Eric Gonzalez Juenke walked into his new office in Room 200 South Kedzie Hall at 9:06 a.m. on Monday. He was planning to get in at 9 a.m., hopefully before.
“Sorry I’m late,” Juenke said. “I’ve been up since 4:30 with a sick 7-year-old.”
Juenke has been named the new director of the Chicano/Latino Studies Program in the College of Social Science at MSU. He’s worked as a professor within the program and is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science. Despite his undeniably busy schedule and being married with kids, Juenke still has a big focus — his students.
“The greatest part about this job is the students,” Juenke said. “Seeing one student excited and motivated and passionate about what they’re doing can change my whole day around from bad to good.”
Most of Juenke’s career has been focused on studying Latino politics, minority representation and voter bias against Latinos. He’s been a professor at MSU and previously worked at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo.
With the new director position, Juenke admitted he was a bit downcast that he interacted with less students on the job. But he only teaches one less class, so he said it’s not so bad.
“It’s been made up for by my interactions with students here, meeting with them individually, and so I think the quality of the interaction in terms of mentoring is better here in this position, but certainly the quantity is reduced and that makes me sad,” he said. "The ones that do show up are the best and most passionate. ... You get a mixed bag.”
MSU’s Chicano/Latino Studies Program, Juenke said, is sort of a hidden gem to the university. It is believed to be one of the first founded in the nation, and is one of the only programs of its nature in the entire Big Ten.
“There’s so many programs offered at MSU,” Juenke said. “For some of us, it’s a little harder to stand out. But we are here.”
The Chicano/Latino Studies Program offers a select amount of classes and research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students as a minor. There isn’t a major for the program yet, Juenke said, but that means students come from a vast variety of majors and are able to focus whatever work they do — from education to social work — on the basis of Chicano/Latino issues.
“The CLS minor really gives students the specialty expertise in a population that they will definitely be interacting with in the future,” Juenke said.
Juenke said one of his big goals for the program is to get more people to check it out, and for students to come to his office as a place to unwind. He admitted the new job is hard work.
“The emails — there’s like a never-ending stream of them (that) all of a sudden you have to read and reply to," Juenke said. "It’s been challenging, learning a new job, but the feeling of succeeding, of really helping students is what keeps me going.”
He had a long day ahead of him: a meeting at 10 a.m. and countless unknown interactions with students he might not even know yet. As he began unpacking his bags for the day, he took out three large bags of Twizzlers and set them on his desk.
“No special occasion,” he said, laughing. “I just really like them. I figure if I eat them so much, students probably will, too.”
