Baba created the committee last month in response to a CLS Office Operations and Implementation Advisory Committee recommendation calling for the offices of the provost and social science dean to allocate more resources to ease CLS Program Sheila Contreras into her position.

Baba appointed Lisa Fine, a Department of History professor and Center for Gender in Global Context co-director, and René Rosenbaum, a Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies associate professor, to two faculty positions.

The remaining two faculty positions and two ex-officio positions were filled from a pool of about 17 candidates, Baba said. Ramona Fernandez, Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Culture associate professor, and Manuel Chavez, Department of Journalism associate professor, both received faculty positions on the committee.

Baba appointed Ruben Martinez, director of the Julian Samora Research Institute and a sociology professor, as the committee chairperson Sept. 8.

“We don’t want anybody to just agree, agree, agree all the time,” Baba said. “We want different ideas to be put out there and debated. If that didn’t happen, it’d be a disappointment, but I wouldn’t call that conflict.”

In contrast to previous attempts to bring CLS community members together, Martinez said he believes this committee will set aside any differences and work together to offer advice to Contreras.

“This is all about the betterment of the program and I believe the committee members are able to serve on it because that’s what they want,” Martinez said. “They bring good faith to the effort and they bring an interest in seeing the program stabilized.”

Rosenbaum, who met a majority of the committee members, said he is excited to work with the group.

“I have high regard and respect for all of them,” Rosenbaum said. “I think they share with me an interest in making the program serve the needs of our community, including our students and starting with our students.”

Baba said her office will schedule the group’s first meeting for later this month.

Group members will race to develop CLS program bylaws before the end of the semester in response to a mandate from Provost Kim Wilcox, who made the commitment to a group of faculty, undergraduate students and graduate students upset by Contreras’ and Baba’s actions regarding the program.