As Southern Oregon University responded to a cataclysmic budget crisis over the summer, its administration initially proposed cutting academic programs that had previously seemed robust, including Economics, Chemistry, Emerging Media + Design, Media Innovation, Healthcare Administration, and others.
However, by the time SOU’s Board of Trustees voted on an exigency plan in September, students, faculty, and community members had succeeded in advocating for the retention of most of the at-risk majors, including Creative Writing.
In August, students in SOU’s Creative Writing Club presented a petition totaling almost three pages of signatures, showing many students in support of the Creative Writing major. The students primarily sought to be able to complete their degree in creative writing, but stood in solidarity with students of other majors.
“I personally sent several emails,” said Creative Writing major Arthur Croft, “and was in a meeting with other creative writing students to preserve the major and continue to be vocal about its merit and the opportunity that it provides to students, both educational and business.”
The administration has established enrollment and efficiency targets for all of the retained majors, enabling the university to provisionally continue Creative Writing for at least two more years.
“I am grateful that the Creative Writing faculty and I were able to find a path to continue the BFA curriculum on a probationary basis over the next two years in pursuit of sustained enrollment growth,” said Andrew Gay, Dean of the College of Arts & Humanities at SOU. “As one of only three Creative Writing BFAs offered in Oregon — and the only one offered outside of Portland — SOU has an opportunity to attract new students interested in a writing program situated within a broader ‘creative industries’ vision for arts, entertainment, and media.”
Craig Wright is a professor of almost 32 years at SOU, where he teaches Introduction to Creative Writing, Introduction to Fiction Writing, Writing for Performance, and Capstone courses for the Creative Writing BFA.
Wright described the measures needed to preserve the voice of students writing the program after a proposal was made to cut the program outright. “We had students writing letters,” said Wright. “We had a petition of students, and a lot of support.”
The Creative Writing program has nurtured students who have published, moved on to graduate school, and pursued thriving careers in writing.
Parker Boom graduated in the Spring 2025, published in several literary reviews and now attends graduate school at Saint Andrews University in Scotland. Emily Roach graduated from Southern Oregon University and now studies at Columbia University for her MFA. Abigail Rosewood graduated with a major in Creative Writing in 2013 after learning from Wright and professor Kasey Mohammed. Rosewood later published in Time Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Salon, Lit Hub, Elle UK, Cosmopolitan, Electric Lit, Catapult, Pen America, and BOMB.
“We have a pretty unique slant on creative writing,” said Wright. “We try to, like, move people into modern writing.”
The resiliency of the SOU community in the face of this round of budget cuts has enabled the university to retain a program aligned with its core values and identity.
“Since the school is a pretty liberal arts scene,” said Creative Writing major Aaren Worster, “it should have more of a priority on staying for creative writing and stuff for a Shakespeare town.”
Photo by Codi Kirksey/The Siskiyou
