An Update on the U-Iowa MFA Situation

Earlier today I received a forwarded email that included a Statement from the Provost Concerning MFA Theses.  It was within another forwarded email, from Lola L. Lopes, Interim Executive Vice President and Provost.  After calling her office to verify that this could be made public, she replied via email that yes it was okay, and:

"This statement is being sent today to all students in the Writers Workshop, the Nonfiction Writing Program, the Playwriting Workshop, and the Translation Workshop. Students, program directors, and I will be meeting this afternoon to talk about a policy that is appropriate for MFA theses. Later in the week we will draw in the library and graduate college to move it along in terms of implementation."

The statement is as follows:

"Statement from the Provost Concerning MFA Theses

In recent days a number of people have been upset about what they
believed was a plan by our library to publish the creative thesis
work of students in our writing programs on the internet without
their permission. Let me say as simply and clearly as I can, there is
no such plan nor will there be. I regret sincerely that we did not
convey this message when students and faculty first voiced their
concerns.

For some time now our library, like most major academic research
libraries, has been exploring ways to make its collections more
accessible by digitizing some materials.  As part of that process,
there has been discussion about the possibility of making graduate
student dissertations and theses available in  electronic format. But
any such process must be preceded by developing policies and
procedures that allow authors to decide whether and when to allow
distribution.

On Monday, March 17, I will begin pulling together a working group with
representatives from the Graduate College, University Libraries, our
several writing programs, and all other constituencies who wish to be
part of the process. Under the leadership of Carl Seashore in 1922,
Iowa became the first university in the United States to award MFA
degrees based on creative projects. Although this has been a rocky
start, I like to think that Iowa will again lead the way by
developing policies and procedures that safeguard intellectual
property rights while preserving materials for the use of scholars in generations to come."

Comments

[Czyzniejewski]

This is a huge issue and I'm glad the EWN has taken it up as well. Bowling Green's program, about a year ago, went through a huge battle with its graduate college, who finally caved on this, delaying the electronic publication of this material for 5 years, a span that is renewable. Once they heard the conviction of the program and the severe consequences of their possible actions, they relented, but this was a two-year battle.

Jeanne Leiby at The Southern Review ran a panel on this at AWP this year. It's something that's out there, and I'm glad that Iowa, the benchmark program in creative writing, has publicly joined the fight.

[Matt Ellsworth]

Am I missing something here? It hardly seems like it would require panels, provosts, and panic to agree that:

1) a writer of an unpublished work (dissertation, MFA thesis, whatever) should have the say on whether or not the university can electronically publish the work; and

2) any writer not actively seeking publication for said unpublished work (however embarrassing its flaws might be) would be crazy not to embrace the free exposure that electronic publication could provide.

[Welsch]

Matt, you're right. It doesn't seem like an administrative headache is required over this. Except, as Czyzniejewski implies with his example, most college and university administrators barely know they even have an MFA program and writers, much less what to do with them. And corporate-style mega-campuses are often told by consultants and other wonky types just how wonderful the electronic publishing universe will make their lives, and how, for efficiency's sake, one size really CAN fit all!

[Czyzniejewski]

The situation is this: Administrators see this as the future, and they don't want to be the last ones on board, the last to join the party. The library here at BG is turning into a very large computer lab, and all the powers that be see that as cheaper, in the long run, than buying books, binding theses, etc.

What Matt says about "any writer not actively seeking publication" seems like a big asterisk: What writer just finishing their thesis isn't seeking publication? The problem with having this work online is that many an agent, editor, and press has already come out and said if work is online, in thesis form or whatever, it will not be eligible for first-time publication. A lot of our students were facing the possibility that their entire body of work from grad school would be ineligible for further publication. That's just incomprehenible.

Besides, I'm curious as to what kind of "exposure" having your thesis up online get you. It's possible that agents look to a good program's online thesis database for new talent, but that seems unlikely. :)

[Robert Taylor Brewer]

I been following the MFA thesis argument for a while. If I have it straight, MFA students object to electronic publication because publishers consider that official first publication, and the MFA holder can't later go to a print publisher and submit their work claiming it is original and unpublished.

One of these days, an MFA who has had this happen to them is going to walk into a Federal District Court, plunk down the $350 filing fee and sue everybody for copyright infringement. What's more, if he/she includes the phrase "on behalf of all those similarly situated" they have just applied for class action certification so that every MFA student in the United States can join them.

Coming soon to a court in your neighborhood. Talk about bang for the buck!