College of Letters and Science Faculty Document No. 734
April 6, 2006

Recommendation of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the L&S Academic Policies and Curriculum Committee for Approval of a Preliminary Entitlement to Plan a Master of Arts in Spanish

Recommendation:

That the L&S Faculty recommend to the Dean approval of the request from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese for a preliminary entitlement to plan a Master of Arts in Spanish.

Rationale:

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had its own Master of Arts in Spanish program during the 1960's and early 1970's. This program was absorbed by the Master of Arts in Foreign Languages and Literature (MAFLL) program when it was created in July of 1974. A request for an entitlement to plan a new M.A. in Spanish was approved in April 1998, as stated in a memorandum from David J. Ward, Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs to Kenneth L. Watters, Provost and Vice Chancellor at UWM. However, on November 7, 2003, Rita Cheng, then Associate Vice Chancellor at UWM, informed Ronald Singer, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at UW System Administration, of the campus's decision not to implement the program because the Department lacked sufficient faculty resources at that time. This is an updated version of GFC Doc #736, the original entitlement request, as required by System Administration.

Over the last three years, the number and areas of specialization of faculty members in the Department have increased significantly, accompanied by broad programmatic innovations in the undergraduate curriculum. As a result, the Department now is in a position to move ahead with the development of the M.A. in Spanish, which it believes is urgently needed in order to offer qualified graduates a more thorough training in Hispanic culture and literature and in the Spanish language than is possible in MAFLL. The MAFLL program, by definition, is interdisciplinary and interdepartmental, and thus limits the extent to which students can concentrate in Hispanic language, literature, and culture.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese has a number of graduate seminars that it offers under MAFLL, normally at the rate of two per semester. The present curriculum dates from 1994, when it was modified in order to make it more flexible and responsive to programmatic desires. The courses are organized by periods and fields; they encourage the structuring of the material around one or more topics. In addition, the department has a great variety of 400- and 500-level undergraduate/graduate (U/G) courses in Spanish Peninsular, Spanish-American, and U.S. Latino literature and culture, as well as in advanced language, linguistics, translation, and interpreting. These courses are offered at the rate of six to eight per semester. The 500-level courses are conducted as seminars, with an enrollment capacity of 15 students. The proposed program's curriculum consists of the courses mentioned above and also relies on advanced courses offered by the Department of English, the Program in Comparative Literature, and MAFLL. All these courses are part of the regular offerings of the above-mentioned department and programs.

Request from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese for Approval of a Preliminary Entitlement to Plan a Master of Arts in Spanish

I. Need for the Program

The Spanish M.A. program consists of a series of courses structured to form a coherent whole designed to make students fully conversant with Hispanic literature, culture, and linguistic issues, as well as proficient in the Spanish language. The program will allow immersion in the study of the Spanish language and the culture and literatures of the Hispanic world, and the name of the degree will emphasize the program's disciplinary integrity. The goal of the Spanish M.A. is to prepare students to pursue additional advanced degrees or careers in teaching and other fields that require full proficiency in the Spanish language as well as mastery of Hispanic literature and culture. Spanish M.A. graduates who subsequently wish to pursue the Ph.D. will be very advanced in the process of mastering the area in which they wish to specialize in their doctoral studies. A significant element favoring the implementation of an M.A. in Spanish is the strong demand by students. Currently (July 2005), MAFLL enrolls a total of 80 students, of which 15 are in the Spanish concentration; in addition, 14 of the 24 students in the Translation track chose Spanish as their source language. It is likely that most of the students who enroll in MAFLL with the intention of concentrating in Spanish will enroll instead in the Spanish M.A. program once it is approved. This will not be the only source of students for the M.A. program, however. We expect that the program will appeal to many people in the greater Milwaukee area and Southeastern Wisconsin who want or need to pursue a graduate degree in Spanish but who were not attracted to the MAFLL program. The M.A. in Spanish will attract new students from this population. As of July 2005, there are 15 students with a concentration in Spanish in MAFLL, which has a total enrollment of 80 students in all areas of specialization. We are confident, once an M.A. in Spanish is created at UWM, that most college graduates wishing to pursue a graduate degree in Spanish at UWM will opt for the new M.A. and that this group will include persons in the Milwaukee area and in southeastern Wisconsin who otherwise would not enroll in graduate study at UWM. The intensive study of the Spanish language, cultures, and literatures offered by the proposed M.A. will make its graduates highly competitive candidates for admission to the best doctoral programs in the U.S., while the ones who choose to follow alternate professional routes will be very attractive to employers of all kinds. As currently is the case under MAFLL, we expect to continue to draw the largest number of applicants to the program from teachers and prospective teachers of high schools and intermediate schools. To make them fully proficient in Spanish and conversant with the whole scope of Hispanic culture is the program's most important goal.

Initially, we anticipate between 15 and 20 students will enroll in the program. This number should increase rapidly if the program is well advertised throughout the Milwaukee area, southeastern Wisconsin, and the UW Colleges within a 100-mile radius. It is likely hat the total number of students enrolled in the M.A. in Spanish will increase to 30 over the first five years, including both full-time and part-time students.

Institutional management enrollment targets call for an increase in graduate enrollments. The M.A. in Spanish will be an excellent recruiting tool for UWM at the regional and, eventually, the national level.

II. Relation to Institutional Mission, Strategic Plan, Goals and Objectives

The mission statement of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese states that it aspires to assume "a leadership role in disseminating Hispanic culture, not only within the campus . . . but in the Milwaukee area too." The M.A. in Spanish will revolve around two essential goals: to provide students with a rigorous critical foundation and to allow them ample opportunity for intensive scholarly work based on a strong foundation in the literatures and cultures of Spain and Latin America, as well as linguistic theories and praxis. By doing so, it will contribute effectively to fulfilling the Department's mission and UWM's goal of becoming "one of America's premier urban universities."

Two recent academic developments are relevant to this proposal: first, in light of Chancellor Carlos Santiago's initiative to expand the number of doctoral programs at UWM, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese now is developing a proposal for a Ph.D. in Spanish, Latin American, and U.S. Latino Studies, a program that would be the only one of its kind in the State of Wisconsin. Second, the Department also is participating actively in the creation and implementation of a new undergraduate Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino studies major, to be housed in the Department. This undergraduate major will serve as a natural source of students for the new MA in Spanish, which in turn will prepare students for the Ph.D. program. Therefore, the M.A. in Spanish fits very well within UWM's commitment to provide quality programs that enhance career and research opportunities for the inhabitants of Milwaukee and the surrounding area. That commitment is an integral part of the mission of UWM's College of Letters and Science.

III. Relation to Other Programs

In UW System:

There is only one M.A. in Spanish in the UW System, that of UW-Madison. The program being proposed at UWM is very similar to the one offered at UW-Madison in its purpose and curriculum: both are flexible programs designed to introduce the candidate to Spanish and Spanish-American literatures, literary criticism and linguistics and are designed for students who complete their academic career at the M.A. as well as for those who decide to pursue the Ph.D. Their non-specialized approach is beneficial to both types. To the M.A. student they afford the breadth of knowledge required for teaching Spanish in secondary schools, community and junior colleges. To the doctoral candidate both programs provide the general foundation necessary for subsequent specialization. Both Master's programs offer a panorama of selected works, a general view of literary and linguistic currents, and an introduction to literary and linguistic research. There are some differences in the two programs, but these are mostly in the admissions requirements, in the number of credits required (30 at UWM vs. 26 at UW-Madison), and in some specific course requirements. Two major differences are: (a) the UW-Madison program does not offer the option of an MA thesis as in the UWM program and, (b) the final examination at UW-Madison is an MA/PhD qualifying exam, but not at UWM.

In the Region:

In Milwaukee, only Marquette University offers an M.A. as well as an M.A.T. in Spanish. These programs are very small and, because Marquette is a private university, rather costly for students who do not receive teaching assistantships. Three area colleges, Alverno, Carroll, and Concordia, offer M.A.s in Education, which allow students to do some work in Spanish. We expect UWM's M.A. in Spanish to become the natural destination for those persons living in southeastern Wisconsin who are interested in pursuing a graduate degree in Spanish. It is very likely that we will find among that group many Hispanics, whose number in the greater Milwaukee area already has surpassed 79,000, or about 10 percent of the population of Milwaukee, according to the 2003 estimated U.S. Census.

In the Nation:

Programs similar to the one we are proposing exist in Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, and Minnesota and are available to qualified college graduates from Wisconsin.

IV. Projected Sources of Revenue:

No new funding is required immediately to launch this program. Our plans assume the continuation of the support the Department now receives for the undergraduate teaching of basic language courses in the form of TAs, full-time, and ad-hoc lecturers. Funds will be required for new faculty positions as increasing enrollments warrant new hiring. The accompanying Estimated Total Costs and Income Budget allows for the additional cost of a new faculty member at the rank of Associate Professor starting in the second year. A new full-time classified employee has also been budgeted for the second year and following years. The program will require a small increase in the department's S&E budget (presently $16,835) mainly to cover the cost of brochures and their distribution to colleges and other places in the area from which we may attract applicants (estimated cost: $1000). If the success of the program results in an increase in the number of faculty members, the departmental S&E budget will have to be increased to address the needs of these new faculty members.