The English department at Pennsylvania State University has cut fellowship funding for its graduate creative writing program–no new MFA students will be accepted next year.
According to The Daily Collegian, less non-tenure teachers will be available for undergraduate creative writing courses. The changes came after the College of the Liberal Arts pushed for budget cuts.
English professor Julia Kasdorf had this comment: “It’s kind of a perfect storm where you’ve got it coming from two directions. We lose our graduate student instructors, then we lose our lecture instructors, and we only have a handful of creative writing faculty to cover all classes … I’ve been talking with students, and they’re very frustrated with scheduling issues.”
Dean Susan Welch observed that departments with larger enrollments have not suffered the same cuts. Program director Janet Lyons suggested that schools must attract more English majors to avoid these problems. (via The Rumpus)