Clarion Science Fiction Writing Program threatened with termination

Clarion (at Michigan State) is being terminated by the University. Eileen Gunn (of Infinite Matrix) has started a write in campaign. The following note is from Cory Doctorow's www.boingboing.net.

Update: Here's a Save Clarion form-letter for genre fans to adapt and send in. (Thanks, Captain Psyko!) In case you haven't heard, the Clarion Writer's Workshop has lost its university funding from Michigan State University. (This is the original Clarion, not Clarion West in Seattle, which is supported by donations.) Please see the forwarded message below for details.

The survival of both Clarions (not just one) is immensely important to the quality of writing, criticism, and editing in the field of science fiction. I am writing to ask you to send an email to MSU's Interim President and Provost, Dr. Lou Anna K. Simon at laksimon@msu.edu, and the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, Dr. Wendy K. Wilkins at wwilkins@msu.edu. Please copy any messages to clarion@msu.edu.

In your letter, please mention what your interest in the SF field is -- as a reader, writer, or critic. If you have won awards in the field, please mention them. The people to whom you're sending mail may not read science fiction, or know who you are.

Clarion's funding has been threatened in the past, and successfully defended. It may still be possible to save it if enough messages from writers and readers are received by the heads of the college. I suppose I don't need to say that speed is of the essence here, but I will anyway.

Thanks for any help you can give in this. Sorry about the mass mailing, but this is a mass-mailing kind of situation. Also sorry if you get this message twice, due to my lack of attention or obsessive enthusiasm. Please feel free to forward or send out your own plea. A quick, massive, intense response is the goal.

Peg here: I attended this program. Many, many well-known graduates (Kim Stanley Robinson, Octavia Butler, Vonda McIntyre, Karen Joy Fowler, Nicola Griffith -- oh heck, I don't have time to list them all).

Thanks to serendipoz for this information.

Peg