At a Yale Law School town hall on faculty diversity, the school’s faculty hiring committee announced it offered tenure to a Hispanic professor. The school has never had a tenured Latino faculty member.

Six sources who attended the town hall said the professor offered tenure was Cristina Rodríguez ’95 LAW ’00. The town hall was closed to the press, and all six sources asked to remain anonymous because the news was presented as confidential. Law school spokeswoman Janet Conroy said an offer was made to a Latina professor, but she declined to confirm Rodriguez’s name.

Rodriguez was a visiting professor in fall 2009, when she taught the course “Immigration Law and Policy” and was nominated for Yale Law Women’s excellence in teaching award. A former Rhodes scholar, Rodriguez is a renowned scholar in immigration law. She is currently a faculty member at the New York University School of Law.

Watch the clip below to hear Rodríguez speak on immigration law.

DANIEL SISGOREO