Zoe Berg, Senior Photographer

The Council of Latin American and Iberian Studies has updated major requirements in an effort to gauge undergraduate students’ interest. 

Students in the Latin American Studies major can now pursue a senior project in lieu of a traditional senior essay. Additionally, the major requires students to reach level five in either Portuguese or Spanish — a decrease in the language requirements. 

“[I would] like more students to think about Latin American Studies and hopefully consider all the courses that we offer,” said Kenneth David Jackson, the soon-to-be chair of the Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies. David Jackson will officially become chair next June.

In previous years, students were required to take two years of one of the two languages spoken in Latin America and an additional year in the other. According to a statement released by CLAIS obtained by the News, CLAIS leaders recognized “this was a steep requirement for most students to meet by the deadline to declare a major.” Ana De La O, the director of undergraduate studies for the Latin American studies major, said that the major will become more accessible to students coming in with no language skills. 

Since the early 2000s, Yale’s Latin American studies major has seen a steady decline in enrollment. By the 2010s, the number of students in the major had dropped to single digits. 

De La O said that the major usually has around 10 students per cohort. The current graduating cohort is slightly below that.

The CLAIS saw this decline in enrollment as an opportunity to change the curriculum and requirements. However, according to De La O, making changes to the major was a complex process that took about three years.

The previous CLAIS chair appointed a committee to review and analyze the major’s requirements. The committee, then, created a report for the chair and CLAIS’ advisory board. Upon reaching a consensus on the suggested changes, the report was left for Yale College to review and approve.

Yale approved updated major requirements in 2023.

The changes in the language requirement were largely advanced in efforts to attract more students to the major, which had been declining for two decades. The department will “start promoting the idea of double majors in Latin American Studies,” David Jackson said. Rather than asking students to choose between fields, the major’s enhanced accessibility and flexibility will support varied interests

Alejandra Campos ’24, who majored in Latin American studies while at Yale, said that her knowledge of both Portuguese and Spanish enabled her to navigate much of Latin America. 

“Having that language requirement opened up a lot of doors academically during my upperclassman years,” she said. “It opened doors to graduate-level courses taught in Portuguese that I would not have been able to take otherwise.” 

She added that if she had known about the flexibility of the major earlier, she would have completed another major as well.

The Latin American and Iberian Studies Undergraduate Fellows Network was launched in 2021.