Despite the loss of one of their most prominent scholars, faculty at the Department of Political Science have risen to fill some big shoes in the upper administration.
The department faced hardships this summer when one of its foremost experts on Latino politics, F. Chris Garcia, was arrested in June for his connections with a prostitution ring.
Mark Peceny, former chair of the political science department, who recently took the post of interim dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, said he hoped the community did not see Garcia’s personal actions as a reflection upon the department or Garcia’s professional work.
“Dr. Garcia had to be held accountable for his personal actions, but I personally don’t want to forget the years of friendship and mentorship he gave to me and his service to the University,” he said.
Peceny said he was looking forward to the future rather than reflecting on the past.
“We have so many new leaders,” he said. “We have an interim provost, an interim dean, a brand new dean in the school of engineering, an interim dean in the school of graduate studies, and it seems like a time when we can re-imagine everything we do here and ask, in this moment, ‘What kind of a university do we want to be?’”
Peceny took over as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in July. He was selected from a pool of finalists, including Amy Wohlert, the dean of Graduate Studies; Phillip (Felipe) Gonzales, the senior associate Dean for faculty in Arts and Sciences; and Phil Ganderton, the Associate Dean for Research.
Professor Sherman Wilcox, from the linguistics department, led a search committee composed of chairs and faculty in the college which made recommendations to the interim provost, who made the final decision.
Peceny said the dean of Arts and Sciences position is a huge responsibility. Last year nearly 6,000 students were enrolled in the college of arts and sciences. About 29 percent of undergraduate students and 23 percent of graduates are enrolled in Arts and Sciences.
Peceny said he is not necessarily in line for a permanent position, but that it is an option.
“I would be tremendously happy to return to teaching and writing the book I am delaying,” he said. “Frankly, my first love is teaching … but I would also be glad to continue in this position.”
Political science professor William Stanley took over for Peceny as political science chair.
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“Mark and I see eye to eye on a lot of things,” Stanley said.
Stanley served as acting chair two years ago during Peceny’s sabbatical, and political science faculty unanimously elected him to the new position.
“We have had graduate students teach introductory courses, but sometimes they teach sooner than they are ready to,” he said. “I would like to move to a structure with larger classes taught by a professor and graduate students who act as discussion leaders in the classroom.”
He said the department is looking forward to continuing research in the field of Latin American politics, a subject in which UNM is nationally competitive.
