Shifting Tongues

The Spanish Program at UTRGV is experiencing low student enrollment after Spanish classes were removed from the core curriculum and the retirement of faculty members. 

Arlett Lomeli, associate professor for the Department of Sociology and Chairman for the Department of Spanish, advocates for the program trying to get more students to join. 

According to Lomeli, the program is struggling due to a lack of students joining the program.

“Our faculty went from having 16 faculty, now to nine because a lot of faculty retired … so when I joined in 2024, I really wanted to make sure everything became streamlined,” Lomeli said. 

She made sure their course rotation was activated; all Spanish classes were going to be rotated in two years so students can have those classes. The classes are now offered in both Edinburgh and Brownsville.

“We also restructured our degree plan so that any additional classes that weren’t necessary be removed … so the students wouldn’t have to wait, if they wanted to take a particular class,” she said. 

Lomeli said in 2017, languages such as Spanish were removed from basics. Students who would initially take Spanish to learn it no longer had that connection.

“So our initiative right now is really to get our department promoted, to make sure students are aware because when we do the recruitment fairs, I hear it time and time again, ‘I didn’t even know we could do this as a minor,’” she said. 

Lomeli said, most career jobs require a Spanish credential for employment.

“A lot of students don’t have that credential on their degrees. They might speak it and let them know that they speak it, but oftentimes the employers want credentialing, “ she said. 

 The Spanish department offers a B3 scholarship seal, which provides a certificate after taking five classes.

“We’d like to tell our students that you can minor in Spanish for those five classes,” Lomeli said.

For students who are majoring in nursing, psychology or any career required to talk to patients, having a minor in Spanish and a certificate can be beneficial. 

“Oftentimes, when they go interact with customers or with students, they are going to interact with Spanish-speaking individuals,” she said. “So once you get the practice … you have it on your transcript … it makes them more competitive in their workplace.” 

Lomeli added the program is trying to go to classrooms, engage in the student community and share what they offer with everyone.

“It’s not only beneficial for our students, it’s beneficial for the community… It’s important to be able to share that the majority of the people in the valley have that interaction,” she said. “And to keep that generational connection intact. To share our stories and all the good things that we do.”

The Spanish department also offers bachelor’s degrees such as teacher certificates in Spanish. They are also working on internships for students who want to teach.

“When the students go out and do their teaching, they’re being paid at a much higher level, and they’re considered like a full employee with that,” Lomeli said.

The department also has master’s degree programs which have three concentrations: linguistics, literature and creative writing.

In addition, they have advanced placement certificates, also known as AOP; it is for high school teachers who want to teach AP classes. The program would consist of taking four online classes to obtain the certificate. 

“So just spreading the word is wonderful … just getting them conscious of the need for it in an employment setting would be wonderful,” Lomeli said. 

She added students who don’t know Spanish are welcome to join because the goal of the program is having students learn something new and enter the workforce with a beneficial certificate behind them. 

“We’re more than happy and excited to see [students] sitting and trying … that’s the whole goal, to get you excited about learning something new,” Lomeli said. 

The Chairman for Spanish added the whole idea of UTRGV and being a bilingual institution is to celebrate it.

“Here we are as a department supporting that vision and that initiative … and hoping that our students don’t feel excluded, but rather celebrated and that they belong because they do belong here,” she said. 

The Spanish Department is located on the Edinburg campus in room ELABS 211 and on the Brownsville campus in room BMAIN 1.534.