In 1968-69, the UNM linguistics department was ‘unofficially’ established as an amorphous, interdisciplinary program sponsored by various departments and associates: “[A UNM administrative report] led directly to the hiring in 1968 of Bernard Spolsky, a young applied linguist who was already establishing a strong reputation at Indiana University. He was given a joint appointment as associate professor in Anthropology and Elementary Education and the specific charge of integrating and strengthening linguistics and the teaching of English as a second language at UNM… Within six months of his arrival an interdisciplinary “Program in Linguistics and Language Pedagogy” was formally established under the direction of Spolsky and a coordinating committee of six other faculty representing Anthropology, Elementary Education, English, Modern and Classical Languages, Secondary Education, and Speech.” (Bills MS, 1989)