Editor,
I see the Board of Regents recently spent $12,000 to meet with the Health Sciences Center at the luxury Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa. They had to meet off campus, they say, to avoid distractions.
The Department of Linguistics Signed Language Interpreting Program faculty also met last week to select new majors in this highly competitive program. We met on campus — in a room barely able to hold the nine faculty members, a candidate and signed language interpreter.
The room was hot and stuffy because UNM maintenance was working on the air conditioning. We met from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and six hours on Saturday.
Maybe the board needs to redirect its focus. Maybe a little distraction from the UNM campus would give the board better insight into the University’s dire academic conditions. Maybe then members would understand why main campus faculty believe the board and central administration have lost touch with the University’s heart and soul.
Our interviews are over. We have selected a small group of 16 majors in our signed language interpreting program. Sadly, we turned away more students than we accepted because we don’t have the faculty, facilities, or resources to educate them.
This comes in the face of a critical shortage of professional interpreters for the deaf citizens of our state. Next year, perhaps a board member would be willing to join us and experience the agony of destroying UNM students’ aspirations because the resources needed to educate them are being used to shield administrators from distractions.
Sherman Wilcox
UNM professor
