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Welcome from the Chair

Dr. Frederick Suppe, Department Chair

Professor of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures

Click here for information about Dr. Suppe

The Texas Tech Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures (CMLL) is a rapidly growing, exciting foreign languages department. Judged by MLA standards it ranks among the successful rapidly-growing Foreign Language Departments in the country.

The driving vision of CMLL is that the department will become fiscally viable and meet enrollment demands and that this can be done while enhancing the quality of our instruction and increasing faculty research productivity without imposing unreasonable workloads and service obligations on faculty.

This site will give you lots of detailed information about CMLL. But right now I’d like to point out some of the recent achievements and dramatic activities and initiatives going on in CMLL.

* In 2003-2004 CMLL taught 28,661 Scheduled Credit Hours. This is a 42%increase over 2000-2001 ( by comparison, US foreign language enrollments grew17% between 1998-2002).

* In 2003-2004 CMLL supported 62 graduate students as TAs and GPTIs. This is a35% increase over 2002. In Fall 2004 we expect to be supporting 80 graduate students.

* Budgeted funding for supporting graduate students will top $1,000,000 for2004-2005 compared to about $643,000 in 2002-2003.

* The number of students enrolled in lower-level Spanish courses in 2003-2004increased by over 1000 from the previous year. We expect another large increase for 2004-2005.

* American Sign Language (ASL) enrollments grew 300% over Fall 2002. We expect2004-2005 ASL enrollments to achieve a 550% increase over Fall 2002.

* The International Teaching Assistant Workshop and the English as a Second Language (ESL) Programs were transferred from the Provost’s Office to CMLL.

* Student course evaluations for 2003 were very high. More than half of students evaluated teaching effectiveness at 4.6 or higher (out of a possible5). The CMLL mean of 4.5 was significantly higher than the College of Arts& Sciences mean of 4.3 and the TTU mean of 4.27.

* More than 50 curriculum or course changes were submitted and approved.

* New 150 Hour Dual BA/MA programs were approved in which students complete both the BA and the MA in CMLL subjects in five years and one summer.

* CMLL added Arabic, Turkish, and Uzbek instruction in recent years. Sixteen languages now are regularly taught in CMLL:

*= undergraduate minor offered; ** = undergraduate major offered; + = MA degree offered; ++ = Ph.D. degree offered

Starting in 2005-2006 we will offer courses in Hebrew. In addition we can offer individualized instruction in Catalan (reading only) , Fanta, Galician (reading only), Miskito, Twi, and Ga.

CMLL also offers degrees in Classics, Applied Linguistics, and Russian Language and Area Studies. CMLL cooperates in Asian Studies, Comparative Literature, and Latin American and Iberian Studies interdisciplinary programs.

* In 2003-2004 CMLL had two of 60 Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTAs) from the U.S. State Department's Strategic Languages Initiative. In 2004-2005 we will have four such FLTAs.

* Two CMLL Faculty received major TTU Honors:

* In 2003-2004 CMLL enhanced our study abroad opportunities by In addition we continue to offer our German Summer Program and our six-week Mexico Field Course for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students.

* CMLL is working with Housing and Dining to develop dorm Language Houses where students will contact to live the language within their dorm area. We hope to begin in Fall 2005.

* The Destinos Project (a joint collaboration with KTXT-TV, Extended Studies, and the CMLL Spanish Division) developed a sophisticated web-delivery mechanism for the PBS television course. On-line TV versions of SPAN 1501-1502 were offered and a new Destinos version of SPAN 1507 was developed.

* CMLL was one of 40 institutions selected for the FIPSE-funded "Roadmap to Redesign" project to develop more cost-effective means of teaching large-enrollment courses in four key areas (Spanish, math, statistics, psychology) while improving the quality of instruction.

* In collaboration with the Restaurant & Hotel Management program, we are developing a new one-semester communicative course in Spanish for Hospitality Industry Workers.

* CMLL built a new Advising, Recruiting, and Retention Center to better serve current and prospective students and parents.

* CMLL put in a new 110 Seat Smart Classroom with multiple HDTV projectors and a smart-Sympodium,funded in part by a Smarter Kids Foundation grant.

* CMLL put in an AV support Lab for faculty use.

* Since Fall 2002 there has been a complete academic and staff reorganization resulting in six academic Divisions plus a seventh Language Lab Division. Staff have been reorganized to better support faculty needs and support students.

* CMLL is systematically revising its operating policies and procedures to achieve improved procedural integrity, effectiveness, efficiency, accountability, and compatibility with College and University policies and procedures. These revisions are about 75% completed.

* Four journals are edited out of CMLL: Céfiro, Hispania, Intertexts, Monographic Review/Revista Monográfica.

* The Spanish graduate student organization Céfiro puts on an annual conference and publishes a journal.

* The 39th Annual Comparative Literature Symposium was help in Spring2004

We have ambitious plans for further growth, expansion of the Language Lab, and many new initiatives and innovations in second language instruction.

CMLL is a very exciting place to be. I invite you to surf our web pages, get to know us, and consider becoming part of our exotic and wonderful community.