Dr. Rich Matzen on the Economic Staying Power of Professional Writing Programs
When times are tough, a natural reflex is to retrench, to pull back, and 鈥�- in the case of the Great Recession — to stand by and watch funding levels for (fill-in-the-blank) programs shrink.
But not always, or at least not predictably. Richard N. Matzen, Jr., Ph.D., professor of the Writing Department at 麻豆传媒集团, has just co-edited a new book with Matthew Abraham, Weathering the Storm: Independent Writing Programs in the Age of Fiscal Austerity (published by Utah State University Press, 2019), that illuminates the distinct role that independent writing programs (IWPs) and independent writing departments (IWDs) have played, and continue to play, in higher education 鈥�- in good times and bad.
The book鈥檚 major takeaway is nuanced and even heartening. Says Dr. Matzen: 鈥淲hile jobs can be cut during difficult economic times, which happened to some IWPs/IWDs during the Great Recession, difficult economic times can mean that IWPs/IWDs expand their jobs and curriculum.鈥�
鈥淪aid another way, as families become financially stressed, their children or potential students become more concerned that their university enrollment and graduation leads to jobs,鈥� he explains. 鈥淲riting programs, subsequently, review their (professional) writing curriculum during difficult financial times so that the curriculum is more closely aligned with employment after graduation.鈥�
Weathering the Storm presents 13 case studies that represent small, medium, and large universities and their IWPs/IWDs. On average, each has existed for 25 years. 鈥淥ne creation myth about an IWP or IWD is that such is only created by separating from a traditional English Department,鈥� he says. 鈥淗owever, some IWPs and IWDs are and were created without coming from an English Department. This makes the definition of an IWP/IWD even more complex than it already is.鈥�
While he notes that the Great Recession did indeed cause state governments to reduce their funding for colleges and universities, those cutbacks 鈥渄id not always filter down to IWPs/IWDs. One reason is because first-year writing courses were (or are) deemed indispensable to colleges鈥� and universities鈥� missions, which among other things, includes graduating employable students.鈥�
Indeed, budget cuts actually helped some IWPs/IWDs. 鈥淏ecause of funding cuts, universities sought new revenue streams in the form of offering more marketable undergraduate degrees,鈥� Dr. Matzen says. 鈥淏ecause professional writing or writing degrees were considered more marketable compared to other degrees in the humanities, writing majors and/or minors were added to curriculum during or immediately after the Great Recession.鈥�
鈥淥n the one hand, our book suggests that, when a university suffers a period of fiscal austerity such as the Great Recession, this does not necessarily lead to that university鈥檚 IWP/IWD suffering the same fate,鈥� he observes. 鈥淪ome IWPs/IWDs actually grew during this period. On the other hand, other IWPs/IWDs, like the university, experience short-term losses that can be turned into long-term gains through curricular adjustments.鈥�
Among those adjustments: writing specialists and writing program administrators adjust (professional) writing curricula, majors and minors, to enhance a degree鈥檚 marketability. Likewise, writing centers, programs, and curricula become more infused with interdisciplinary relationships.
鈥淭he gestalt of the book is that each IWP/IWD does not stand still over time but instead continually innovates programs or reinvents itself,鈥� Dr. Matzen says. 鈥淲e make the argument that an underappreciated interdisciplinary quality of writing studies makes innovation and invention even more likely.鈥�