 that he would transfer to the new position of special assistant to the dean for International Programs.
His resignation came a week after turmoil resurfaced in the creative writing department over the decision to retain Lisa Chavez - a professor who posed with one of her students in sexually suggestive photographs - as an employee of the University.
The creative writing department falls under the English department chairperson's direction.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Philip Ganderton, an associate dean for research, said Sanders has had previous experience as department chairman and will be able to handle the duties of the position.
"He was the chair of English before," Ganderton said. "He's the interim chair now, but he was previously the chair at some time in the past - before the departing chair."
Sanders has been a professor at UNM for 24 years. He is a writer and poet and has contributed to literary magazines such Mr. Cogito, Rocky Mountain Review, Chiaroscuro, Spoon River Poetry Review and Weber Studies. Sanders was not available for comment.
University spokesman Benson Hendrix said UNM will search for a new English department chairperson while Sanders fills the position.
"The interims are there to provide the leadership and the stability for the school or the department while the University is looking for a replacement," Hendrix said. "It's somebody who is there to kind of step up and lead the department temporarily."
Hendrix said a permanent replacement chair will most likely come from within the English department.
