Several Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in creative writing students at Washington University have begun to speak out against a policy under which theses are uploaded to the Internet, fearing that the new policy will hurt their chances of being published later in life.

The Washington University English department is one of the best in the country. The graduate program ranks 29th in the world according to U.S. News & World Report. The department brims with exciting personalities and fantastic professors. We all know this, and we appreciate it. But we believe that the University has folded one too many things inside the English department: the creative writing program.

Students currently enrolled in Washington University’s writing program offered words of praise for the faculty, the course material and the philosophy behind the program. Undergraduates in writing workshops present their writing and receive feedback and criticism from their peers and instructors. These courses, also offered through the University College for credit, cover material from drama [...]