Iowa and the thesis

Via Lindsey comes this rather interesting Megan Pillow piece about Iowa's Writers' Workshop and the new policy of signing over internet rights for the graduate thesis.

And that is what such a policy amounts to, an abdication of internet rights. I think there's a bit of hysteria developing here--the "no one will ever publish my book and students will be encouraged to submit crap to finish the program" stuff is a slippery slope. The truth is, there's no way to really know what might result from having this kind of work freely available. Some could argue that it's good publicity for these up and coming writers (although you'd think simply graduating from Iowa would open that door at least a little) to make this stuff available.

Nevertheless, I think such a policy serves Iowa's program far more than the students. It becomes a kind of showcase, especially if an author is on his/her way to fame/fortune/good reviews, and a way to promote the program. And this smacks a bit of extortion--I'm always leery of new rules that ask you to give up something just to play their game. Students are right to be concerned about internet rights. Part of the responsibility of a writing program is to help students navigate some of the publishing game, of which the internet is, increasingly, becoming a big part. It is true that your Master's thesis is, technically, published, but the rights remain with the author and the "publication" ends up in a dusty college library.

I think this is of particular interest to writers who want to teach. Most writers are not living off of their novels/short story collections/chapbooks. Sure, many are making a living from writing, but those of us that teach need publication--at this point that mostly means print publication--for things like tenure and promotion. Does having a thesis freely available online jeopardize this? I can imagine a PhD dissertation, ready to be turned into a book or chopped into articles published in academic journals, may be a tougher sell for such publication if it's readily available online. Or is this a totally different situation since we're dealing with creative work?

There's no way to tell--much of the impact of "new media" is difficult to predict. Still, I would hope that one of the premier writing programs would be a bit more careful with the publishing rights of its students.