No good answer to columnist’s query
I thought you might be interested to know a little insider information regarding the tragically undersized creative writing program from someone in the English department with a focus on creative writing, as well as my general thoughts about what is discussed in the interesting column by Connor Fitzpatrick (“Creative writing stifled by its own purveyors,” Oct. 8)
Last year, the English Department was in the process of hiring a new fiction professor to accommodate the intense demand for instructors and classes that students have been asking for, but partway through their search (literally while the selection committee was having dinner with one of the applicants) the department was unceremoniously told ““ via e-mail by the greater academic administration ““ that the search had to be canceled due to a dire budget crisis. A crisis which, my adviser tells me, has been dire for the past 40 years.
The department invested a lot of time and money into the search for a new fiction faculty: organizing a committee that reads books submitted by eager applicants, visiting them and, in some cases, flying them out for a visit, organizing readings by the prospective professors, courting and wooing them ““ only for their hard work to be canceled out by the university administration’s disregard for the needs of the department.
Creative writing classes absolutely have to be capped where they are: at roughly 15 students per section. If they were any larger, the classes would cease to serve their purpose. In fact, some classes end up having fewer than 15 because even that number can be a bit too much. Much of the work is on us to read the three of four stories by our peers (poems submitted to a weekly workshop can end up in the tens and beyond), in addition to one or two stories from the course reader, and offer insightful commentary in margin notes and typed-up critiques. Imagine doing that for 30 people! It would be outrageous and would require everyone’s full-time participation and devotion.
While the idea of pimping out the department’s already-overworked graduate students for the purpose of running undergraduate creative writing workshops seems like a good solution, consider this. What would a graduate student writing her thesis on John Milton have to say about modern American fiction writers? The answer is not much. It wouldn’t be their fault, but it makes sense given UCLA’s lack of a master of fine arts program in fiction or poetry. At schools such as the University of Iowa, Columbia University and Arizona State University, they have their graduates teach undergraduate sections of fiction and poetry, but that’s because they have master of fine arts programs ““ meaning their students are writers themselves. The perspectives of a master’s student and a master of fine arts student are not the same. Master of fine arts students bring a craft-based perspective that literature students just can’t.
I don’t have any proposals for Fitzpatrick’s query about how non-majors can access these workshops. All I can say is that talent and dedication count. I was accepted into my first poetry workshop in the spring quarter of my first year. I am a graduating senior now, and can tell you that everyone applying to these creative writing classes brings a lot of enthusiasm, but it’s ultimately talent that you need to get in the door. Workshops cultivate the talent that is there, refine it, improve it, reinforce it. Bottom line: Apply, apply, apply.
Tory Adkisson
Fourth-year, English with a concentration in creative writing
Animal rights important to researchers
I want to emphasize a few counterpoints in response to a recent submission by members of the Animal Law Society (“Laws should protect animals,” Oct. 8):
“¢bull; Violence, vandalism, firebombs and threats are not free speech. Assembly Bill 2296, signed into law by the governor on Sept. 28, provides law enforcement with much-needed additional tools to protect researchers from anti-animal research extremists.
“¢bull; Excessively stressed animals can skew research results. Therefore, researchers have an undeniable interest in appropriate care through anesthesia, scheduled feeding and cleaning, and lab conditions consistent with strict federal laws and university guidelines.
“¢bull; No research on animals is authorized until it is carefully reviewed by an independent committee that includes community representatives. Researchers must scrupulously demonstrate that the use of animals is scientifically essential, and that their research can’t be safely replicated without them.
“¢bull; Research protocol involving laboratory animals is subject to state and federal public records laws. The lifesaving benefits of animal research are incontrovertible.
Just as UCLA is committed to preventing the haphazard, indiscriminate or inhumane use of animals, so too is the campus committed to continuing research that advances science in the interest of alleviating suffering for millions of people with serious medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and AIDS.
Roberto Peccei
Vice chancellor for research