Earlier this month, members of the Saint Xavier student body came together to petition the administration for changes. This petition was started by the Latinx organization, UNIDOS, in response to a shortage of professors attached to the Spanish Program. According to UNIDOS president, Yasmine Zavela, around 180 signatures were written on the petition submitted. The petition called for new professors to be brought into the language problem as soon as not enough will be present.
In the coming months, Professor Olga Vilella will be leaving Saint Xavier University to enter retirement. This leaves the Spanish Program at Saint Xavier in a precarious situation. Once Vilella departs, if no new professors are brought in, the SXU Spanish program will only have one instructor remaining. With over fifty Spanish majors and a near equal number of Spanish minors, this news is worrying to those enrolled in the language program.
Originally three tenured lines professors were attached to the Spanish program. This number has whittled down to a single tenured line professor who is soon to leave the program and institution.
The petition sent by UNIDOS was constructed as news of faculty involvement in the search for new instructors was made aware. A request for the search of a new tenured line full-time faculty member was sent to the administration written by the department of language and literature. However, the President has said that no such request has come through the president’s office due to miscommunication through the administration.
Unfortunately, this is only the latest of a list of occurrences that have made many students believe that Saint Xavier isn’t living up to the status of the “Spanish serving institution” that the university has recently earned. It was felt that this perceived lack of support from administration diminished the importance of Spanish at SXU even though Hispanic and Latino heritage is prevalent in a sizable portion of the student body.
This situation with the Spanish program reveals a deeper issue at Saint Xavier University. Over the last few years, tenured professors instructing at Saint Xavier has dropped significantly. Around sixty full-time faculty have left the university. This leaves remaining tenure and adjunct professors to pick up the workload of bringing quality education to close to four thousand students.
Department Chair of the language and literature department Angelo Bandonna explains the importance of tenure and tenure lines.
“Tenures lines are important because they denote an institutional commitment long term to a program. Tenure and tenure lines are signs of investment on the part of the institution on their educational mission.”
He continues by saying:
“The issue is about mission and commitment to education, are we meeting those needs?”
A number of possible factors have contributed to these present happenings such as financial difficulties since the mid-2010s, different administrations, and several crises over the years. Concerns of being able to maintain strong programs at SXU has been growing due to all of these issues.
Professors and students alike are relatively united in these concerns. The importance of common understanding is important to many SXU community members. However, the belief of students making the first call for action is seen as necessary. Zavela said, “I think it brings a different perspective really explaining that this is really important and something we want.” She went on to say that. “Having that student voice in addition to needs from faculty themselves should bring more importance to the situation.
About Post Author
