As announced on October 26^th in a University of Wyoming draft budget reduction document, the American Studies Program is looking to be eliminated completely due to University budget cuts. This would include both the BA and MA in American Studies, a program that has thrived at UW since 1954. A letter writing campaign has been set up to help save this program, and community members are encouraged to participate.

Glenn Houlihan, a University of Wyoming student currently earning his masters in American Studies, explains that “the University has to save money, that is the point of these cuts. But eliminating American Studies won’t save any money. The program is fully funded through an endowment, we are self-sufficient in that sense, we don’t cost the University a dime…I appreciate this is a really bleak situation for both parties, no one wants to be making these cuts, but this isn’t a program that’s going to save money by cutting it.”

Houlihan says this cut will directly impact people he is close to. “It means that my friends, including people I taught, would not have the opportunity to do the BA or do the MA…on a personal note, it will be incredibly disheartening because it will mean people I know, people I love, can’t study this subject at UW. It also puts faculty at risk, people I’m close with who teach American Studies.”

Dr. Freida Knobloch, the director of the American Studies Program and a professor of American Studies, says that the program was under review in 2016 to eliminate the BA degree, but the program pulled through by increasing their number of majors over the years. “It was surprising to us to see our program listed because we’ve increased our number of majors by over 500% in the last five years,” Dr. Knobloch says. “There was very little information about this development.” Dr. Knobloch was unaware of the situation until shortly before the information went public.

“We mobilized right away,” Dr. Knobloch says. “The program has lots of supporters, it has a national and international impact as well. We have collegial ties and institutional ties to associations and schools outside the US as well as across the US.”

Glenn Houlihan was accepted into the UW program through international connections to the University. “I came to UW on a scholarship from the British Association for American Studies (BAAS), every couple of years they fund a British student to study a funded MA through a graduate assistantship in a university in America, and UW is one of the universities they have a really close relationship with…I wouldn’t be at UW if it wasn’t for this fantastic connection between the American Studies faculty and other faculties around the world.” After Houlihan graduates this spring, a new BAAS student will be accepted into the American Studies program if the program can continue.

Joining the University faculty in 1997, Dr. Knobloch has been program director since 2014. “Really my entire professional career has been dedicated to American Studies at The University of Wyoming.” When asked about her initial reaction to the news, Dr. Knobloch says it was “truly demoralizing, there are a bunch of people that, for personal reasons of their own, if the financial support we can offer didn’t exist they may not have succeeded in college….The impact for me was gutting and confusing, anybody pursuing a degree deserves accurate information and reassurance.”

A letter writing campaign is being led by Glenn Houlihan to save the program from being cut. “We are undertaking a letter writing campaign, writing directly to the reviewing committee. We are asking members of the community to really just make it personal, what stories and connections do you have with this program?” Houlihan explains that community members can write letters either to him directly at ghouliha@uwyo.edu or to the reviewing committee at progrevw@uwyo.edu, making sure to include him on the email.

“I’m not anticipating we are going to lose this fight,” Dr. Knobloch says. “We don’t have the luxury of feeling like it’s a done deal or a lost cause because we believe in the program too much. We know what we do, what we are, we know why we are important, and we know what our reputation is…To see us on a cut list of course was upsetting, but this isn’t the first time the program has risen to the occasion.”

To learn more about the American Studies Program, visit: https://www.facebook.com/University-of-Wyoming-American-Studies-Program-150443668328583