Her cluttered office glows with a burnt-orange hue. Binders of music sheets, books of children's songs and a mini fridge fill up this otherwise cozy office. Yet, everything here has its place.
This is the academic office of Dr. Regina Carlow. She is set to become the interim Dean of the College of Fine Arts, according to interim Provost Richard Wood.
The position opened after the previous dean, Kymberly Pinder, accepted a position as provost and senior vice president at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, according to University of New Mexico Newsroom.
“I have seventeen songs in my head,” Carlow said. Right now, “Ride the Chariot” by American composer William Henry Smith was top on that list. She was working with a men's choir, preparing them for concert.
She said she’ll still be teaching online courses, but leaving her familiar space of teaching into the world of administration would be a challenge.
But the road to becoming a dean of fine arts wasn’t always so concrete for Carlow.
“My parents were dead set against me being an artist because of finances,” Carlow said. She said she was a first generation high school graduate.
She taught choir in primary school for 22 years in the Washington D.C. area before becoming a university professor.
When Carlow left primary education, she went to the University of Maryland, College Park. She chose UNM over Southern Methodist University to focus her research on the experience of immigrant girls in music programs.
Carlow said many times, immigrant girls were placed in choral programs because school officials had nowhere else to put them.
“Her voice didn’t matter. She didn’t understand what was going on. Music was different. The tradition of choral singing was different.”
Carlow said that immigrant girls who wanted to sing had to have a higher level of talent and experience than boys simply because of the number of girls in choral programs.
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Carlow said she has two main goals as interim dean.
First is ensuring the story of the College of Fine Arts and the story of what a degree in fine arts can do.
“There’s probably a fine arts course you can take that will make your life better.”
Her second goal was to formalize a structure of internships in the college. Carlow said that raising the money for these internships would be difficult, but telling the story of fine arts would service that goal.
Carlow said she would try to keep her office down the hall from Popejoy Theatre.
Adjacent to her framed degrees, is a laminated goodbye card from a student of hers back east. It reads “Goodbye Ms. Carlow. I won’t miss you.”
“That’s going with me to the dean's office,” Carlow said.
She remember the name of the student and the color of his eyes. She said that as a teacher or an administrator you hold enormous power.
Justin Garcia is a freelance reporter with the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers ASUNM. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter at @just516garc.
