So . . .
Apparently we will not be a part of UVM according to the letter from Mr. Hansen. May as well combine minor anxieties with some silliness. Why lose this great opportunity to engage in unrestrained wild speculation?
This is all true because I just made it up: TUI officials, having watched the video by Al Gore showing us how much of the US will be underwater due to global warming, are planning at this very moment to move the MFA Programs to the highest mountains in the Yukon, that VC might be safe in perpetuity. In this plan we will all report to the Dewey Igloo, somewhere between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay at a place called Camp Montpelier. Of course, Dewey Igloo will be made of fiberglass and not snow due to global warming.
Anybody else have an even more outrageous speculation? Monkeys? Aliens? An agent named Jed working for an unnamed foreign interest? Maybe something that involves a brave nun, radioactive isotopes, and a 1968 Pontiac GTO? Go ahead, scream it.
This is all true because I just made it up: TUI officials, having watched the video by Al Gore showing us how much of the US will be underwater due to global warming, are planning at this very moment to move the MFA Programs to the highest mountains in the Yukon, that VC might be safe in perpetuity. In this plan we will all report to the Dewey Igloo, somewhere between Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay at a place called Camp Montpelier. Of course, Dewey Igloo will be made of fiberglass and not snow due to global warming.
Anybody else have an even more outrageous speculation? Monkeys? Aliens? An agent named Jed working for an unnamed foreign interest? Maybe something that involves a brave nun, radioactive isotopes, and a 1968 Pontiac GTO? Go ahead, scream it.
posted by Anonymous at 7:39 PM
8 Comments:
"The University of Vermont’s board of trustees voted against proceeding with a purchase of the Vermont College campus and the MFA programs"
So, . . . does this suggest U of V thinks VC, and especially the MFA programs are not viable enough for investment? It's one thing to be in "limbo" waiting for the final signatures for sale; it's quite another to be in limbo for owner.
Feeling like space odyssey guy hooked up by tube to the mother ship to explore outside, then tube detaches . . . or a hot air balloon with punctures, pssss!!! for thin for shrink for shred for fall.
The last mile before ***SPLAT!*** parachute opens.
Seriously, while I am pretty good at denial and escapism, under the guise of 'it's ok, alright, we win' -- I think we'll all feel better when we have a sense of closure, at least believing our umbrella will not collapse . . . inside/out, or backwards.
I gotta have faith. It's taken me this long to follow a self-dare to dream.
No fading in a **POOF** for us!!
Ron, I LOVE your line:
"This is all true because I just made it up."
H'mmm
I'm sure everything will work out in the end. VC is a solid program that will be snapped up by somebody, somewhere, however that deal goes down.
I am sick of all you Pollyannas, yes, you, Malky, saying everything will be fine. It's not fine. It may get better but right now it's not. It sux and it's completely out of our control.Why are they wanting to sell us off in the first place? What precisely is wrong with the program? I can understand why UVM doesn't want us since they have their own writing program but I don't want us to be shunted off into some unaccredited program. We came into this MFA knowing who our degree would be from and we should be able to leave with the degree we thought we were getting.We're all paying a lot of money to go to this school and yet we have absolutely no input into this matter. I'm feeling feisty and I don't care who knows it. We're adults, not children, and we haven't been told anything until after it's fait accompli. Louise and David, shame! shame!At the very least, I'd like an honest explanation of the why.The undecorated bare truth is what I'd like; it's what we strive for as writers as we reach for the words to express it.
I would like to understand if it's the campus they're trying to sell or the programs. I know it made a convenient package to sell both to UVM, but maybe the real issue is campus overhead. Does anyone know?
Wow, Jewel, I totally missed the accreditation issue. I must consult my L. about that, as she is in that field, especially with regard to online programs.
And, you hit the nail on the head (damn those cliches!) about us paying a LOT of money for the Program, money some of us don't really have (I won't mention names . . .) except piecemeal (where's my thesaurus when I need it?). I mean, what gets me through a term is squeezing every once of inspiration and guidance and writing good enough to send on its way to, well, y'know, and AUDIENCE,
and print, for credential.
Well, I accidentally fell on what this is really about: finishing a writing program, and walking away with an MFA in Writing degree . . . with solid credentials.
It's just an opinion, but if my first experience with my debut advisor (I am being SO GOOD) is any indication, I am walking out of this program with degree in hand, might even call myself poet and writer.
Jewel, still love you. I so need any kick-ass commentary I can get . . . or witness . . .
Ron, I'll say it again: balance and anchor.
Uh oh . . . another spark.
Faith and hugs, folks.
This Pollyanna once learned that the lesson of the Bhuddist Monk—there is a good quality of life in staying in the now and not letting too much past or future into one's now. My Bhuddist mentor was the Navy Chief who said, "Don't worry about it till you see it in writing."
We can go crazy thinking about this program or anything else disintegrating if we want to, we have that power. But doing so is probably only going to lower one's quality of life. Or worse—affect one's writing, the very reason we're here to begin with. It's true, we don't have any control over any of this. It's true nobody is giving us the grainy black and white photos from the motel. It's true there may be sea changes ahead. We are all painfully aware that life isn't always fair. It true this create anxiety for all of us.
Everyone's self interest dictates that we keep this thing going. This program is so good, such a beautiful thing, nobody want to let this thing die. I also imagine David and Louise live with this much more than we do. For that matter we ARE in the loop as far as they responsibly let us be. I'll speculate that David, Louise, and Melissa will probably all be spending great energy addressing our concerns during residency.
If we take the communications to their essence it looks like TUI is not digging the expense of the VC campus. Also, it would appear there is some static with accreditation at TUI, which may be added expense to fix, so TUI is losing interest in a money pit and wants to divest. To me, VC appears to be a distressed property. People and companies look for distressed properties all the time and snap them up and turn them into handsome profits. Somebody, somewhere with an already well-maintained physical facility and good organizational capacity will see an established turnkey operation with reasonable revenue and snap up the franchise and operatation—the prgrams. The rest is a real estate deal and a possible rebranding. TUI tried to package both in one to UVM. UVM doesn't need the real estate or the programs. It's business and money. It's boring. It's in the future and there isn't much we can do about it.
I am uninterested to know the exact details of a business deal—that's why I got of the business world. I came to write. They say there are two residencies in the planning so I have enough to worry about. Ten packets from now is an eternity. Besides, they have said that IF there is to be a move we will have ample time to deal with it. Fair enough.
Homeboys and homegirls,
I had to look up Pollyanna: A person regarded as being foolishly or blindly optimistic.
I have no beef with that!
Shakespeare's fools knew what time it is!
And Ron's right.
The time is now. Oops.
Now just left.
Shoot. Now it's another now and I've forgotten the now thought I had just had when...well, when then was now or is it was it when now was then?
Oh dear.
I'm late, I'm late for a very important date. But which bottle in front of me was I to drink? To shrink?
Tell you one thing, if I meet that Buddha on the road, I'm gonna be like this: "YO! Sidd, baby, you can sit as long as you want under that Bodhi tree, change your name and go round all round and happy but me and my .357 got some talking to do. You ready to listen?"
BUT for the sake of silliness, or creative envelope pushing or just to push your buttons Jewell, I'm gonna try the other side and PANIC. I'll check back in a little later and report how freaking out went.
If a sale goes down in the meantime, perhaps we can assume freaking out works?
thank-you-bye-bye
Malcolm, you channel me. Scary, isn't it?
Oh, the paperback heyday of psych: If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! Sheldon B. Kopp -- good god, another set to locate.
Another Kopp in to the latter day Annie Dillard, a la Teaching a Stone to Talk.
Thirty years of my folks asking me, WHAT are you going to do with ALL THOSE BOOKS -- EAT THEM?
I may have to. It's an awesome thing to find a memory I didn't know was there.
I am uncharacteristically calm these days, even about this issue. I say, if the program thrives, and I/we continue to get as much a push and pull to expand my/our writing as I/we have so far, then, I hope I/We take that power wherever I/we can get it. And pass it on.
OK, I got a little cryptic.
Paradise is the other side of PANIC.
I should know.
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