All my life, I have sought to tell compelling stories.
When I first enrolled at UC Santa Cruz, my heart was set on creative writing. My first intro course was held in a small Porter classroom on the second floor. I watched as the class slowly filled with students, treading new waters just like I was.
In that classroom, surrounded by around 15 peers, I workshopped the first draft of one of my greatest projects. Then came a second draft, a third and a fifth. By the end of it, I crafted a science fiction short story that explores humans, robots and the impact of their coexistence. My story asks readers to consider the importance of our humanity in a rapidly advancing, technological world.
Three years and many revisions later, I submitted the story and won the Coha-Gunderson writing competition in speculative futures.
Everything about my academic journey feels surreal. The creative writing community has nurtured my love for storytelling. They watched me struggle and grow into the writer I am today.
But as I prepare to graduate, the program I love is changing.
Earlier this year, intro to creative writing classes got a massive makeover. These classes are now conducted in a lecture and section model, turning a once small, collaborative space into a lecture hall packed with students. After this quarter, two prominent creative writing faculty will be retiring.
These changes feel disastrous alongside the budget deficit UCSC currently faces. The $111 million deficit and its subsequent effects feel like something out of a dystopian novel. UCSC employees are being laid off, hiring freezes are taking place and crucial positions are losing benefits.
In these conditions, I wonder: How does the creative writing program survive the budget deficit?
The anxieties and fears surrounding the deficit are palpable. The creative writing community is an intimate one. The classmates I’ve met in my intro, intermediate and advanced courses have become my close friends and colleagues — they’ve helped me develop my writing from its roughest stages into pieces I’m truly proud of.
In the midst of a structural budget deficit, I can’t help but worry that UCSC’s creative writing program is not the administration’s top priority.
When we are on the receiving end of budget cuts and restructuring, it’s easy to feel blindsided by the effects of the deficit. This atmosphere of uncertainty creates difficult terrain to navigate when our number one priority as students should be our education.
But if the administration can’t afford to prioritize my education, who can I rely on?
In an effort to restructure the university’s allocation of funds, Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer helped put together an initiative called the Fresh Academic Instructional Resources (AIR) model. Unfortunately, the model centralized all academic division and department funds within administrative control. Because of the model, funds are now allocated to divisions based on metrics such as undergraduate enrollment.
Fortunately, those working within the humanities division are dedicated to the continuation of the creative writing program. The humanities division and the literature department are working in tandem to make the most of the budget circumstances.
“Like the other four academic divisions, we are working to reduce our core funds budget,” said Jasmine Alinder, the dean of humanities, via email. “This requires us to prioritize our mission while also thinking creatively about how to adjust to having reduced resources.”
In email correspondence with Alinder, I learned the inner workings of the fund allocation process between divisions and their departments.
“We review those plans at the divisional level, and part of the discussion with departments involves whether the division can afford to cover any costs for teaching beyond what the Senate faculty are teaching,” Alinder wrote.
She finished her email with the assertion: “We have a world-class faculty and none of this endangers that.”
A wave of relief washed over me — there’s consolation in seeing this in writing. However, I can’t help but reflect on the department we lost most recently: The feminist studies department. When the department first announced its disestablishment, their reasoning outlined a lack of capacity, resources and faculty research directions.
Even if the humanities division has the funding to carry on supporting the creative writing program, the continuation of the program also depends on the will of the faculty. I sat down for a conversation with Gary Young, a UCSC alumnus, continuing lecturer and poetry professor, to discuss the people behind the vision.
“The faculty and the staff are totally dedicated to the program,” Young said. “They’ve stood up against previous attacks by the administration and by a lack of funds … to work to keep the workshops small and available, to keep creative writing available for undergraduates. They’ve been dedicated to that.”
Young is one of two prominent figures retiring from the creative writing program. Once he retires, he’ll work solely in the Cowell Press, where he’ll teach COWL 70C. There may not be someone to take his place, but there are senate faculty members who will carry on his legacy.
In a recent conversation with Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs Micah Perks, I got an even broader perspective. Her dedication to the program has been long in the making. Keeping the program on its feet and serving students is a labor of love for her.
Next quarter, I’ll be taking my senior seminar. It’ll be the last creative writing class I enroll in before I graduate.
Despite my fear of what the future holds, I can predict the end of this story: The program I am leaving behind will continue to teach and advocate for students who are passionate about the craft.
Creative writing at UCSC won’t outlast the budget deficit just because we hope it will. It will because the community we have fostered, the students, the staff, the faculty, are all willing to put in the effort to make sure it stays.