Going to War

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university of new mexico

After all of the setbacks in my program of study, I wanted to take a much needed semester’s break to recollect myself and to wait until the wife’s tuition reimbursement kicked in. First I was told I could, then my graduate secretary told me “you can’t do that during dissertation hours.”

Scott is not very angry. Not just at this slight, which is just one of a series, but because it is one of a series. I was repeatedly denied teaching and assistant positons, despite being in the doctoral program — even when the Office of Graudate Studies own guidelines at the time specified the “most qualified” applicants were to have first consideration…masters students are, by definition, less qualified, but at the University of New Mexico, skin color, sexual orientation, and gender matter first.

Scott goes to the OGS and gains clarification. My kind of petition: family exigencies, professional obligations (I am teaching at another university), and financial troubles mean — according to the lady that makes these decisions — that I do qualify. I go to the College of Arts & Sciences to meet with an associate dean over the issues endemic in the program: discriminatory aid decisions, poor program choices, overly specialized faculty, and spineless leadership. Oh…she’ll get back to you.

So I’ve been touching base with a few of my lawyer friends. It’s time to go to war and damn the consequences. Because if I have to drop out, after all the money I’ve spent and borrowed to get nothing in the way of service or product (a degree) and all the determination I’ve showed (two chairs died killing my program of study twice and my current chair gives feedback for my work in geologic time scales), you’re damned right I’m going for compensation.

University of New Mexico…Don’t Do It

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university of new mexico

Granted, I can only really speak for the atrocious History department, but having some insight into English and Education sides of the house I feel confident to say: if you are considering graduate school at the University of New Mexico, save your cash or go elsewhere.

I have been in the doctoral program for six years. In that time I have had to change concentration just to have enough classes to attend. The language exams are ridiculously graded; a “failed” Italian exam graded by a department member was deemed perfectly acceptable by the Italian department chair. Twice I’ve had a chair of my committee die (not the school’s fault, but it shows the perseverance I’ve shown.) The history department will not give you a TA or GA position unless you are working in gender or Latin American studies; one of my applications even “disappeared” (read, was spiked by the graduate advisor.) I’m two years behind schedule because my dissertation chair shows no real interest in assisting me.

I’m at the point I can either try to change out my committee or quit the program after wasting six years of my life. It cost me my health (I was nearly hospitalized for exhaustion and a collapsed immune system during comprehensive exams.) It sealed the coffin on my first marriage and has put me in deep debt.

For nothing.

Suggestions to Prospective History Grad Students

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graduate programs, History, university of new mexico

Steer away from the University of New Mexico.  Go anywhere else.

I was an undergrad at UNM in the 1990s.  The history department was in the top 25 programs in the nation and the experience was tremendous.  However, since returning for my doctorate in 2006, I’ve watched the department gutted by dissention and defections.  Our medieval department is all but gone, as is the modern European program.  The main focus is gender and race — there’s no science and technology (at a school where the sciences are a major deal.)  The newer professors are highly ideological, cliquish, and generally unhelpful to students outside their narrow scopes of interest.

Funding is non-existent for doctoral students.  All of the assistantships go to master’s students to lure them to the school.  And unless you’re interested in Latin American, gender, or race…you won’t keep them.  The moral support is also lacking.  I managed to find one supportive professor; he died the next summer in an accident.

So no money, no support, and barely anything outside of Latin American programs and gender studies…  If you’re shopping for a history graduate programs, go elsewhere.

Frustration Day

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university of new mexico

Spent the last hour trying to get access to a few articles for my dissertation only to find out my school, the University of New Mexico, doesn’t have a subscription to MIT’s Technology Review.  What the hell kind of school doesn’t have access to a major tech review?

Worse, the search was hampered by the worst search engine envisioned by man — and that’s saying something, if you have to go through the cowpat of an engine known as EBSCO (which has apparently not been updated since 1992.)  Just to get to EBSCO takes four or five pages of digging.

I think I’m going to have to post a little rant this week on why UNM is a terrible choice, if you are serious about an education.