Faculty and students surprised at Hamline proposal to sunset Minnesota’s oldest creative writing program

Faculty and students in Hamline University’s master of fine arts (MFA) program for creative writing say they’re stunned and saddened to learn of the administration’s recent proposal to phase out the program, which they say is the oldest of its kind in Minnesota and plays a key part in the Twin Cities arts scene.

In a second blow, Hamline officials said they have already decided to cut funding for the program’s coordinator position and its Water~Stone Review literary journal, Review, staff and faculty members said.

“The loss of this program would really impact the literary community,” said Lisa Brodsky, who is halfway through the program and writing a memoir. “I know I’ll be able to finish my program, but what about all the working professionals who come after me?”

Started in 1994, the program enrolls 42 full- or part-time graduate students. The ability to attend classes at night on Hamline’s St. Paul campus while working during the day is a major draw for students who cannot — or don’t want to — attend a program with a traditional schedule.

The program is more than a place to take classes; it offers a strong sense of community, too, holding events at the university’s Creative Writing House and beyond.

Richard Pelster-Wiebe, the director of Hamline’s creative writing programs, said faculty and staff plan to challenge the decision, which was made without their input, toward the end of the academic year.

“Just to be clear about what that means: [The interim provost] has effectively incapacitated the MFA before any due process by cutting funding for those lines,” said Pelster-Wiebe, also a faculty member.

“Even if we win this bureaucratic fight to keep the MFA program, the journal ... and the staff position are gone, which makes it very challenging to run.”

An online petition urging administrators not to shutter the program and to reconsider funding cuts had garnered more than 1,300 signatures by Thursday afternoon.

Acting Interim President Kathleen Murray and Interim Provost Andy Rundquist made both decisions affecting the program.

“As part of the academic process, all course offerings receive periodic review to be sure they meet student needs and university objectives,” a Hamline spokesperson said in a statement. “This is currently the case with Hamline’s creative writing program.

“There has been no decision made on sunsetting the program.”

In an email to a former student provided to the Minnesota Star Tribune, administrators said that if the program were shut down, instructors would “teach out the program” so students can finish their work.

That email said the program would “next be reviewed by the curriculum committee and the elected Faculty Council.”

Pelster-Wiebe said administrators told him financial concerns are the reason the program might be phased out. But he said he doesn’t believe recent actions were part of a “periodic review.”

Pelster-Wiebe said Rundquist has made it clear that he wants the cuts and closure to happen and that Murray seems to be following his lead.

“All we can say is that it’s rushed; it feels erratic,” Pelster-Wiebe said. “There’s no other program that is being considered for closure this way.”

It doesn’t make sense, he said, to hurry such a decision when both Rundquist and Murray are nearing the end of their time at Hamline and in interim roles. The university picked a new provost last month; a new president, Mayme Hostetter, will begin in July.

Pelster-Wiebe said the program is down to three full-time faculty members, including himself. He said several others have left in recent years and not been replaced.

“If it’s money that needs to be raised, on top of enrollment goals, give us that opportunity,” he said.

Pelster-Wiebe said that in 2021, the entire university went through a process called an “expedited program review” and programs were given recommendations as part of that process. The creative writing MFA received three: offering a “distinctive curriculum,” cutting costs for Water~Stone Review and increasing enrollment.

Pelster-Wiebe said the program’s faculty and staff have followed them “with ambition and insight.”

He said the program was distinctive because students can work in multiple genres, rather than just one, and has begun offering digital storytelling classes. It also bolstered its community events.

The cost of producing the journal was cut by 75% by involving fewer faculty members and publishing fewer copies, said Meghan Maloney-Vinz, the MFA program’s coordinator and executive editor of Water~Stone.

The program has also met recent enrollment goals, Pelster-Wiebe said, bringing in 14 students this academic year rather than the required 10.

But administrators said recently that those recommendations have largely not been followed, Pelster-Wiebe said, which surprised him. Now Hamline has a chance to reaffirm its commitment to the program and the arts, he added.

“And we’re really hopeful that in the end, they will say that,” he said.

Hamline’s program is well-respected not only in Minnesota but across the country, several members of the literary community said.

“I just know lots of writers that have been affiliated with that program in all kinds of ways, and they’re all such talented writers,” said Kathryn Nuernberger, chair of the University of Minnesota’s English department and a creative writing faculty member.

The Twin Cities literary community is well-regarded and Hamline’s MFA program is critical to that scene, Nuernberger said. The program is an “incredible community service” to other MFA programs, including the U’s program. Water~Stone Review is an excellent, nationally regarded magazine, she said.

Michael Kleber-Diggs, a Minnesota poet, is an adjunct faculty member at Hamline and Augsburg University. His first published poem appeared in the Water~Stone Review, he said.

“This is a program that for us in the Twin Cities is foundational,” Kleber-Diggs said. “So many of the people who have taught there and graduated from there have gone on to basically make the Twin Cities literary community the vibrant, creative space that it is.”

He said students today are increasingly interested in creative writing.

“From my vantage point, all I see is growth,” Michael Kleber-Diggs said. “This generation of students is really interested in content creation; they’re into world-building and game design.”

He also noted that using adjunct faculty to teach classes likely saves Hamline money compared with hiring tenure-track professors.

At the Creative Writing House, students gathered this week around a long wooden table to write, chat and share their work.

Alice Paige, an MFA program graduate and adjunct instructor for Hamline undergraduates studying creative writing, said she’s working on a ghost story set at a Berlin cabaret in the 1930s.

“Almost every professional opportunity I’ve been given has come through Hamline University’s writing program,” Paige said.

“I spent a lot of my life without a voice, so helping other people find theirs is incredibly important to me.”