On December 4, Spanish majors protest in regards to the Spanish department being understaffed.
Renee Nealis, a Spanish Secondary Education Major says, “We have done a lot of different things to make the university aware of this problem. We have sent out emails that had a petition and even had a Xavierite article written.”
“The University had dismissed all these things and we think a protest is a next step in order for the school to hear what we want to say,” continues Nealis.
Spanish majors want their voices to be heard and hope that protesting will make the school improve the Spanish Program.
Gilda Torres, a Communications and Spanish Major says, “I think that protesting will be very effective because we get to say what we are thinking while also getting others to think too.
Evelyn Nieto, a Spanish Secondary Major at SXU adds, “We do not know if attempting to get our voices across to administration once more will work or not, but we hope that they really consider our request considering that the Latinx population at Saint Xavier is only getting larger every year.”
After this semester there will only be one full-time Spanish teacher that is running the Spanish Department. The Spanish Department being understaffed had been a problem in past semesters.
“When I was looking for classes, there was no availability. I have the same exact teacher for all my classes next semester because there were no other options,” Torres adds.
“I think that all the school cares about is money and not exactly student’s feelings or what they need. If the school really cared they would hire more teachers for the Spanish department,” continues Torres.
Nealis adds, “We have about 50 people majoring in Spanish and about another 50 minoring in Spanish. We only have one full time teacher and one adjunct teacher to teach our classes.”
The students wish for action to be taken and hope that more teachers will be hired after the protest.
Nieto says, “It has been a little bit over a month that the students have come together to discuss this particular problem and at this point, we only want to get our opinions across and hope to get our voices heard.”
“We have spoken to teachers about this problem in the past but they are unable to really do anything about it so we want to talk to the people in charge who can make changes,” Nealis states.
The Spanish majors state that they just want the best for their program as well as their education.
Nieto says, “As a Latina Spanish Secondary Education major, the Spanish department and the Spanish classes that I have been taking over the past three years in order to receive my degree truly means a lot to me.”
Torres adds, “I feel that it is also necessary to do this for incoming freshmen that want to take up a Spanish major or minor at our University.
About Post Author
