<html>
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 10 (filtered)">
<style>
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{font-family:Arial;
color:navy;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=blue>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Recognizing
Creative Writing as an Academic Discipline in California Community Colleges<br>
By Robert Vasquez</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> <br>
</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) has before
it a petition to add creative writing to the state-wide Disciplines List.
The ASCCC will vote on this petition this April at their Spring 2007 Plenary
session. This action is 65 years overdue.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
According to D. W. Fenza, executive director of the Association of Writers and
Writing Programs (AWP) which is officially sponsoring the petition, graduate
degrees in creative writing have existed since 1942 when Paul Engle started the
Iowa Writers’ Workshop; soon, other institutions developed similar
programs: “In 1946, Elliot Coleman founded the Writing Seminars at
Johns Hopkins University. In 1947, </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Stanford</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> and the </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> of </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Denver</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> both
launched graduate creative writing programs. In 1948, Baxter Hathaway
founded the creative writing program at </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Cornell</span></font><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>”
(Fenza).<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
By 1984, over 150 graduate creative writing programs flourished in the </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>United
States</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>; currently, over 300 programs offer graduate degrees and
over 100 offer undergraduate degrees in creative writing (Fenza). <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>The Writer’s Chronicle</span></i> routinely
reports that more than 20,000 individuals have earned M.A., M.F.A., or Ph.D.
degrees in creative writing in the last twenty years. Obviously, creative
writing as a distinct discipline has been a reality at hundreds of educational
institutions for many decades. More importantly, California Community
Colleges (CCC) should officially recognize this fact too, for they have done so
with other disciplines in the past.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
Before English as a Second Language (ESL) and journalism were added to the CCC
Disciplines List, courses in those disciplines could be taught by any community
college professor with a graduate degree in English. Fortunately for
students and faculty, the ASCCC corrected this flaw by recognizing both ESL and
journalism as disciplines in their own right; hence, ESL and journalism
instructors must possess <i><span style='font-style:italic'>as a minimum
requirement</span></i> graduate degrees in their respective disciplines.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
In contrast, English as a discipline in the CCC system currently includes
literature, composition, and reading­and creative writing since it’s not
officially recognized via the Disciplines List. As a result, almost any </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>California</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> community
college professor with a graduate degree in English literature or composition
can teach creative writing courses even though he or she might not possess any
substantial training in creative writing. How can this current situation
benefit students?<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
One could argue, “Aren’t ESL, journalism, composition, and creative
writing courses the same? After all, don’t these students <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>compose</span></i>?” However, the student
<i><span style='font-style:italic'>compositions</span></i> in these unique
disciplines have <i><span style='font-style:italic'>different purposes</span></i>
and <i><span style='font-style:italic'>outcomes</span></i>: ESL students
learn English reading and writing skills as non-native speakers and writers of
English; journalism students aim to inform the public by reporting on various
facts and events considered newsworthy; English composition students write
expository essays controlled by thesis statements and/or research material and
utilize non-fiction prose; creative writing students produce poetry, fiction,
and/or drama. In essence, each discipline requires instructors
specifically trained to help students <i><span style='font-style:italic'>achieve</span></i>
those different purposes and outcomes.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
Others could posit, “Shouldn’t all English degree holders know
enough about literature to teach poetry and fiction writing courses?
Don’t English majors learn everything related to literature, including
creative writing?” By analogy, degree holders in diverse
disciplines should ask themselves a similar question:
“Shouldn’t all nursing degree holders know enough about x-ray
technology to teach such courses? Don’t nursing majors learn
everything related to health care, including radiology?” Hopefully,
the absurdity of the latter question will help one understand the flaw in the
former question. Students who wish to become radiology technicians must
study with experts in radiology who are licensed and recognized by the state, just
as prospective nursing students must study with nurses <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>even though radiology technicians and nurses often
work on the same patients</span></i>. The same can be said analogously
about English department faculty members: We work with the same students,
but we often have different tasks and goals.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
And for many decades potential English graduate students have had to make
conscious decisions: “Should I choose the literature, composition,
or creative writing option in graduate school?” If some complain,
“The university I attended didn’t have a creative writing
program,” such individuals must have lived rather academically sheltered
lives: For some reason they didn’t peruse the various college
catalogues in reference libraries; they didn’t ask creative writing
professors about graduate creative writing programs<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>;</span></font> they didn’t seek assistance from
guidance counselors regarding creative writing options at the graduate level­in
short, they didn’t care enough about creative writing to do some simple
research.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
In </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>California</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, <font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'>many</span></font> CSU and UC campuses offer­and some have
been doing so for decades­graduate degrees in creative writing: CSU Chico<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>, </span></font>CSU Fresno, CSU Long Beach,
CSU Los Angeles, CSU Northridge, <font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>CSU
Sacramento, </span></font>San Diego SU, San Francisco SU, San Jose SU,<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'> Sonoma SU,</span></font> UC Davis, UC
Irvine, UC Riverside, and UC San Diego. Of course, several private
colleges do likewise, including Antioch University (LA),<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'> </span></font></span></font><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>california</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'> </span></font><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>College</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'> of the Arts,</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> the California Institute of the
Arts, </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Loyola-Marymount</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Mills</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>College</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>,<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'> New College of California, </span></font></span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>Otis</span></font><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>College</span></font><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> of Art and Design,</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> St.
Mary’s College, the </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> of </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>San
Francisco</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>, and the </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> of </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Southern
California</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
Still, others might say, “I took a few creative writing classes in
college; I even published a couple of poems in my college’s undergraduate
magazine. I have what it takes to teach creative writing.”
Again, change the discipline to another: “I took a few painting
classes in college; I even had a couple of paintings in my college’s
student art gallery. I have what it takes to teach painting
courses.” Nevertheless, if one takes the time to study the various
graduate degree requirements in any practitioner-based discipline, one should
immediately notice that taking “a few classes” doesn’t give
one the kind or level of expertise that others achieve when they finally earn
such graduate degrees. And publishing “a few poems,” often in
questionable venues, doesn’t make one an accomplished writer. With
the advent of the internet combined with vanity presses, people have no problem
finding outlets for their works regardless of their skill levels; such
non-juried outlets often depend financially on the uninformed and the
untrained.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
If this petition is successful, </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>California</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>’s
community college students would have a state-wide assurance that their English
professors would possess <i><span style='font-style:italic'>as a minimum
requirement</span></i> graduate degrees (M.A., M.F.A., or Ph.D.) in creative
writing if they teach such specialized workshops. Of course, these
creative writing professors will continue to teach other courses in composition
and literature in their respective English departments like their counterparts
in the CSU and UC systems.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
And no community college, large or small, would be forced to hire any full-time
creative writing instructors: Such degree holders already meet the
state’s minimum qualifications to be hired as English instructors
provided they also hold B.A. degrees in English. Hence, probably every
community college in the state already employs full- and/or part-time English
faculty members who currently possess graduate degrees in creative writing
(they w<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>ill</span></font> be
"grandfathered" into the <font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>new
</span></font>discipline).<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>
Given the large number of graduate degree holders in creative writing,
community colleges won’t have any problems staffing their creative
writing sections with current or future faculty members.<br>
</span></font></span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
Please support this effort to add creative writing to the state-wide
Disciplines List for California Community Colleges by emailing the Academic
Senate before </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>April 19, 2007</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, via the following email
address: <a href="mailto:asccc@ix.netcom.com">asccc@ix.netcom.com</a>.
And please contact your local community college’s representatives to the
Academic Senate and urge them to vote for this petition. Tuition-paying
community college students <i><span style='font-style:italic'>minimally</span></i>
deserve appropriately degreed creative writing professors and nothing less.<br>
</span></font> </p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Works Cited</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> <br>
</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial'>Fenza, D. W. “Creative Writing & Its
Discontents.” <i><span style='font-style:italic'>The Writer’s
Chronicle</span></i>. March/April 2000. </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>26 October 2006</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>.<br>
<a
href="http://elink.awpwriter.org/m/awpChron/articles/dfenza01.lasso">http://elink.awpwriter.org/m/awpChron/articles/dfenza01.lasso</a>.<br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>About
the author: Robert Vasquez was born and raised in </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>California</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>’s </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Central
Valley</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>. The son of working-class parents, he worked in
various low-paying occupations from his high school years until he went to
graduate school at age 30. He earned a B.A. in English from CSU Fresno
and an M.F.A. in English from UC Irvine, and he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in
Creative Writing at </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Stanford</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>. His
poetry has received various awards, including three Academy of American Poets
prizes, three National Society of Arts & Letters awards, a National Writers
Union award, and­for his book <i><span style='font-style:italic'>At the Rainbow</span></i>
(University of New Mexico Press)­the San Francisco Foundation’s James D.
Phelan Award. His poetry has been published in various journals,
including <i><span style='font-style:italic'>The Los Angeles Times’ Book
Review</span></i>, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>The Missouri Review</span></i>,
<i><span style='font-style:italic'>The New England Review</span></i>, <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>The Notre Dame Review</span></i>, <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Parnassas: Poetry in Review</span></i>, <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Ploughshares</span></i>, and <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>The Village Voice</span></i>, and in numerous
anthologies, including <i><span style='font-style:italic'>After Aztlan: Latino
Poets of the Nineties</span></i>, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>The Atomic
Bomb: A Reader</span></i>, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Atomic Ghost:
Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age</span></i>, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>California
the Beautiful</span></i>, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>The Geography of
Home</span></i>, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Highway 99</span></i>, <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>How Much Earth</span></i>, <i><span style='font-style:
italic'>Piecework: 19 Fresno Poets</span></i>, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Proud
Harvest</span></i>, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Under the Fifth Sun:
Latino Literature from California</span></i>, and <i><span style='font-style:
italic'>Writing Home: Award-Winning Literature from the New West</span></i>.
He has a chapbook, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Braille for the Heart</span></i>
(Momotombito Press), scheduled for publication in 2007. In 2004/05 he was
the inaugural judge for the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, a first-book
competition sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino
Studies and the </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> of </span></font><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Notre Dame Press</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>. In
the 1990s he was the </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>King</span></font><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>/Chavez/</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Parks</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Visiting</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> Professor
in the graduate creative writing program at </span></font><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Western</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Michigan</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, and he has
taught creative writing at three </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>University</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> of </span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>California</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> campuses,
including a stint in 2000 as a Visiting Associate Professor in the graduate
creative writing program at UC Davis. He currently teaches at College of
the Sequoias in </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Visalia</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, </span></font><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>CA</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>. <br>
</span></font> <br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>A copy
of his essay can be found at <a href="http://californiapoet.blogspot.com/">http://californiapoet.blogspot.com</a>.<br>
</span></font> </p>
</div>
</body>
<br>
<div>Maurya Simon</div>
<br>
<div>Professor </div>
<div>Department of Creative Writing</div>
<div>University of California Riverside</div>
<div>900 University Avenue</div>
<div>Riverside, CA 92521-0318</div>
<br>
<div>TEL. (951) 827-2006 (office)</div>
<br>
<div>FAX: (951) 827-3619 </div>
</html>