The creative writing program is a unique feature of Oberlin. Many schools house their creative writing programs within their English departments, as opposed to the separate major-track program that Oberlin offers. It is a draw for students such as sophomore Lena Dunham, who transferred from Eugene Lang College because “that department was way too big.” When she got here, however, she discovered that the major she intended to pursue might not even let her in.

Over the program’s three-decade history, it has developed a reputation for exclusivity, a reputation not entirely unfounded, according to creative writing Professor Dan Chaon.

“One of the issues of getting into the program is it tends to favor students who have experience with creative writing,” he said.

Indeed, the small size of the program, with its mere three half-time positions and one full-time position, has led some students to label the program elitist.

While College junior and Major Representative Julia Doctoroff disagreed with the suggestion that the program was like an exclusive country club, she acknowledged that “sometimes it’s kind of arbitrary who gets in...People shouldn’t get turned away from things at a liberal arts college.”

David Young, while technically a member of the English department, teaches classes in the creative writing program and helped to found it. Addressing the way the program is perceived, he said, “The reputation for exclusivity comes from a fairly complicated set of facts. One is that good art requires hard work and when people seek out courses in the arts as an alternative to difficult courses, they run into the fact that they were hoping for some fun [instead of intensive work].”

Co-Major Representative Sam Allingham, a College senior, said the application process for the so-called “gateway” courses is necessary. These 200-level classes force aspiring writers to collect their work into a portfolio and prove their commitment to themselves and the faculty.

“We have a huge demand,” Allingham said, “and we pick the best writers out of that.” He clarified, that “best” does not necessarily mean most talented but simply “most polished.”

Acting Program Director Sylvia Watanabe described the strides the program has made recently to be more inclusive. “The major is select, but has considerably opened up in the last about seven years,” she said. “We established the two 100-level courses. Before that it was not possible to do creative writing if you were a freshman.”

Many share the view that for the program to best serve the Oberlin community, it must be small. Almost everyone contacted for this article agreed that the current 12- to 14-person workshops are ideal for facilitating the personal attention needed to produce quality writing. If the program were to expand, not only would its faculty be overtaxed, but its students, while there would be more of them, would lose out in terms of individual guidance. The program is modeled after graduate-level programs in terms of class size and major-track mobility, in contrast with comparable institutions whose undergraduate creative writing departments are larger and less major-focused.

Chaon taught previously at Cleveland State University and Ohio State University, both of which have open creative writing departments. “

In these programs you didn’t have a focused program of study,” he said.

Students and faculty alike would love to see an expanded creative writing program, but few are hopeful that the College will allot it any more faculty. In fact, Martha Collins is away this semester and will retire in 2007. As of now there is nothing but speculation about whether or not the College will fill the hole left by Collins with another full-time or half-time position or cut the position, if not entirely.

The rumors flying around the program have some students agitated. “If a single position is cut from CRWT the program will be seriously [messed-up],” said creative writing major and College junior Sam Krulewitch in an e-mail.

Allingham, however, remained optimistic: “The creative writing department will keep going, no matter what happens.”