Appendix C - Nc State University



[Revised 3/24/03]

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

Request for Authorization to Establish a New Degree Program

INSTRUCTIONS: Please submit five copies of the proposal to the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, UNC Office of the President. Each proposal should include a 2-3 page executive summary. The signature of the Chancellor is required.

Date: 2/18/03

Constituent Institution: North Carolina State University

CIP Discipline Specialty Title: English Creative Writing

CIP Discipline Specialty Number: 23.0501 Level: B M X 1st Prof D

Exact Title of the Proposed Degree: __Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing__

Exact Degree Abbreviation (e.g. B.S., B.A., M.A., M.S., Ed.D., Ph.D.): M.F.A.

Does the proposed program constitute a substantive change as defined by SACS? Yes_X No__

a) Is it at a more advanced level than those previously authorized? Yes_X No__

b) Is the proposed program in a new discipline division? Yes____ No __X_

Proposed date to establish degree program (allow at least 3-6 months for proposal review):

month _August_ year 2003

Do you plan to offer the proposed program away from campus during the first year of operation? Yes No X

If so, complete the form to be used to request establishment of a distance education program and submit it along with this request.

I. Description of the Program

A. Describe the proposed degree program (i.e., its nature, scope, and intended audience).

The degree will be a 36-hour, two-year studio/research program. As a studio/research program, the NCSU MFA curriculum will require a balance of writing workshops and literary scholarship. The program will rely on the regular English department faculty for most of the literature course offerings, while writers on the program faculty will offer form, craft, and theory courses, workshops, and thesis direction.

As a fine arts degree, and like MFA programs in music, dance, and the visual arts, the MFA in Creative Writing is designed to train students for a career as professional artists, in this case writers of imaginative literature. But the MFA has also increasingly become the requisite degree for people intending to become college and university teachers of creative writing. Graduates of the program may pursue careers as professional writers, and will be qualified to teach in two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities. We anticipate some students will seek the degree as a means of life enrichment as well as for a professional credential. Our location in Raleigh will allow us to reach the highly educated and densely populated areas in and around Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.

B. List the educational objectives of the program.

The objective of the MFA is to produce polished writers of fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and drama. Graduates of the program should be well acquainted with the craft, theory and practice of contemporary literature, be prepared to pursue a life of letters, and have produced a publishable book-length creative work for their thesis. Elective courses, which may be selected both from within or without the English Department, will offer students the opportunity to pursue an area of interest such as linguistics and translation, historical fiction, etc.

C. Describe the relationship of the program to other programs currently offered at the proposing institution, including the common use of: (1) courses, (2) faculty, (3) facilities, and (4) other resources.

The NCSU Department of English currently has a creative writing concentration within the MA degree. The MFA will make use of resources developed for the MA program as follows:

1) Courses: The current graduate workshop courses in poetry, fiction and studies in creative writing will remain as the foundation of the MFA degree program.

2) Faculty: The four current full-time creative writing faculty are well-qualified to teach in and will be the fundamental faculty for the MFA degree. The program will need to hire one or two more people, in some combination of the areas of poetry, creative non-fiction, memoir, or screenwriting, as it develops.

3) Facilities: Classrooms, offices, and computer labs currently existing are adequate to establish the MFA. The English department at present is suffering from some crowding problems, and as the university seeks to solve these problems, we would expect the creative writing programs to benefit along with all other English programs.

4) Other resources: The MFA would use the existing MA program staff and infrastructure for admissions and other support. With an increased volume of applicants and students will come some need for dedicated creative writing staff and resources.

II. Justification for the Program—Narrative Statement

A. Describe the proposed program as it relates to:

1. the institutional mission and strategic plan

The mission of North Carolina State University is to serve its students and the people of North Carolina as a doctoral/research-extensive, land-grant university. As a terminal graduate degree, the MFA would advance the university's call for innovative learning and its stress on creativity, and its commitment to excellence in disciplines beyond its historic strengths in agriculture, science and engineering. The study of creative writing can foster demographic and intellectual diversity. The MFA would also enrich the College of Humanities and Social Sciences' academic and intellectual presence in the university, community, and state. By reaching out to life-long learners and post baccalaureate students, the MFA would help fulfill the university's historic land-grant mission.

2. student demand

The current M.A. program’s concentration in creative writing has 23 students enrolled. About one half of the applicants to our current MA program indicate an interest in doing the creative writing concentration. We have had steady interest from these students in the MFA degree and anticipate that a certain percentage of students who would previously have sought the MA will seek and qualify for the MFA degree program.

There is a continuing interest in creative writing from the highly literate population of the Research Triangle area, and as of now none of the three major local universities offers a fine arts masters degree to meet that demand. Without any attempt to publicize the prospective program, we already have a list of a couple of dozen people who have asked us to contact them if an MFA degree is established.

3. societal need (For graduate, first professional, and baccalaureate professional programs, cite manpower needs in North Carolina and elsewhere.)

The societal effects of a fine arts program in creative writing can’t be easily measured in terms of GNP. Certainly the writing and publishing of imaginative literature is a vital industry in our society today: according to a recent study on “The Changing Business of Trade Books, 1975-2002,” the number of new books published annually in the United States increased about 300 percent between 1975 and 2000, to 122,000 from 39,000. But need can perhaps be better measured by noting the number of people who are engaged by writing and reading imaginative literature, and by the increasing enrollments in fine arts programs in writing nationwide. For students who wish to become writers themselves, there is no better way to expedite their development than to study with accomplished and published writers, and MFA programs have become the most common path for students to get this opportunity.

An active MFA program becomes a focal point for public engagement with literature and the fine arts. Through public readings, discussions, festivals, book sales and meetings of writers and teachers it broadens the cultural life of the community and state. More fundamentally than that, people who come to understand literature in the particularly intimate way that the study of writing fiction and poetry promotes also learn more about society and their fellow human beings. No other art form puts its citizenry in closer communication with the social concerns at all levels of society. A populace well-educated in literature is a strong electorate.

4. impact on existing undergraduate and/or graduate academic programs of your institution. (e.g., Will the proposed program strengthen other programs? Will it stretch existing resources? How many of your programs at this level currently fail to meet Board of Governors’ productivity criteria? Is there a danger of proliferation of low-productivity degree programs at the institution?)

The MFA degree program will bring in first-rate students who will enroll in regular literature classes as a part of their studies. Creative writers frequently bring a fresh perspective to their literature classes, the perspective of prospective practitioners as much as critics. They will naturally enhance the place of literature in our university and community, and we expect this program to bring favorable attention to the English Department and College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The MFA degree has increasingly become a commonplace sign of a strong graduate program in English at major universities, as witnessed by the proliferation of such degrees across the country in the last twenty years.

The current faculty is sufficient to staff this program in the beginning, though we must hire one additional full-time poet, with a secondary area of expertise (in creative non-fiction, memoir, screenwriting, etc.). We expect to fill this need in poetry by hiring a distinguished visiting writer for the first year, and to see a tenure-track hire in the second year of the program.

The experience of other universities that we have consulted (such as New York University) that offer both the MA and MFA degrees in creative writing, is that students prefer to seek the MFA degree, and that enrollments in the MA decline as MFA enrollments correspondingly increase. We believe that we will be able to continue to meet the needs of MA students and the non-degree students our current program serves, while we build a first rate MFA program for dedicated writers. The total number of graduate writing students we teach will increase slightly over the number we graduate now.

Graduate students in the program would teach introductory composition and creative writing classes, adding an economic resource for the college and university while bringing to our undergraduate classes a cohort of committed writers of poetry, fiction, screenwriting and biography.

We are actively seeking to establish an endowment to support the creative writing program at NCSU, and have already made a good start, having established with the CHASS development office a plan for several endowments to support the program [see attachments]. The endowment has raised $100,000 to help establish a fund for the Lee Smith Visiting Writer and has received a commitment of $50,000 over ten years to fund other aspects of Creative Writing. The program would require some resources in support staff and infrastructure (computers, offices, etc.).

B. Discuss potential program duplication and program competitiveness.

1. Identify similar programs offered elsewhere in North Carolina. Indicate the location and distance from the proposing institution. Include a) public and b) private institutions of higher education.

Public: Within the University of North Carolina system, UNC Greensboro and UNC Wilmington offer the MFA degree in Creative Writing. UNC Greensboro is located 80 miles from Raleigh, and UNC Wilmington is 130 miles from Raleigh.

Private: The only private institutions in North Carolina offering the MFA in Creative Writing are Warren Wilson College, located in Asheville, 247 miles from Raleigh, and Queens University of Charlotte, 170 miles from Raleigh.

2. Indicate how the proposed new degree program differs from other programs like it in the University. If the program duplicates other UNC programs, explain a) why is it necessary or justified and b) why demand (if limited) might not be met through a collaborative arrangement (perhaps using distance education) with another UNC institution. If the program is a first professional or doctoral degree, compare it with other similar programs in public and private universities in North Carolina, in the region, and in the nation.

Our program would be smaller than that of UNC-W, would offer more opportunity for elective study than the UNC-G MFA, and would be a residency program operating on a regular semester basis unlike the Warren Wilson or Queens University programs. No institution in the Research Triangle area, a metropolitan area of about one million people, offers a creative writing MFA. We would offer an MFA to both non-traditional students and to full-time students whose residency in the Triangle for career and other reasons does not allow them to relocate to study at UNC-G or UNC-W, and which would build upon the existing faculty and program at NCSU. The NCSU Department of English receives numerous inquiries yearly from prospective students who explicitly state they would be interested in enrolling an MFA program here, and who are not enrolling in the programs at UNC-G and UNC-W.

The UNC-G program currently accepts about 13-14 new students a year into its MFA program, or less than 10 percent of its approximately 200 applicants per year (see headcount breakdowns below). The UNC-W program accepts about 20, or about 16 percent, of its approximately 120 yearly applicants. Given these rather low acceptance rates, there is a demonstrable desire for MFA training in the state that is not being filled by UNC-G and UNC-W. An MFA degree at NCSU would also draw from prospective students in the Research Triangle area who are not now applying to UNC-G or UNC-W because of the physical distance of those programs from Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill. We do expect to draw students from all parts of the country (as UNC-G and UNC-W already do). This is not simply a regional program.

The Warren Wilson program is a low residency MFA under which “residency sessions” consist of intensive 10-day workshops. The Queens University program is also a low residency MFA, with residency sessions of seven days twice a year. There are no resident students in either the Warren Wilson or Queens programs; the proposed NCSU MFA is a residency program and would therefore meet the needs of a different student population than either the Warren Wilson or Queens programs.

Finally, MFA programs have become usual assets to English departments across the USA. This is a direction adopted by many major universities, including schools noted more for their technical than their humanities emphasis like Purdue, Pittsburgh, and the University of California, Irvine.

C. Enrollment (baccalaureate programs should include only upper division majors, juniors and seniors ).

Headcount enrollment

Show a five-year history of enrollments and degrees awarded in similar programs offered at other UNC institutions (using the format below for each institution with a similar program); indicate which of these institutions you consulted regarding their experience with student demand and (in the case of professional programs) job placement. Indicate how their experiences influenced your enrollment projections.

Institution: UNC Greensboro

Program Title: Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

| |(97-98) |(98-99) |(99-00) |(00-01) |(01-02) |

|Enrollment |26 |27 |27 |27 |28 |

|Degrees-awarded |14 |11 |13 |14 |10 |

In the last three years UNC-G has received at least 200 applicants per year, of which they accept 13-14 students per year for a total program of 26-27 students at any one time.

James Clark, the director of the MFA program at UNC Greensboro, has told us that the number of applications has been rising in recent years, from about 170 to about 250 per year. He says that, paradoxically, in times of economic downturns applications to fine arts degrees generally increase as people seek to change careers or pursue interests that they were unable to pursue in times of economic prosperity.

Institution: UNC Wilmington

Program Title: Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing

| |(97-98) |(98-99) |(99-00) |(00-01) |(01-02) |

|Enrollment |48 |46 |58 |62 |67 |

|Degrees-awarded |8 |9 |13 |17 | unavailable |

UNC-W receives 120 applications per year, accepting 20-21, for a total of over 60 students at any one time.

Use the format in the chart below to project your enrollment in the proposed program for four years and explain the basis for the projections:

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

(_03 - 04_) (_04 - _05_) ( 05_ - _06) (_06 - 07_)

Full-time 8 20 24 24

Part-time 2 4 4 6

TOTALS

Please indicate the anticipated steady-state headcount enrollment after four years:

Full-time 24 Part-time 6 Total _30_____

SCH production (upper division program majors, juniors and seniors only, for baccalaureate programs).

Use the format in the chart below to project the SCH production for four years. Explain how SCH projections were derived from enrollment projections (see UNC website for a list of the disciplines comprising each of the four categories).

|Year 1 |Student Credit Hours |

|Program Category |UG |Masters |Doctoral |

|Category I (23) | | 162 | |

|Category II | | | |

|Category III | | | |

|Category IV | | | |

In all cases the SCH figures were arrived at by assuming that full-time students would enroll in 9 hours per semester (or 18 hours per school year), and that part-time students would enroll in 3-6 hours per semester (or 9 hours per school year). The numbers of students used in these calculations are taken from the above estimate of enrollments for the first four years.

|Year 2 |Student Credit Hours |

|Program Category |UG |Masters |Doctoral |

|Category I (23) | | 396 | |

|Category II | | | |

|Category III | | | |

|Category IV | | | |

|Year 3 |Student Credit Hours |

|Program Category |UG |Masters |Doctoral |

|Category I (23) | | 468 | |

|Category II | | | |

|Category III | | | |

|Category IV | | | |

|Year 4 |Student Credit Hours |

|Program Category |UG |Masters |Doctoral |

|Category I (23) | | 486 | |

|Category II | | | |

|Category III | | | |

|Category IV | | | |

III. Program Requirements and Curriculum

A. Program Planning.

1. List the names of institutions with similar offerings regarded as high quality programs by the developers of the proposed program.

University of California at Irvine (72 quarter hour MFA)

New York University (32 hour MFA)

University of Maryland (36 hour MFA)

University of Michigan (36 hour MFA)

University of Pittsburgh (36 hour MFA)

Purdue University (42 hour, three-year MFA)

George Mason University (48 hour, three-year MFA)

2. List other institutions visited or consulted in developing this proposal. Also discuss or append any consultants’ reports, committee findings, and simulations (cost, enrollment shift, induced course load matrix, etc.) generated in planning the proposed program.

The faculty consulted faculty and staff at George Mason University, UNC Greensboro, UNC Wilmington, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Michigan, and New York University. We also carefully examined application, enrollment, and graduation figures for the programs at UNC Greensboro and UNC Wilmington.

The 1999 external review of the NCSU English Department recommended strengthening degree programs in creative writing.

The faculty also consulted with D.W. Fenza, the Executive Director of the Associated Writing Programs. The AWP as a national organization represents over 600 graduate and undergraduate college and university creative writing programs in the U.S. Appended is the AWP Director’s Handbook, which recommends guidelines for graduate creative writing programs.

B. Admission. List the following:

1. Admissions requirements for proposed program (indicate minimum requirements and general requirements).

While it is recommended that applicants have an undergraduate major in English, the program would not discourage applicants from other undergraduate disciplines. Regardless of their undergraduate major, applicants should have a 3.0 grade-point average on a 4.00 scale.

2. Documents to be submitted for admission (listing or sample).

Students must submit scores from the general aptitude section of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), three letters of recommendation, transcripts of all undergraduate work, and, most important, writing samples. For fiction, approximately thirty pages are required; for poetry, at least ten poems.

C. Degree requirements. List the following:

1. Total hours required. Major. Minor.

Total hours of graduate credit: 36. No minor hours, but students will have six hours of free electives, which may be taken in a subsidiary area of interest that bears on the individual’s area of writing interest (e.g. Civil War history, contemporary philosophy, foreign language translation). The curriculum breaks down as follows:

12 credits in writing workshops at the 500/600 level. 3 of these credits may be in a genre other than the student's main interest.

12 credits in literature at the 500/600 level. 3 of these credits may be in Directed Readings, upon approval from supervising faculty and the MFA director.

6 credits, electives. Electives may be either within or without the department, and may be selected to support an area of interest such as linguistics and translation, historical fiction, etc. Students who serve as teaching assistants in composition must take English 511: Theory and Research in Composition.

6 credits, thesis, a book-length manuscript of publishable quality (approximately 50-60 pages for poetry; 150-200 for fiction).

2. Proportion of courses open only to graduate students to be required in program (graduate programs only).

Most of the credit hours in writing that students in the program will take will be at the 500 level. Such courses are designed for graduate students, but advanced undergraduates and PBS students may enroll in such courses with permission of the instructor. In practice we expect to allow few if any such students into the MFA workshops.

The six thesis hours required for the MFA are at the 600 level, which is open only to graduate students. By that reckoning, six of the 36 hours required in the program are open exclusively to graduate students.

3. Grades required.

MFA students must maintain a GPA of at least 3.0. Students whose GPAs fall below 3.0 will be dropped from the program. All required courses must be taken for credit.

4. Amount of transfer credit accepted.

Up to six hours of credit from other universities

Up to twelve hours of PBS credit from NCSU

5. Other requirements (e.g. residence, comprehensive exams, thesis, dissertation, clinical or field experience, "second major," etc.).

Residence: The proposed MFA is a residency program. We expect students to be resident in the NCSU community.

Exams: In their last semester, MFA students will take a written examination based on a list of twenty-five titles, ten of which will be named by the student with the advice of his or her advisor; fifteen of which will be provided by the creative writing faculty, which will construct and administer the exam. Students will be asked to respond to these works from a writer's point of view.

Thesis: The student must write a final thesis, a book-length manuscript in the student's field of interest. In fiction an approximate two hundred pages are expected; in poetry, sixty. Upon its completion, the student will do an oral presentation of the thesis and answer questions of the thesis advisory committee.

6. Language and/or research requirements.

No language requirement. Research required is handled under the thesis requirement.

7. Any time limits for completion.

The program is designed to be completed in two years for full-time students.

Limit of six years (graduate school standard)

D. List existing courses by title and number and indicate (*) those that are required. Include an explanation of numbering system. List (under a heading marked “new”) and describe new courses proposed

ENG 508 - Usability Studies for Technical Communication

+ENG 509 - Old English Literature

+ENG 510 - Middle English Literature

#ENG 511 - Theory and Research In Composition

#ENG 512 - Theory and Research In Professional Writing

#ENG 513 - Empirical Research In Composition

#ENG 514 - History Of Rhetoric

#ENG 515 - Rhetoric Of Science and Technology

#ENG 516 - Rhetorical Criticism: Theory and Practice

#ENG 517 - Advanced Technical Writing, Editing and Document Design

#ENG 518 - Publication Management for Technical Communicators

#ENG 519 - Online Information Design and Evaluation

#ENG 520 - Science Writing for the Media

#ENG 521 - Modern English Usage

#ENG 522 - Linguistics and Literacy

#ENG 523 - Language Variation Research Seminar

#ENG 524 - Introduction to Linguistics

#ENG 525 - Variety In Language

#ENG 526 - History Of the English Language

#ENG 527 - Discourse Analysis

#ENG 528 - Language Change Research Seminar

+ENG 529 - 16th-Century Non-Dramatic English Literature

+ENG 530 - 17TH-Century English Literature

+ENG 531 - American Colonial Literature

#ENG 532 - Narrative Analysis

+ENG 539 - Seminar In World Literature

+ENG 540 - History Of Literary Criticism

+ENG 541 - Contemporary Literary Theory

+ENG 548 - African-American Literature

+ENG 549 - Modern African Literature

+ENG 550 - English Romantic Period

+ENG 551 - Chaucer

+ENG 555 - American Romantic Period

+ENG 558 - Studies In Shakespeare

+ENG 560 - Victorian Poetry and Critical Prose

+ENG 561 - Milton

+ENG 562 - 18TH-Century English Literature

+ENG 563 - 18TH-Century English Novel

+ENG 564 - Victorian Novel

+ENG 565 - American Realism and Naturalism

+ENG 570 - 20TH-Century British Prose

+ENG 571 - 20TH-Century British Poetry

+ENG 572 - Modern British Drama

+ENG 573 - Modern American Drama

+ENG 574 - Comparative Drama: The Theater as Supranational Expression

+ENG 575 - Southern Writers

+ENG 576 - 20TH-Century American Poetry

+ENG 577 - 20th-Century American Prose

+ENG 578 - English Drama To 1642

+ENG 579 - Restoration and 18th-Century Drama

+ENG 580 - Literary Postmodernism

+ENG 582 - Studies in Literature

#ENG 583 - Studies In Composition and Rhetoric

#ENG 584 - Studies In Linguistics

#ENG 585 - Studies In Film

#ENG 586 - Studies In Theory

#ENG 587 - Film and Visual Theory

*ENG 588 - Fiction Writing Workshop

*ENG 589 - Poetry Writing Workshop

*ENG 590 - Studies In Creative Writing

#ENG 591 - Studies in National Cinemas

+#ENG 610 - Special Topics English

#ENG 624 - Teaching College Composition

+ENG 636 - Directed Readings

#ENG 666 - Teaching Methods For Professional Writing

+ENG 669 - Bibliography and Methodology

#ENG 675 - Projects in Technical Communication

*ENG 685 - Master's Supervised Teaching

*ENG 690 - Master's Examination

*ENG 693 - Master's Supervised Research

*ENG 695 - Master's Thesis Research

*ENG 696 - Summer Thesis Research

*ENG 699 - Master's Thesis Preparation

KEY: * Courses allowed to fulfill writing requirement

+ Courses allowed to fulfill literature requirement

# English courses allowed to fulfill elective requirement. Courses in other departments may also be accepted to fulfill this requirement

IV. Faculty

A. List the names of persons now on the faculty who will be directly involved in the proposed program. Provide complete information on each faculty member's education, teaching experience, research experience, publications, and experience in directing student research, including the number of theses and dissertations directed for graduate programs. The official roster forms approved by SACS can be submitted rather than actual faculty vita.

Dr. John Kessel, Director of Creative Writing, English, Box 8105, NC State University, Raleigh, NC

27695-8105 (919 515-4170) tenshi@unity.ncsu.edu

Angela Davis-Gardner, English, Box 8105, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8105

(919 515-4173) agardner@unity.ncsu.edu

John Balaban, English, Box 8105, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8105 (919 515-4147)

jbbalaban@social.chass.ncsu.edu

William Wilton Barnhardt, English, Box 8105, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-8105

(919 515-4129) wwbarnha@unity.ncsu.edu

[vitas attached]

B. Estimate the need for new faculty for the proposed program over the first four years. If the teaching responsibilities for the proposed program will be absorbed in part or in whole by the present faculty, explain how this will be done without weakening existing programs.

We propose that in the second year of the MFA program, the department hire a second tenure-track professor of poetry with subsidiary competence in fiction, drama, or creative non-fiction. Until we are able to hire a tenure-track poet, we would propose hiring a distinguished visiting poet to teach a graduate workshop and work with thesis students at least one semester each academic year.

In combination with the Film Studies program, we propose hiring a half-time screenwriting professor.

In addition, because of the thesis load that faculty will have to bear, thesis work must be counted against the teaching load of each faculty member so that faculty teach no more than a 3/2 load, and ultimately a 2/2 load. We have consulted widely, and this is the standard course load in MFA programs nationwide, and can be borne out by examination of AWP member programs [see the AWP Director’s Handbook, appended].

The reduction of courses taught by the full time faculty will be taken up by the fact that graduate students in the MFA program, when qualified, will teach entry-level undergraduate creative writing courses that are currently taught by tenure-track faculty or lecturers. Entering MFA students who already have earned an MA degree elsewhere may teach in their first year; those who have not satisfied the SACS standard of having completed 18 graduate hours will teach in their second years.

We expect a number of students who currently enroll in our MA program to enroll in the MFA instead. The total number of creative writing students will stay the same or increase slightly over our current enrollment.

C. If the employment of new faculty requires additional funds, please explain the source of funding.

The university will need to supply additional funds as detailed in the budget estimate below to account for a 3/2 teaching load for tenured writing faculty, with the intention of moving to a 2/2 load as soon as possible. Part of this money may come from the money freed up that was used in the 1990s to pay non-tenure track visiting faculty in creative writing. Up until the 2002-03 academic year, the department employed three NTT faculty in creative writing who were paid at the rate approaching that of beginning assistant professors. These positions have been eliminated and their courses assigned to other NTT faculty, at a considerable savings to the university.

The training and assignment of graduate students to teach beginning creative writing classes, besides allowing the students to develop teaching skills that will help them in their careers as writing teachers, will provide additional savings to the university that can compensate for the resources that must be devoted to freeing up faculty to teach more at the graduate level.

In addition, we will be raising the enrollment caps on the beginning creative writing courses from 15 to 18 students per section, in keeping with the practice at other institutions. Since we offer 11 to 12 sections of beginning creative writing each semester, this will save the university the equivalent of two course releases per semester.

To pay visiting faculty for week to ten-day or full semester residency, we will seek to establish an endowment. The establishment of these visiting writer programs will be heavily dependent on the endowment, though some funds may have to be committed by the university until the endowment grows.

D. Explain how the program will affect faculty activity, including course load, public service activity, and scholarly research.

As noted above, the standard load for MFA faculty nationwide is 2/2. The teaching of writing involves commitments of time and effort to students that go well beyond the classroom; creative writing faculty are often the most visible representatives of the English faculty in the community. The creative writing faculty are already active in the community, giving readings, workshops, and lectures; we anticipate them to be even more active once the program is established. The reputation of an MFA program, and its ability to attract good students, depends on two things: the success in publishing of its graduates, and the continued success in publishing of its faculty. It does not work to hire a first rate faculty to teach in an MFA program and then not permit them time to do their own writing.

The director of the program should, as he or she currently does, receive a one-course reduction per semester to administer the program.

V. Library

A. Provide a statement as to the adequacy of present library holdings for the proposed program.

Currently the library subscribes to about 16 literary journals and purchases a good amount of fiction for its regular holdings in literature. These library holdings are adequate, but would need to be enhanced as the program gets established.

B. State how the library will be improved to meet new program requirements for the next five years. The explanation should discuss the need for books, periodicals, reference material, primary source material, etc. What additional library support must be added to areas supporting the proposed program?

We would request additional subscriptions to literary journals or periodicals and an increased commitment to purchasing contemporary fiction, poetry, drama, and books about the writing process. Fortunately, literary journals are comparatively inexpensive compared to journals in the sciences and engineering, and the additional subscriptions should not overtax the library’s resources. We could double the number of journals received for less than $500 per year. If screenwriting becomes a formal element of the MFA program, the library may have to increase its purchases in the area of film and video, though it is already committed to do so in support of the university’s film studies program.

C. Discuss the use of other institutional libraries.

Students writing historical fiction or otherwise doing research in areas outside of literature for use in their creative writing will have occasion to use other libraries and resources on campus, from art to design to the sciences, but the university’s existing commitment to support degrees in those areas means that such materials are already available to our writing students and should continue to be available in the future. The large resources available to students through access to the libraries at UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University will also be an asset to our program.

VI. Facilities and Equipment

A. Describe facilities available for the proposed program.

The Owen-Walters Readings Series, under which the creative writing program brings distinguished writers to read and teach seminars, could use a comfortable room of about 80-100 person capacity within the CHASS complex suitable for public readings. Such a room would be used at most times for regular classes, but would be invaluable for promoting and expanding a first rate MFA program. This could be accomplished by investing in renovating an existing large classroom in Tompkins, Caldwell or Winston Halls.

B. Describe the effect of this new program on existing facilities and indicate whether they will be adequate, both at the commencement of the program and during the next decade.

Aside from this readings room, existing CHASS facilities are adequate for the MFA and should be for the foreseeable future. At some point it would be useful to have a seminar room available for writing workshops, but it may be possible to use existing rooms in CHASS.

C. Discuss any information technology services needed and/or available.

The MFA program will need to maintain a first-class website. The creative writing program currently maintains a website in connection with CHASS and the English Department, but this will need to be upgraded. This may require the services of a web designer, a graduate student full time to maintain the website, and perhaps some upgraded computer hardware and software. Some of this is already being done through the support of CHASS and the English Department.

D. Discuss sources of financial support for any new facilities and equipment.

We anticipate being able to raise some money from the endowment for facilities renovation.

VII. Administration

Describe how the proposed program will be administered, giving the responsibilities of each department, division, school, or college. Explain any inter-departmental or inter-unit administrative plans. Include an organizational chart showing the "location" of the proposed new program.

The MFA will be located within the existing English department’s graduate programs. The MFA in creative writing, like all other degrees within the English department, will work within the structures and policies set up by department’s Graduate Council, Graduate Director, and the Head of the English Department.

It will be administrated by a Program Director, working with a committee of the creative writing faculty. The director will be responsible for advising students, planning events, assigning courses, working with the Endowment office, and handling most of the day-to-day running of the MFA program. With the CW faculty the director will review applications for admission and make policy decisions. The Program Director will answer to the department’s Director of graduate Studies.

The MFA Program director will have a graduate student assistant to help with administrative tasks.

VIII. Accreditation

Indicate the names of all accrediting agencies normally concerned with programs similar to the one proposed. Describe plans to request professional accreditation. If the proposed new degree program is at a more advanced level than those previously authorized or if it is in a new discipline division, was SACS notified of a potential "substantive change" during the planning process? If so, describe the response from SACS and the steps that have been taken to date with reference to the applicable procedure.

The Associated Writing Programs, though not an accrediting agency, is the national clearinghouse for information and professional standards of writing programs in the U.S.

IX. Supporting Fields

Are other subject-matter fields at the proposing institution necessary or valuable in support of the proposed program? Is there needed improvement or expansion of these fields? To what extent will such improvement or expansion be necessary for the proposed program?

The current faculty in Film Studies has taught courses in screenwriting that have been included in our undergraduate creative writing offerings. We would like to offer a graduate course in screenwriting to our MFA (and MA) students. We have agreed with the film studies faculty that the next hire in film studies should be a person who, besides being trained in the academic study of film criticism, has professional credentials in screenwriting and can teach such a course on a regular rotation. In general we anticipate that a number of our students will be interested in scriptwriting, and therefore maintenance of a strong film studies program will be an asset to the MFA.

Students in the MFA program will have six hours of free electives which they may use to take courses in departments other than English to develop an area of interest that may have bearing on their writing. This would not require improvement or expansion of any existing subject-matter fields in the university, and we do not anticipate it requiring such expansion in the future.

X. Additional Information

Include any additional information deemed pertinent to the review of this new degree program proposal.

See attached:

Faculty vitae

CHASS Development Office Creative Writing Priorities

The AWP Director’s Handbook

Raleigh News and Observer, 12/15/02: “America the Literate”

New York Times, 12/0/02: “In Book Publishing World, Some Reasons for Optimism”

XI. Budget

Provide estimates (using the attached form) of the additional costs required to implement the program and identify the proposed sources of the additional required funds. Use SCH projections (section II.C.) to estimate new state appropriations through enrollment increase funds. Prepare a budget schedule for each of the first three years of the program, indicating the account number and name for all additional amounts required. Identify EPA and SPA positions immediately below the account listing. New SPA positions should be listed at the first step in the salary range using the SPA classification rates currently in effect. Identify any larger or specialized equipment and any unusual supplies requirements.

For the purposes of the second and third year estimates, project faculty and SPA position rates and fringe benefits rates at first year levels. Include the continuation of previous year(s) costs in second and third year estimates.

Additional state-appropriated funds for new programs may be limited. Except in exceptional circumstances, institutions should request such funds for no more than three years (e.g., for start-up equipment, new faculty positions, etc.), at which time enrollment increase funds should be adequate to support the new program. Therefore it will be assumed that requests (in the “New Allocations” column of the following worksheet) are for one, two, or three years unless the institution indicates a continuing need and attaches a compelling justification. However, funds for new programs are more likely to be allocated for limited periods of time.

SUMMARY OF ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL COSTS FOR PROPOSED PROGRAM/TRACK

INSTITUTION ___North Carolina State University__________________________ DATE ________2/5/03________________

Program (API #, Name, Level) ____23.0501________English Creative Writing_ ___(Master’s)______________

Degree(s) to be Granted _____Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program Year __________________

ADDITIONAL FUNDS REQUIRED - BY SOURCE

Reallocation

of Present Enrollment Federal

Institutional Increase Other New

Resources Funds (Identify) Allocations Total

101 Regular Term Instruction

1210 SPA Regular Salaries

(Identify positions) $____________ $_____________ $____________ $____________ $_____________

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

1310 EPA Academic Salaries $____________ $_____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

1810 Social Security $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

1820 State Retirement $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

1830 Medical Insurance $____________ $_____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

2000 Supplies and Materials $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

(Identify) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

3000 Current Services $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

(Identify) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

4000 Fixed Charges $____________ $_____________ $____________ $____________ $_____________

(Identify) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

5000 Capital Outlay (Equipment) $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

(Identify) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

(____________) (____________) (____________) (____________) (____________)

TOTAL - Regular Term Instruction $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

151 Libraries

(Identify accounts) $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________

____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________

____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________

____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________

TOTAL - Libraries $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

TOTAL ADDITIONAL COSTS . . . $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________ $____________

NOTE: Accounts may be added or deleted as required.

XII. Evaluation Plans

All new degree program proposals must include an evaluation plan which includes: (a) the criteria to be used to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the program, (b) measures to be used to evaluate the program), (c) expected levels of productivity of the proposed program for the first four years of operation (number of graduates), (d) the names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers of at least three persons (six reviewers are needed for graduate programs) qualified to review this proposal and to evaluate the program once operational, and (e) the plan and schedule to evaluate the proposed new degree program prior to the completion of its fifth year of operation once fully established.

Program Evaluation Format

A. Criteria to be used to evaluate the proposed program:

The program’s effectiveness will be measured by:

1. The number of graduates and graduation rates

2. The publication record of graduates

3. Job offers and placement of graduates in teaching and other jobs

4. The quality and number of applicants to the program

5. The national ranking of the program

6. Solicited feedback from program graduates

B. Measures to be used to evaluate the program:

The same criteria used for effectiveness should serve to evaluate the program as a whole.

The program will use data from enrollments and graduation, and the Graduate School’s exit survey for all graduates. We will also survey graduates of the program annually after they have been out of school to check their post-degree progress.

C. Projected productivity levels (number of graduates):

Level Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 TOTALS

B

M 0 8 12 14 34

I/P

D

(Key: B-Bachelor's, M-Master's, I/P-Intermediate or Professional, D-Doctoral)

D. Recommended consultant/reviewers: Names, titles, addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers. May not be employees of the University of North Carolina.

D.W. Fenza,

Executive Director,

The Associated Writing Programs,

Mailstop 1E3,

George Mason University,

Fairfax, VA 22030.

email: awp@gmu.edu (703) 993-4301

Richard Bausch,

Heritage Chair in Creative Writing

George Mason University

4400 University Dr.

MS 3E4,

Fairfax, VA 22030

Phone: 703/993-1180,

Email: rc418@

Geoffrey Wolff

Professor, Dept. of English & Comparative Literature

Fiction MFA Director

410 Humanities Instructional Building

University of California at Irvine

Irvine, CA 92697

(949) 824-3745

Fax: (949) 824-2916

E Mail: gwolff@uci.edu

Marianne Boruch

Professor and Director of Creative Writing Program

Department of English

1356 Heavilon Hall

Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN 47907

(765) 494-0344

Fax; (765) 494-3780

mboruch@purdue.edu

Melissa Hammerle, Director

New York University

Graduate Creative Writing Program

Department of English

19 University Place, Room 220

New York, NY 10003

creative.writing@nyu.edu

(212) 998-8816

Lynn Emanuel

Director of the Writing Program

University of Pittsburgh

English Department CL 526

4200 Fifth Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Email: emanuel@pitt.edu

Phone: (412) 624-4036

Fax: (412) 624-6639

E. Plan for evaluation prior to fifth operational year.

In the fourth year the MFA director will ask the English Department’s Director of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Studies Council to constitute a committee to review the MFA degree program according to criteria listed under “A” above. Outside reviewers may be selected from the list provided above, or from a list of established MFA programs elsewhere in the U.S. Interviews with faculty and students and a meeting with the program’s administrators will be scheduled. The committee will be asked to write a report on the status of the program and make recommendations for changes and improvements.

The department will also submit two reports on the progress of the MFA degree program to the university system’s Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, the first covering the program’s first two years of implementation, and the second covering the program’s first three to four years of operation. The reports will show whether the program has met the goals for enrollments and number of degrees conferred, and report on the readiness of the MFA program to continue once start-up funds are discontinued.

XIII. Reporting Requirements

Institutions will be expected to report on program productivity after one year and three years of operation. This information will be solicited as a part of the biennial long-range planning revision.

Proposed date of initiation of proposed degree program: Fall 2003

This proposal to establish a new degree program has been reviewed and approved by the appropriate campus committees and authorities.

Department Graduate Committee _____________________

Department Curriculum Committee _____________________

Department Head _____________________

CHASS Curriculum Committee _____________________

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs _____________________

Graduate dean _____________________

Chancellor:

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