Nine MSU faculty members, graduate students and undergraduate students have been chosen for a committee to review the job performance of the Chicano/Latino Studies program director during the next two months.
The group was selected by College of Social Science Dean Marietta Baba after students and faculty argued that Chicano/Latino Studies Director Sheila Contreras has been unresponsive to complaints about the program’s future and lacks support from program participants.
“Basically, she’s looking to (committee members) to get to the heart of the controversy and ask for recommendations and solutions,” said Michelle Strobel, the college’s director of communications.
Baba selected the nine committee members after speaking with Chicano/Latino Studies faculty about whom to choose, Strobel said.
The task force is comprised of three members of a 2008 committee that reviewed the program’s academic model, two faculty members, two graduate students and two undergraduate students.
“The goal all along was to get a balanced group,” Strobel said.
The task force will evaluate Contreras’ actions in regard to the possible discontinuation of a mentorship program and a reported vote of no confidence from students and faculty, among other issues brought up by students and faculty members.
Strobel said the committee will be asked to submit findings and recommendations regarding Contreras’ future by mid-June.
Baba is expected to
meet with the committee Wednesday to outline the committee’s task and how to approach its review of Contreras.
“Part of my hope is that people are able to hear and examine multiple viewpoints offered in regard to the direction of the program,” said Tom Rios, associate vice president of Student Affairs and Services and a member of the 2008 review committee.
The ultimate goal is to decipher what is best for advancing the Chicano/Latino Studies program, said René Rosenbaum, an assistant community, agriculture, recreation and resource studies professor on the task force.
“I think there is a real need for a better understanding of the Latino community in the United States, and this program can make a contribution in that regard,” said Rosenbaum, who is not affiliated with the Chicano/Latino Studies program.
Although some committee members are tied to the Chicano/Latino Studies program, others, such as anthropology professor Lynne Goldstein, who was on the 2008 review committee, are coming in with little knowledge of complaints against Contreras.
“My guess is that the purpose of that is to make sure all of the people who have a stake in this program have a say in it, and the people who have done some work in terms of looking at the program in the past to review it are also there to lend some perspective,” Goldstein said.
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