Editor,
I read the Daily Lobo article "Students question forced resignation" on Professor Monica Cyrino, and I must say I found it terribly misleading and outrageous. Your reporter did not take the time to interview more than one graduate student from Foreign Languages and Literature, nor did he take into account those who work directly with Professor Cyrino in the department.
If the dean did not say anything against her in his interview, it is because he is not allowed to talk about that matter and everyone knows it.
I would also like to remind people that it's not Cyrino's abilities as a teacher that are being challenged here, but rather her work as a chairperson. The students who take Cyrino's class on Greek mythology don't have to deal with the chairperson of the department. Her "resignation" therefore should not be their concern; she will still be their pseudo-cool professor.
Saying that jealousy was at stake here is a very naãve and undocumented interpretation of the situation. Cyrino's superficiality and huge ego are more something to laugh about rather than to envy.
If, as you carefully noted, Cyrino likes to be photographed "from her right side," who really cares? What your article was doing was just feeding Cyrino's gigantic ego. The point of the matter is that she must have made inexcusable professional mistakes, otherwise, the dean of Arts and Sciences would never have taken such action - that would be dumb.
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Have you ever thought for a minute that far from being a victim, as your article suggests, Monica Cyrino might just be a lousy chairwoman who did a lousy job?
Dan Kowalski
UNM graduate student
Editor's Note: It is not the newspaper's position to take sides on this issue, and we never took any action to paint Professor Monica Cyrino as a victim. We would have preferred more commentary from people in the Foreign Languages and Literature Department about this issue, but all those contacted said they were not interested in commenting for publication.
