William J. Cobb, Director of the MFA program at Penn State University, has announced that the program will remain intact and continue to provide fellowships, full tuition waivers, and teaching assignments. In March of this year, the College of Liberal Arts at PSU declared that it was withdrawing financial support for teaching assistantships in the MFA program due to budget cuts at the state level. Faculty and students have successfully lobbied to lessen the effects of the cuts on their program.

“In these difficult times in which many universities are facing budget cutbacks, ours is a triumph of persistence and support for the creative literary arts,” said Cobb. He added that the program is now expanding, offering two new degree options, which are still under construction: a BA/MA creative writing degree and a combined MFA/PhD. The program will still offer a traditional two-year MFA degree.

In the past two years, the university has added two new faculty members, Toni Jensen in fiction, and Elizabeth Kadetsky in nonfiction. It has also introduced a Writer-in-Residence series that has featured, most recently, Susan Orlean and George Saunders. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Penn State’s MFA.