Writers With Nothing to Write: A Literary Crisis

As our Chronicle staff writers start to create their schedules for the Fall 2026 semester, the writing majors have come face to face with a huge problem: there are barely any Writing or English courses running.

Writing majors have a set of writing course requirements they must take to fulfill their major—as all majors do—which includes Intro to Journalism, Intro to Professional Writing, Intro to Creative Writing, Student Newspaper Production Studio, one literature course, one theory course, and 16 credits worth of courses under a category titled “Applied Writing.” 

In the Centenary University Course Catalog, the following courses are listed under “Applied Writing” under the writing major:

• Writing for Civic Engagement

• Current Topic Content Creation

• Writing for the Digital World

• Writing Poetry

• Writing Prose

• The Form and Theory of Poetry

• The Form and Theory of Prose

• Playwriting

• Media Copywriting & PR

• Hybrid and Digital Genres

• Literary Editing & Publishing

• Non-Fiction Freelance Writing & Editing

• News Writing for New Media

• Technical Writing

• Intshp Or Ind Des Cap Proj

Out of those 15 courses, only one is running in the Fall 2026 semester. The Form of Theory of Prose will meet in-person 6-9:40 p.m. on Wednesdays with no faculty listed yet as an instructor of the course. 

But it’s not just the Applied Writing Courses that are limited in the course selection; the English courses are as well. Writing majors are more likely to take English courses for their electives and vice versa, so with hardly any English courses—roughly five running—the writing majors are left with no idea what to take next semester. 

Out of the six English courses running, only one is fully in: person—Special Topics in English: Environmental History & Literature—which runs from 4–7:40 p.m. once a week. There is also a fully in-person Senior Seminar, which typically only applies to seniors. Other than those, there are two fully online (ASYNC) classes and two blended classes, which meet once in-person and once online every week.

“Writing in an online class feels distant,” said Samantha Swayze. “In order to grasp new writing styles, I find working in-person to be more beneficial. Pen to paper has always worked better for me as a writer, as well as seeing my professors and classmates face-to-face. I’m tired of learning through a screen.”

As of Spring 2026, Centenary records indicate four Writing majors, 12 English majors, 10 Education: English majors, and 2 Education: Theatre and English majors, which totals to 28 students who need English or Writing courses for their degree. 

With that being said, this raises an important question: How are these majors supposed to work towards their degrees when there are barely any Writing or English courses available?

The world is in a literary crisis, meaning we are losing the power of writing and human words. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a prominent topic in the writing community, as people are relying on AI to write for them. AI cannot write like a human can, but how can we fight this literary crisis without having anything to write?

The responsibility lies in the hands of the departments to offer a variety of courses for the Writing and English majors. Students can't learn how to make a difference if they aren’t given the resources they need.