Despite Hamline faculty unanimously voting to save the Creative Writing Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) program, the community is still concerned for its future due to the preemptive elimination of the associated journal Water~Stone Review and its executive editor position.
The proposal by Interim Provost Andy Rundquist and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Marcela Kostihová to sunset the program was met with widespread criticism at Hamline and beyond, and its rejection was a relief for many. However, without the Water~Stone Review and its editor, Meghan Maloney-Vinz, students and faculty alike are unclear on how the program will proceed.
Current MFA student Mariah Sletten, who enrolled at Hamline in 2024, said that without Maloney-Vinz, the program would be significantly compromised.
“I, myself, enrolled in the Creative Writing MFA at the beginning of this academic year particularly to work with Meghan. So, regardless of the outcome of the faculty vote against the sunsetting of the MFA, the integrity of the Creative Writing Programs at large and the promises made to me, personally, upon enrollment will be utterly devastated by her loss,” Sletten said via email.
Many faculty members attending the aforementioned meeting found that the process was uncollaborative. Creative Writing Program director Richard Pelster-Wiebe voiced his concerns at how the attitudes of those proposing the sunset in the faculty meeting reflected a lack of justification and understanding of the program.
“In the meeting, it was very troubling how unbending the Interim Provost seemed on [the cutting of the journal and staff position]. In fact, I pressed him and other people pressed him repeatedly to tell us why this had to happen and why these positions needed to happen now and he didn’t really give a clear answer,” Pelster-Wiebe said. “So it was very clear that he was just kind of closing down and not willing to engage in the collaborative conversation that not just myself but the entire room of faculty wanted.”
Associate professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Sarah Greenman also described the administrators’ unwillingness to negotiate on the matter, calling out Rundquist by name.
“It made for a heated discussion,” Greenman said, explaining how the strong opinions on both sides caused some intense exchanges. “Eventually, Interim Provost Rundquist sort of said the decision stands, we’re not making any changes, and the discussion kind of ended there with his part of things.”
The faculty’s engagement with the issue stems not only from recognition of the program’s importance, but also from how this process will affect how future proposals are met at Hamline.
The vote followed a report from the Academic Affairs Committee (AAC), which reviewed the proposal and concluded that they could not recommend it. Greenman said that a lot of the conversation was about ensuring the right process was followed and setting a precedent, as it is not common for the AAC to not support a proposal. Furthermore, the faculty handbook does not give a procedure for sunsetting a program with an attached staff position.
“The specific issue at hand is technically about process, but it feels like more than that,” assistant professor of Public Health Casper Voyles said via email. “I feel heartened by the fact that the faculty took pause to examine how decisions are made that could impact the essence of the Hamline experience — academic or otherwise.”
Faculty also spoke to the importance of supporting programs like this within the current sociopolitical climate in higher education, which is seeing a decline in interest and funding for liberal arts.
“It’s doubly confounding that it’s happening now at this precise historic moment when our students and our community need a place of care, a place of refuge, a place to be challenged creatively, a place to generate solidarity and a place to think creatively about solving the dire problems that we are facing right now,” Pelster-Wiebe said. “To eliminate a program like this and to eliminate the Water~Stone Review, which does nothing but provide voices to the dispossessed, just leaves me speechless.”
This sentiment was echoed by current students; Sletten emphasized the need for creative expression amidst growing restrictions on free speech.
“This whole ordeal has been a wound in the heart of Hamline’s creative community, at a time when personal and communal expression has already been jeopardized at a national level,” Sletten said via email. “We need the arts. We need inspiring communicators. We need Water~Stone Review. And we need Meghan Maloney-Vinz.”