EDITORIAL: "A Rock and a Hard Place"

First, SAS implemented a recession-inspired hiring freeze quite independent from the program. Second, the University denied tenure to a professor central to the program. If History professor Dain Borges is forced to leave and the freeze remains in effect, the Latin American Studies minor could die a very untimely death. But despite the hiring freeze, tenure denial and general fiscal funk, the importance of the Latin American Studies program remains unchanged since the December decision. Adding the minor was not the School of Arts and Sciences last great overindulgence, and everything possible should be done to preserve it. We have little information with which to judge Borges' tenure denial, but it evidently had nothing to do with the quality of the Latin American Studies program. Even if Borges must leave, the role he plays within the program must remained filled. In this case, the last program hired should not be the first one fired.