American Studies fate still uncertain

Tensions ran high at a meeting Wednesday among about 20 graduate students and several officials from the College of Arts and Letters over the fate of the American Studies Program, or AMS.

Although the hour-and-a-half meeting addressed many of the students’ concerns, including funding for projects and potential limits placed on the number of graduate assistant positions, many left the meeting feeling uncertain about the program’s future. Some students went so far as to say they would consider dropping out of MSU if the program lost funding.

It was announced at the Oct. 30 MSU Board of Trustees meeting that the program potentially could be cut at all levels, along with dozens of other programs at MSU.

“Although questions were answered, it doesn’t seem like there was anything definitive that will help us move forward and feel confident,” AMS graduate student Natalie Graham said after the meeting. “I kind of feel like we’re still at where we started, even though the communication has happened.”

Karin Wurst, dean of the College of Arts and Letters, and Marilyn Frye, associate dean of graduate studies for the college, said at the meeting the college is exploring the possibility of adding AMS as a specialization in the Department of English.

Students at the meeting were persistent in asking whether the program faces complete dissolution from the university. They were adamant the program would lose value and greatly suffer by being incorporated into the English department, although both Frye and Wurst stopped short of saying the program completely would disappear.

“They have a lot of negotiating to do,” Frye said.

AMS graduate student Ben Phillips said reducing the program to an English specialization could cause future generations of students interested in the program to reconsider applying to MSU, which would cause the university to suffer.

“All I keep thinking of is, if AMS (was) just a track in English, I probably wouldn’t have applied,” Phillips said. “Students like us, with all of our interests, wouldn’t apply to Michigan State. And Michigan State would be losing out.”

Frye said officials chose to disinvest in AMS because, as an interdisciplinary program, it’s more vulnerable when financial problems occur. Also, the program is part of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures, which has placed more focus on the writing and rhetoric aspects in recent years.

“An interdisciplinary program is vulnerable if it doesn’t have a certain kind of webbed-ness with different departments,” Frye said. “Every single one has a different map of how they’re connected to different departments.”

The program will have a moratorium placed on admissions, Frye said, but AMS graduate students should know the outcome of negotiations with the English department before winter break.

Wurst said she understands students’ concerns, but said it was not up to her office to make the final decision.

“All of this is advisory to (Provost Kim Wilcox),” she said. “We could do whatever we wanted to, and it’s the provost that makes those decisions. We’re trying to make a solution for this so the program doesn’t just go away.”