Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies faces further funding cuts

Clarissa Rodriguez | @clarissa.rodriguez_

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) has lost funding for faculty research abroad grants. CLACS sent out a newsletter on Feb. 2 announcing the program would no longer be receiving the funding. 

This funding cut comes after the center lost more than $2.4 million from the U.S. Department of Education after the National Resource Centers (NRC) and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships were discontinued in fall 2025. 

The loss of federal funding has led to major budget adjustments for the area studies programs at the University of Kansas, including cuts to research support and programming. 

“We can stretch our money to support research, but unlike other centers, we don’t have conference funding for travel,” said Brent Metz, CLACS director.

Metz says faculty research opportunities abroad will be limited without long term grant stability.

Other area studies centers are facing similar challenges, forcing the centers to scale back events and seek alternative funding sources. 

Akiko Takeyama, director of East Asian Studies, spoke about how losing this funding will cause more issues. 

“We’ve had to reduce the size of our events. We used to provide food samples, but I can’t afford that anymore. So we’re making modifications and finding creative ways to secure donor sponsorships,” Takeyama said.

Takeyama says even the smallest co-sponsorships are becoming essential to keep the programs running. 

With federal funding no longer guaranteed, these centers are now relying on donations to maintain research and cultural programming while future grant opportunities remain uncertain. 

Watch the segment here: