How to Support or Connect with CLACS at the University of Illinois

You can support or connect with the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CLACS) through three paths listed on its site: donating, subscribing to the CLACS newsletter, and using its community resources. All three are handled through links on clacs.illinois.edu, so the site itself is the starting point for any of them. This is an informational overview of what each option is for — the site does not publish donation amounts, membership terms, or subscription details, so treat those as things to confirm on the linked pages.

What CLACS Is

CLACS serves students, faculty, and scholars across the University of Illinois campus, along with communities across Illinois and the Midwest. Its stated purpose is promoting innovative research, specialist teaching, and public awareness of the Latin American and Caribbean region.

It is a designated National Resource Center for the 2022–2026 period, supported by the Department of Education under Title VI funding. That designation matters if you are deciding how to engage: it signals a federally recognized center with a defined academic mission, not a standalone club or donation drive.

Ways to Connect or Support

The homepage groups its calls to action as Connect with CLACS, Subscribe, Community Resources, and Donate. Here is what each is for.

Subscribe to the CLACS Newsletter

The newsletter link points to a University of Illinois web services subscription page. Use it if your goal is staying current on CLACS news, events, and faculty announcements without checking the site manually.

• Input: your email address on the subscription form.
• Action: submit the form at the linked University of Illinois subscription page.
• Expected result: you are added to the CLACS newsletter list. The site does not state frequency, so treat the cadence as unconfirmed until you receive issues.

Use Community Resources

The Community Resources section is the engagement path for people outside the campus research community — including communities across Illinois and the Midwest that CLACS says it serves. Use it if you want to participate in or draw on CLACS programming rather than give money or read email updates. The site does not itemize what each resource contains, so browse the section directly to see what applies to you.

Donate

The Donate option is the direct financial support path. The site does not publish giving levels, accepted payment methods, or whether gifts are restricted to specific programs, so check the donation page for those terms before committing.

Which Option Fits Your Goal

A Note on What the Site Does Not Say

The homepage lists these options but does not describe their terms. Nothing on the page indicates that subscribing or using community resources requires payment, and nothing indicates that donating has a minimum. Because those details are not published, verify them on the individual linked pages rather than assuming.

Faculty Achievements as a Signal of Where Support Goes

If you are weighing whether to give, the faculty highlights on the homepage show the kind of work CLACS-affiliated scholars do:

• Gisela Sin, Professor of Political Science, CLACS Director, and current Acting Director of the Illinois Global Institute, received the Jewell-Loewenberg Prize from the American Political Science Association's Legislative Studies Section for "Line-item Vetoes as a Coordination Mechanism," named Best Article in Comparative Politics in Legislative Studies Quarterly (2025).
• Marc Hertzman, Professor of History, was named a 2026–2027 University Scholar, a program that grants each recipient $15,000 per year for three years. He specializes in the history of Brazil and Latin America, and his 2024 book After Palmares won the American Historical Association's 2025 James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History and the Brazilian Studies Association's 2026 Roberto Reis Book Award.
• Ramón Soto-Crespo was named the James M. Benson Professor.

These are recognition and research outcomes, not descriptions of how donations are used. If you want to know whether gifts support faculty research, student funding, or public programming, that is a question for the donation page or CLACS staff.