College of Liberal Arts gets new department heads

By Linda Prendez, On-Line Forty-Niner

Tuesday, September 1, 1998

This semester, disgruntled students, or some just in need of a little direction, will take their questions and gripes to five new department chairpersons in the College of Liberal Arts.

All except one of the new department chairpersons are already professors at Cal State Long Beach, adding to their responsibilities part- and full-time hiring within the departments and scheduling classes for new semesters, among other mediating duties between students and faculty.

Claire Martin, a CSULB professor who specializes in Latin American literature was appointed chairwoman of Romance, German and Russian languages and literatures department. She replaced Clorinda Donato, who was chairwoman of the department for six years.

While Black studies department chairman Dr. Maulana Karenga is on sabbatical, Bede Ssensalo will be acting chairman for the department. Ssensalo, who has taught at CSULB for many years, is a professor of African literature.

The faculty of the linguistics department has appointed Sara Smith, a linguistics professor, as chairwoman. Smith was chairperson before professor Lorraine Kumpf, who she replaced this semester.

Dr. Conrad Barrett replaced Dr. Doug Domingo-Foraste as chairman for the comparative literature and classics department.

The only new chairperson in the College of Liberal Arts not from CSULB is Lee Brown, chairman of the journalism department. The retired journalism professor formerly acted as chairman of the journalism department at San Diego State.

Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Dorothy Abrahamse said that it is not unusual to hire a chairperson from within the department. She said it has long been a tradition in the College of Liberal Arts.

"It's part of having self-government within a department," Abrahamse said.

A department often replaces its chairperson every three to six years. This way, she said, "The department can think of itself as sharing the responsibility."

None of the chairpersons were replaced because of poor performance, Abrahamse said.

A chairperson's term lasts three years. At the end of the term, he or she can be replaced or be appointed to another term. If no one within the department is able to be chairperson, a search is usually done outside the university, Abrahamse said.

The week before classes, the new chairpersons were briefed about their new responsibilities, the most difficult of which was mediating disputed between faculty and students.

Sharon Downey, chairwoman of the communications department, briefed the incoming chairpersons on handling the complaints of students. She specializes in conflict studies.

"The most serious stuff is relational conflicts," said Downey, who has been chairwoman of the communications department for 3 years.

"It's troubleshooting. When a student feels he or she has been put down in class or wants to appeal a grade, the chair handles those kinds of situations," Downey said.