Retirements leave hole

Three professors in the Latin American Studies Program have announced plans to retire from teaching after this quarter, leaving a gaping hole in the program's faculty.

Professors Carlos Gil, Charles Bergquist and Dauril Alden have been the backbone of Latin American studies at the UW for the past several years, according to Angelina Godoy, acting director of the Latin American Studies Program.

When Gil began teaching at the UW 30 years ago, the American ethnic studies department didn't exist. Instead, there was a patchwork Chicano studies program with no permanent faculty. Classes were taught entirely by faculty members transplanted from other departments.

"Any programmatic target had to be negotiated furiously with the dean and so on," Gil said. "If you don't have your own faculty, you're basically nobody."

Gil, a historian of modern-era Mexico, spent the first few years of his career at UW teaching Chicano history. Not until the Chicano studies program was incorporated into the Jackson School did Gil return to teaching Latin American studies.

The Latin American Studies Program became a part of the Jackson School in 1992, but the demand for courses in both departments has increased since that time, according to Gil.

"A program justifies itself vis-a-vis the university authorities by the number of students that are going to take its courses," he said.

Now, as Gil prepares for retirement, the program he has helped nurture faces a severe drain in faculty.

All three retiring professors have directed the Latin American Studies Program. Bergquist and Alden could not be reached for comment.

The question of how to replace the three professors remains unanswered. The program has authorized a search for only one full-time replacement professor.

"This one person really can't replace three people. The deficit remains," said Godoy.

Program director Jonathan Warren is currently on sabbatical and could not be reached for comment. After the triple-retirement, Warren will be the sole Latin American studies faculty member who doesn't divide his time between other departments.

The three retiring professors specialize in different areas of Latin American study, according to Gil. Bergquist focuses in labor and Columbian studies, while Alden is a historian of colonial Brazil.

"My understanding is that the department is looking for a Latin Americanist, period," Gil said. "A later decision will be as to the type of specialization this will be."

However, finding a professor who meets the requirements for teaching Latin American studies will be a long and arduous process, Gil predicted.

"The process to replace a tenure or tenure-track faculty member is very slow," he said. "It'll be at least a year, and any decisions about the other two will be decisions that will be taken slowly. If you get the green light to replace a person, the process takes approximately a year, because these searches are international."

Godoy stressed the need for professors to stimulate the growth of the Latin American Studies Program.

"We've grown quite a bit, and we're still a growing program," Godoy said. "The loss of these three eminent historians is a setback, but the big picture is that we're growing and aggressively seeking external funding in order to meet high student demand."

This quarter, the program is offering SISLA 342, "The Government and Politics of North America," and SISLA 492, a seminar. The department is not offering any courses for winter quarter, but does offer credit for research and internships.

"When you have a department that has a lot of senior people, you face the likelihood of two or three people retiring at the same time. Put it together with a budget crisis, and it gets worse," said Gil.

He expressed concern for the students who wish to take courses within the department but will not be able to after he retires.

"What will probably happen is that they won't be able to finish their degree in the manner that they wanted to because they'll have to be looking for other courses from other departments," Gil said.