Latest news with #InternationalWritingProgram
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UI graduate workers worried about potential for year-by-year funding negotiations
A few University of Iowa graduate workers have expressed concern about potential contract changes that could destabilize their future studies. The UI said it is working to ensure all students — potential or current — of specific contract contingencies that are tied to funding. Campaign to Organize Graduate Students, or COGS, President Cary Stough said he spent much of Friday, March 14 speaking with faculty and university human resources staff to get more information on an alleged decision by the university to transition graduate student contracts from being funded through a set amount of years determined in the contract to being funded year-over-year. This announcement and the lack of available information about how it will be enforced and its ensuing impact has graduate students scared and worried. 'If they weren't already freaking out or feeling precarious, they're feeling extremely precarious now,' Stough said. More: 'Shell-shocked': Trans UI grad committed to local advocacy after new law strips protections Contracts for international students are among Stough's biggest concerns, noting that there could be impacts on student visas if their holder's funding is suddenly gone. According to a statement from the University of Iowa, provided over email by UI spokesperson Steve Schmadeke, 'graduate assistantship appointments have always been dependent on available funding,' with many UI programs having the information listed in admissions and employment communications. 'Given the current uncertainties in the funding environment, the university believes it is important to ensure that all prospective and admitted graduate students are fully aware of the contingencies that come with financial support,' the statement read. Some UI departments have already felt devastating blows from canceled funding, including the International Writing Program, Iowa Flood Center and Iowa Geological Survey. More: Nearly $1 million in grant funding for the UI's International Writing Program has been 'terminated' The UI said in its statement it 'is not aware' of any graduate student admission or employment offers being rescinded. At Iowa State University, some offers to prospective graduate students that hadn't been accepted yet have been rescinded due to funding uncertainty. More: Iowa State graduate students grapple with rescinded offers amid 'funding uncertainties' All university units with graduate students have been encouraged by the UI to 'clearly outline the contingencies that come with financial support in their admissions and employment offers' for both prospective and enrolled graduate students, according to the statement. 'This clarification does not reflect a change in policy or a withdrawal of any existing agreements,' the statement read. Stough said many, but not all, departments already had language like this in their contracts, but it has been expanded to the whole university now. His own contract as a doctoral student in the university's English department is slated for seven years, with the money to pay him earmarked for the duration of the contract. Going to a year-to-year policy could free up funds for areas seeing negative impacts of federal actions, like pausing funding and canceling projects. Templates of graduate teaching appointment letters from the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years both have 'availability of funding' listed as a determining factor in whether contract renewals are approved. The template for the upcoming academic year, listed online as being updated March 14, also lists funding availability as a contingency for appointment, while the current year template lists 'examples of possible contingencies,' but does not include funding. It does say different programs may have different examples to list when creating a specific appointment letter. More: UI graduate students rally for higher wages outside President Wilson's office With the current lack of information from the university on timelines and other information relating to potentially losing their funding, Stough said there are really only two options for graduate students who don't get funded — take on all of the cost burdens of graduate education without the aid that was previously provided, or drop out. 'That's really the stakes here,' Stough said. 'We don't get paid enough year-to-year as graduate workers, we know that, but we just certainly do not get paid enough to, if we're told we're not going to get funding, to turn around and start paying for our education.' Find this story at Iowa Capital Dispatch, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions:kobradovich@ This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Are University of Iowa graduate students facing funding cuts?
Associated Press
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Writers Protest Fed Crackdown On Iowa University Writing Program
IOWA CITY, Iowa, March 10, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — In a letter delivered this week to Darren J. Beattie, a senior official at the US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the acclaimed Todos Santos Writers Workshop (TSWW) decried the bureau's recent cancellation of federal grants to the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa. TSWW co-director Rex Weiner said 'Since 1967, over 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries have participated in the University of Iowa's renowned program. At home and abroad, IWP is a unique conduit for the world's literatures, and the administration's attack on this writing program is an attack on writers everywhere.' IWP Director Christopher Merrill, who also serves as TSWW's poetry workshop instructor, said in a UI statement that while the 58-year partnership with the federal government has ended, the university remains dedicated to the program's mission to 'promote mutual understanding through creative writing and literature.' The federal grant to IWP of nearly $1 million 'was roughly equal to what the writing program would have contributed to the U.S. economy next year,' according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, noting the university's statement that 90% of funds associated with the IWP's federal grants are spent domestically, much of it in Iowa City, a UNESCO City of Literature. TSWW co-director Jeanne McCulloch said, 'As an international creative writing program with workshops in Mexico, France, and online globally, TSWW will continue to work with Christopher Merrill to explore ways to help advance IWP's goals, and support writers around the world.' About the Todos Santos Writers Workshop: Now in its 13th year, the acclaimed Todos Santos Writers Workshop is a creative writing workshop with classes in fiction, memoir, and poetry based in the town of Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, MX, with its annual Todos Paris workshop upcoming May 18 – 24 in Paris, France. Keywords: Education and Schools, Todos Santos Writers Workshop, University of Iowa,US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, IOWA CITY, Iowa Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P124631 APNF0325A
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
University of Iowa International Writing Program sees federal funding cuts
The University of Iowa International Writing Program will end certain programs and shrink its next cohort after seeing federal funding cuts. (Photo courtesy of the University of Iowa International Writing Program) One of the University of Iowa's premiere writing programs has seen its federal funding cut, the university announced Thursday, a blow causing the closures of programs and smaller cohorts. The UI International Writing Program announced online that as of Feb. 26, grants it had received from the U.S. Department of State and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs had been terminated. According to a notice cited in the release, programs funded by the grants 'no longer effectuate agency priorities,' and do not hold 'with agency priorities and national interest.' Canceled federal funding amounts to nearly $1 million, the university stated in a news release, the same amount that would have been generated for the U.S. economy by the program in the next year, as more than 90% of federal grant dollars are spent domestically. 'We are devastated by the abrupt end of this 58-year partnership and are working closely with the Office of General Counsel and the university's grant accounting office to review the terminations, understand their full impact, and respond in the best interest of the organization,' International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill said in the release. 'Despite this disappointing turn of events, the IWP's mission remains the same and, with the help of a small number of other partners, we will still hold a 2025 fall residency as we also pursue new sources of funding.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Separate from the UI's Iowa Writers' Workshop, the International Writing Program brings international writers and literature to Iowa City and exposes American writers to cultures from across the globe, according to its website. Its main program is an 11-week residency that does not include academic credits. As a result of the cuts, the writing program will discontinue its summer youth program, Between the Lines, the Emerging Voices Mentorship Program, distance learning courses and more, according to the release. The fall 2025 residency cohort, which has traditionally brought in around 30 writers, will be cut in half. 'The Fall Residency is an 11-week program that brings established international writers to the UI campus, providing them with time to produce literary work, while also introducing the social and cultural fabrics of the United States,' the release stated. 'The experience enables them to take part in American university life and creates opportunities for them to contribute to literature courses both at the UI and across the country.' South Korean author and 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Han Kang attended the program in 1998, according to a news release, joining fellow program participants, Nobel Prize-winners and novelists Orhan Pamuk, born in Istanbul, and Chinese author Mo Yan. Founded in 1967 by Paul Engle and Hualing Nieh Engle, both of whom were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976, the release stated the program has welcomed more than 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries. The program stated in its announcement it will pursue new funding opportunities in the light of these losses and has other established funding streams in donors, grants, nongovernmental organizations and 'foreign ministries of culture.' The UI is also weathering uncertainty with other federally funded programs, especially research projects with National Institutes of Health grants. According to a March 5 update, Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has issued a preliminary injunction on a proposed 15% cap on indirect costs for NIH grants and contracts. The update stated the university will 'continue to submit research proposals according to our federal negotiated indirect cost rate agreement.' 'Considering the irreparable harm likely to befall similarly situated nonparties, the chaos that would result both for institutions and NIH from a patchwork of injunctions, the diffuse nature of the Plaintiffs, and the nature of the suit, a nationwide preliminary injunction is the appropriate and reasonable remedy,' Kelley wrote in her ruling. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
