Sunday, February 23, 2014

USC's "Business Decision" to Ax Its Master of Professional Writing Program Leaves Unanswered Questions

Thursday, Feb 20 2014


Brighde Mullins was already having a bad semester when she was called in for a meeting with the dean.

“If that’s their full confidence, what does their lack of confidence look like?” —Lee Wochner
Mullins, director of the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California, had won a Guggenheim Fellowship the previous year, which allowed her to spend some time away from campus. She had holed up at Deep Springs College, an isolated refuge in the Eastern Sierras, where she hiked and swam and worked on a play about a slave poet. She also taught a course on cruelty in literature. It was, she would later write for a college brochure, "the most alive place I have ever taught."

Now her blissful sabbatical was over. She was back in L.A., confronting some real-world problems

For one thing, she was being sued. One of the program's instructors, Gina Nahai, claimed Mullins had not promoted her because Nahai is a Persian Jew. In the view of Mullins' friends and colleagues, it was a ridiculous claim, and the university had backed her up. But the allegations were deeply personal, and they were out there for anyone to read. While they were being litigated, Nahai remained on the full-time faculty.

Then, in mid-November, Syd Field died of a blood disorder. The 77-year-old Field had been one of the most popular teachers at USC, and one of the most famous. His screenwriting manuals sold millions of copies. Students had been coming to the program for years to hear his "Syd-isms," and maybe get a word of praise from the master. His death was a major loss to the program.
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