Hi cohort,

Keith and cris and I had a very interesting meeting with Ann Frymier
today regarding creating a path for MAs to transition to the Low-Res
MFA degree. We explained that creating such a path could boost
enrollment for the nascent Low-Res and boost applications for the MA.
Win-win. Unfortunately, the idea looks like it will stall out for a
number of reasons, the main issue being that only 10 credits would be
transferable from MA to MFA, leaving the student with a fat bill to
pay given that the MFA is 42 credits and quite expensive.

But Ann asked us a question we didn’t expect: why don’t we just apply
to change the MA to residential MFA? Now that Low-Res MFA has been
approved, she thinks it would be easy to gain approval (much easier
than gaining approval for the Low-Res was). She says the roadblocks to
a residential MFA that existed in the past no longer exist. We’d
perhaps have to change the number of credit hours and maybe some other
things. But it seems to me an idea worth pushing for, and certainly
worth mentioning in Program Review as a strategy for boosting
applications.

May I have your approval to discuss this possibility with Lu and then
with the Dean’s office? and also to mention the idea in our Program
Review narrative as one we’re pursuing? I'll assume I've got the
go-ahead from you if I haven't heard objections by Tuesday, and I'll
set up a meeting with Lu for sometime in the first half of November.

Also, I am (somehow) going to get you a revised version of the Program
Review document on Sunday, in hopes of getting feedback and edits from
you by Tuesday. I’ll turn it in on Wednesday.

Thanks all,

Cathy