One of UNM's oldest programs is poised to mail rejection letters to all applicants seeking Ph.D.s from UNM.
Hispanic Linguistics, one of three graduate programs overseen by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, is losing its only full-time linguistics professor to Penn State.
The linguistics professor is leaving because she could no longer endure the burden of educating an entire graduate program, said Tey Rebolledo, distinguished professor in the department. Rebolledo declined to name the professor who is leaving.
"What that means, then, is that there's no full-time professor in the department to teach the graduate students, and we have a lot of graduate students in linguistics," Rebolledo said. "So, right now what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to send letters to four or five students saying that there's nobody for them to study with here."
Rebolledo said that if a replacement professor isn't hired soon, the department may have to retire the Hispanic Linguistics Ph.D. program.
Kathryn McKnight, associate chairwoman of the Spanish and Portuguese Department, said the situation could be temporarily resolved if the department were permitted to hire a replacement professor, but they do not have permission from the dean or provost to do so.
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She said the damages to the department go even deeper, however, because the number of full-time faculty members has steadily decreased.
"We are unsure of whether we're going to have sufficient faculty in Portuguese to continue with the master's program. That's up in the air at this point," she said. "We are also down one faculty member in Spanish-American literature, but we can deal with that."
McKnight, who has worked at UNM for nine years, said she has never had to reject all Ph.D. applicants before, nor has she heard of it being done in the past.
McKnight said she has repeatedly asked the provost and deans to allow additional hires in her department but has gotten no response from them.
Rebolledo said the Provost's Office needs to be more flexible and must learn to target problems before they arise.
She said the provost and the president are not paying attention to the College of Arts and Sciences - an infrastructure that is in need of repair.
"The College of Arts and Sciences is like a road that has not been fixed, and it's all full of bumps and cracks and everything, and people come in and they buy all these fancy cars and they try to run them on a road that needs to have an infrastructure that needs to be supported," Rebolledo said. "I really think that's what's happening at UNM. The programs are just getting eroded everywhere - and Spanish is really in a crisis right now."
The Provost's Office asks officials from three peer institutions to conduct an outside review of academic departments on campus about every 10 years.
The Academic Program Review of the Spanish and Portuguese Department in March 2008 noted "a looming crisis, related primarily to the fact that too few faculty members are stretched too thin over this large and complex program."
The review said enrollment in departmental programs increased 83 percent between 1996 and 2005, while the number of instructional faculty decreased from 15 to 13.
This suggests that the department is being stretched beyond its means, the report said.
Felipe Gonzales, associate dean for the College of Arts and
Sciences, said the hiring of a Hispanic Linguistics professor is a top priority in the college's hiring plan.
"It's not hiring-plan season as yet, and so we're not scheduled to submit our hiring plans to the provost, but it will be at the top of our list," Gonzales said.
The hiring plans are submitted at the end of this semester.
Deputy Provost Richard Holder said many departments will make requests for faculty hires and that it might not be possible to grant all of them.
"Although the situation in Spanish and Portuguese is critical, it's also critical in a number of other departments at the college," he said. "And so, (the dean) has to look carefully at the needs and budgets that she has."
Gonzales said that if a hire is approved for a Hispanic Linguistics professor, the department can conduct its search in the fall and then the person would come in during the following academic year.
Gonzales said the Ph.D. program will have to be shelved until them. If the situation goes on to affect the Portuguese master's program, then further alterations may need to be made, he said.
"Those are the kinds of adjustments departments make based on any given circumstance, and of course we have been . in constant communication with the chair and we are talking about these issues," Gonzales said.
