EMU’s Writing Studies major was shut down, and students are left confused.

At the beginning of the spring semester 2024, EMU announced that two new majors would open, Criminology and Finance, and five majors would close: Chemistry, Economics, History, Health and Physical Education, and Writing Studies. The seemingly sudden shutdowns left students of those majors confused about their future at EMU.

One of these majors was the Writing Studies Major. While the minor is still available for now, most writing faculty were let go following the announcement. This raised the question: how will students finish out their degree?

Program Director of Language and Literature Kevin Seidel goes in-depth about the teach-out plan put in place. “Grandfathering means we have an obligation to the Writing Studies Majors to make sure that you get all the classes you need to finish your degree. This year, and the next two years, we’re continuing to offer Creative Writing, Fiction and Non-Fiction Workshops, etc..”

Seidel says that while those classes are still available, they may eventually phase out over time. With a couple of writing faculty members’ contracts not renewed, classes will have to be taught by adjunct faculty. “Adjuncts are faculty with temporary, usually one-year contracts. Our hope is that we can continue to rely on them to teach those courses.”

Chad Gusler, associate professor of language and literature, is one of the faculty whose contracts weren’t renewed: “I was angry at first, and then super sad because writing is cool and what’s not to like about writing? Then I was sad knowing that I wouldn’t be able to spend time with students.” 

Another teacher who had been let go was Kirsten Beachy, associate professor of language and literature and former Weather Vane advisor.

Seidel expressed frustration over both the shutting down of the program and the firing of his colleagues: “I felt grief. Losing Chad and Kirsten as colleagues was even harder than losing the major, and I was angry because the Writing Studies faculty had worked really hard to make it a sustainable program and it was decided it wasn’t working.”

Staff weren’t the only people frustrated with the shutting down of the program. Students of the major expressed confusion about the plan moving forward.

Senior Nia Boyd states, “I was very frustrated and confused. It seemed sudden and abrupt to me.”

Another student, Perseus Warner (‘28), comments, “I was extremely upset. Why would a learning environment get rid of a Writing major, one of the foundations of the academic world? It may be merging with the English majors, but it still just doesn’t sit right with me.” He also talks about how personal the major had become for him. “Going into college, I originally had the goal to do something secure. However, after taking a class with Chad Gusler and some other personal experiences in my life, I decided to aim for something that makes me happy: writing.”

Although the grandfathering plan was expressed during a conference in the Spring semester, many students were left confused. When asked what she thought of the plan, Brooke Snyder (‘26) said, “I’m not really sure what the ‘grandfathering’ plan is. I know there’s supposed to be a teach-out plan in place, but I’m not sure how those two things differ.”

The conversation about cutting Writing Studies began in the fall semester of 2024 when finances became a persistent issue. Marti Eads, professor of English, stated, “The university, like many other colleges, has faced some big financial challenges and just needed to make some budget cuts. Cutting programs enables us to cut back on closing faculty lines.” She also believes that “there are fewer students of the right age going to college, and an increase in skepticism about the value of a college education” is partly to blame.

Gusler’s idea aligns with this. “This is not unique to EMU,” he says. He added that there are “a lot of schools that are shutting down their humanities majors because students are gearing towards STEM.”

With that, language and literature faculty said that faculty cuts were a big part of the motivation to close the program. With no teachers for the classes required for Writing Studies majors, it wasn’t possible for the program to continue.

“The combo of not having faculty to teach, and also being identified by the deans as a major that wasn’t going to grow in the future, was the rationale for cutting the program,” Seidel states.

The English Department has come up with a plan for potentially merging the two majors together, according to both Seidel and Eads. The idea is to broaden the English Major so that students can choose to pursue either writing or literature if they choose. That way, creative writing classes could potentially still be offered.

Snyder believes that including the writing classes under the English major is a good idea. “It’s nice that this way majors can choose their own track and also non-English majors can still take writing classes for fun or to fulfill requirements for other majors.”

As of Fall 2025, there has been no official move to merge the two majors together.