Administration and Service

administrative functions and service | committee work | international connections

Throughout my career I devoted considerable time to various charges in departmental administration and University policy. Besides repeated assignments as Director of Graduate Studies at OSU and UIUC, the main commitment was for two periods of being department Chair of Spanish and Portuguese at OSU (1996-2004). The efforts invested in these past years as chair have been very rewarding. With the collaborative efforts of faculty and staff colleagues, we accomplished to raise the departmental profile not only in terms of research, but significantly also through a renovation of graduate curricula. One visible success story of this period is the transformation of the Ph.D. program in Hispanic Linguistics into a premier curriculum as visible in its faculty as well as the quality of graduate students and their professional placement. At the same time, the expansion of the language program and the growth in the Spanish major program, especially with the addition of an coherent honors option, constitute important milestones in the history of the department.

Administrative Functions and Service

1996 - 2004 Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, OSU
1992 - 1994 Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, OSU
1986 - 1988 Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, UIUC
1979 - 1983 Coordinator of Graduate Studies, Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, UIUC (same as above position with title change)

Committee Work

1988 - 2006 Numerous committee assignments at all levels at OSU, among them:

Department

Advisory Committee (elected)
Faculty Searches (also chair)
Chair Search Committee, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese (chair)
Pattern of Administration
Grade Complaint Committees (also chair)
Promotion and Tenure Committee

College of Humanities

Executive Committee (ex officio)
Diversity, Affirmative Action, and Disability
Chair Search Committee, Dept. of Linguistics, Dept. of English
Committee on College Budget Priorities

Campus Level

Self Study Committees for Dept. of Linguistics and for Dept. of Germanic Languages and Literatures
University Senate (1998-2001, elected)
Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility, (member 1998-9, co-chair 1999-2000)
Senate Committee on Evaluation of Central Administrators (2001-2003)
Senate Hearing Committee: Panel chair for two P&T hearings (2002-04)
Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Evaluation of Budget Restructuring (2002-04)
Senate Fiscal Committee (2003-04)
Committee on Fiscal Strategies for Study Abroad Programs (2004)
Senate Committee on Faculty Compensation and Benefits (2005-)

1970 - 1988 Numerous committee assignments at all levels at UIUC.

International connections

The general trend in the field in combination with the institutional push toward internationalization provided an ideal context for continuing and expanding specific departmental connections with international institutions (ITESM, IUOG, Univ. of Seville), as well as fostering international programs with Toledo, Cuernavaca, Quito, etc. Personally, I enjoyed many opportunities of participating in international events, mainly in Europe with conference participation, lectures, guest faculty status, and other activities,

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