The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) narrowly avoided closure after stalled Title VI federal funds and Duke’s cost-cutting measures left its future in jeopardy. Now, under the efforts of faculty and administrators, it has found a new home in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences as part of the department of romance studies.
For decades, the center received substantial funding through the Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) program, which gives grants to university centers dedicated to teaching foreign languages and ethnographic studies of particular world regions. This summer, it was set to receive its fourth year funding, but the money did not roll through like it had in years past.
According to Faculty Director Liliana Paredes, the lack of funding put pressure on the center’s programming and salary expenses. This, combined with staffing shortages, partly due to Duke’s voluntary separation incentive program, and broad cuts at the Office of Global Affairs, which supervised it, cast an uncertain future over the center…